Belbin sees Bioteams as the next step. Dr R Meredith Belbin, regarded as the father of "team-role" theory and one of the worlds foremost experts on teams predicts that we will evolve into bioteam forms. In his book "The Coming Shape of Organisation" Belbin picks out five observations human teams need to learn from "a diminutive masterclass" of social insects such as bees, ants and termites.

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They sound neat in theory but do self-managed teams (SMTs) actually work. In, Trust People and They'll Surprise You, Jeremy Zawodny describes a couple of real examples including a jet engine plant and SouthWest Airlines. Another good example of an SMT is Capital One Bank.

In an excellent paper (PDF), The Virtual Organisation – Technical or Social Innovation? Lessons from the Film Industry, Lucas Introna, Hope Moore and Mike Cushman from the London School of Economics explore the parallels and the lessons we can learn in trying to form effective virtual enterprises, virtual organisations, virtual teams and virtual networks.

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain's biggest pharmaceutical company, is to launch a drug development initiative to take advantage of opportunities outside the company.