In this series, we turn to another of the contributors to our basic understanding of management, James G March, and his ideas on how organizations learn from `samples of one or fewer'. Clearly, the topic is of interest and importance because executives continually find themselves committing resources in matters, in which the organization has little background. Essentially, two cases are treated - one is where there is some history, the other where there is none and so some is created. Both are operational as observations suggest and so can be put to use by global CEOs.

In the fifth article in this series, we have looked at some of the background in management literature that global CEOs either explicitly or implicitly depend upon continuously. We discussed muddling (Lindblom, 1959) and the implications that process has on decision making in real situations. Then it was paradigm shifts (Kuhn, 1963) - those changes in situations that can revolutionize the way businesses compete. From there, it was a focus on effective organizations (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967) and most recently, the Nobel Laureate, Herb Simon, and his thoughts on complexity and intuition (1996). These gentlemen have been characterized as `giants' upon whose shoulders some of our foundations of management rest. The reflections have been an interesting experience for an academic. Each item has been curiously circumspect and each time the treatment has shown the sophisticated mental processes that global CEOs are likely to employ.

This article deals with another of the contributors to our basic understanding of management, James March and some of his ideas - one whose importance must be appreciated by each reader of these pieces. That is, what resources of an organization can one utilize to make decisions in matters in which it has little background? To be a little more specific, let us suggest some situations that might arise in which this treatment is applicable:

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