John Clayton Caris, Ph.D.

Founder of the Isis Group Network and Father of 2nd Renaissance Human Living System Life and Work and Nodal Network Business

More than 35 years ago I perceived the coming of a giant shift in human affairs in general and in business in particular. I learned that a transformation in human and business identity is at its core. Driving the transition is a qualitatively new human psyche stage discontinuous from what is generally functioning for people in all walks of life and organizations of all sizes.

The transformation is now materializing in the forms I defined as Human Living System Life and Work and its Nodal Network Business. Implementing these forms with leading-edge humans and their organizations is my professional expertise. This New Pattern for Success is my focus.

About 25 years ago, after nearly 10 years of research, I had good evidence that a vast human transition was indeed in progress, but most were not yet seeing it. I learned why. A new theory and practice for the Human Psyche System was needed. I discovered the beginnings of a Human Living System Psychology to understand the emerging transcendence in human and business identity and how to forecast their coming effects. It worked.

Business problems were then appearing that upset previous stability. Leaders were losing their effectiveness to deal with them. Leadership crises were beginning to appear nearly everywhere. A flood of new management fads attempting to fix-up the problems cascaded into the business world. I realized that fix-up could not be the right approach. Only fundamental transformation would work. That was more than 20 years ago.

It became clear to me that the leadership/management profession, the structure of business organization, the processes of business operations and entrepreneurship all needed to be transformed. Since then my driving passion remains to understand those transformations in detail, how to implement them and how to create new effective business actions aligned with them. Possibly the most critical need I found for business leaders was to be able to implement these transformations in parallel with running an existing conventional business in transition. I found it could be much easier for those creating and building new business ventures because they could work in the new pattern from the beginning. But few were aware this was possible or how to implement it.

I continued to refine my work based upon the evolution of the Human Psyche System. Human Living System Psychology continued to take form for me. It led me to discover that the key transformation needed was to the emerging Human Living System pattern of life and work by abandoning the existing linear machine system pattern of life and work and its vertical command-and-control practice of leadership. A new science for guiding life and work was being born - Human Living System Science. I used these early insights to begin creating a new approach and practice for the business strategy and business development work I was doing.

Applications of these new concepts and methods I found worked best with the new type of human as leader in smaller companies. I found applications more difficult, if not impossible, to make in large organizations. I found that some companies could begin to make their transformation using a special process without tearing up their on-going operations. The process uses small teams of specially trained persons - similar to the Special Forces of the modern military – who are understood and supported by owners or executives who themselves are functioning in the emerging human psyche stage pattern. I became a pioneer in recruiting, training and using such special-forces teams in business.

I learned that smaller private companies, especially networks of them, can be vehicles for implementing the needed business transformation. Network partnerships between small companies and business units of larger companies can also be effective. Further, I realized that larger companies should reorganize around smaller units of business, called Business Segments, led by small teams that I named Isis Teams, or I-Teams.

Thereby, the company - no matter what its overall size - could function as a Human Living System network of smaller, flexible and innovative business units. New entrepreneurial business ventures could be created in the same pattern. Thus companies of all sizes and their internal and external networks could use powerful new strategy and operations tools I created, like the Goal Wedge and Business Segmented Accounting. The Nodal Network Business concept and practice were born.

About 15 years ago I began to create graduate business school courses that pioneered the “seeds” of materials that are now integral parts of my work. During the last few years I left university teaching to focus on my consulting, writing and developing those "seeds" into a system for Human Living System Business aligned with new leadership realities in life and business.

My central focus is to enable emerging Living System leaders to transform themselves and then transform both existing organizations and create new businesses. It uses Human Living System principles and practices for leadership, organization structure, operations processes and entrepreneurship. It features a new global vision - not conventional "Globalization" - and actions aligned with the future, not with what currently exists. It is the new path to become the Right Person using the Right Means for business success now. It is the New Pattern for Success.

Education

Case Western Rerserve, Cleveland, Ohio.
B.S. physics 1951. Tau Beta Pi Honor Society

Graduate School - University of California,
Berkeley, California. Ph.D. physics 1960. Sigma Xi Honor Research Society.

Career

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Cleveland, Ohio. Aeronautical Research Scientist 1951-52.

U.S. Air Force
Aviation Cadet -1952-53. Jet Fighter Pilot 1953-56.

University of California, Berkeley, California.
Graduate School 1956-60. Ph.D.

E.I. Dupont de Nemours - Wilmington, Delaware.
Research Physicist 1960-62. Venture Analyst, Business Strategist and New Business Development Specialist 1963-68.

Laird, Bissell & Meeds Inc. (Member NY Stock Exchange), Wilmington, Delaware.
Senior Investment Analyst, for Technology and Multi-Industry Companies
Institutional Investment Dept. 1968-69.

University Computing Company - Dallas, Texas.
Director, Corporate Development Planning 1969-72.

Texas Instruments Incorporated - Dallas, Texas.
Consultant for Business Strategy, Business Strategist, Marketing Manager
1972-1975.

Isis Consulting Group Inc. (Formerly Southwest Consulting Group) Dallas, Texas
President 1975-Present. Domestic and International Business Consulting in Strategy, Venture Analysis, Business Development and Marketing.

Isis Corporation - Dallas, Texas.
Founder and President 1978-Present.

International Business Consulting
Consultant to Industry and Commerce in Mexico 1980-Present.

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara;
Professor EGADE, 1981-82; 1994-2002
Director Program Development, Center for Family Business, 2002-2004

Isis Group Network - Dallas and Guadalajara - 2002-2008
(Doing business in Mexico as Isis Services, S.C.)