Dee Hock is the founder and former CEO of the VISA credit card association. In 1968 Hock convinced Bank of America to give up ownership and control of their BankAmericard credit card program. The new company, called National BankAmerica, was a non-stock membership corporation equally owned by its member banks. The name was changed to VISA in 1976. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... Visa is a brand of credit card and debit card operated by the Visa International Service Association of San Francisco, California, USA, an economic joint venture of 21,000 financial institutions that issue and market Visa products. ...

He was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Money magazine hall of fame in 1992. Money is a Time Warner financial magazine. ...

He then became the founder and coordinating director of the Chaordic Alliance, the purpose of which was to develop, disseminate and implement new concepts of organization. The Chaordic Alliance later changed its name to Chaordic Commons, and, in mid-2005, Dee Hock broke all ties with the organization.

Chaordic Commons

The purpose of the Chaordic Commons is to develop, disseminate, and implement new concepts of organization that result in more equitable sharing of power and wealth, improved health, and greater compatibility with the human spirit and biosphere.

Impact on Organization Development

In addition to his career in the financial industry, Hock has been active in developing new models of social and business organization. He has been particularly interested in forms of organization that are neither rigidly controlled nor anarchic, a hybrid form of consensus decision-making he terms chaordic, and is author of a book on the subject, Birth of the Chaordic Age. Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of philosophies and attitudes which reject any form of compulsory government[1] and support its elimination,[2] often because of a wider rejection of involuntary authority. ... Consensus decision-making is a decision-making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision. ... The portmanteau chaordic is used in some philosophies to refer to a system that is simultaneously chaotic and ordered. ...

External links

• excerpt from his book
• expanded treatment
• interview