This e-book is the first in a series that contributes to the journal's increased involvement with the field of management science. The first patron of Kybernetes, Stafford Beer, set the journal on course to include contributions in business and management cybernetics as well as systems science and related areas. He published in Kybernetes a substantial number of his most important and stimulating contributions to the field and encouraged the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) in their strategy of publishing papers on all aspects of the interdisciplinary fields of systems and cybernetics. In this issue we have invited contributors in this field, many of whom regard him as their mentor.