Russell Ackoff

interactive planning; idealized design.

Ackoff was professor emeritus at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he spent decades developing systems thinking as a practical discipline. He argued that organisations must be treated as purposeful systems, not mere machines, and pioneered idealized design—a process in which stakeholders redesign their organisation from scratch to spark transformational change. His prolific writing and consulting work made him one of the most cited voices in management systems theory.