Dee Hock
Dee Hock | |
---|---|
Born | Dee Ward Hock March 21, 1929 CEO of the Visa credit card association (1970s–1984) |
Spouse |
Ferol Cragun (died 2018) |
Children | 3 |
Dee Ward Hock (March 21, 1929 – July 16, 2022) was the founder and
Early life and education
Hock was born in
Career
After graduation, Hock began working various jobs in the financial services industry. He served as the manager of two Pacific Finance branches, an assistant manager of public relations and advertising for Pacific Finance, a general manager of Columbia Investment Company, and then as a supervisor at
In May 1984, Hock resigned his management role with Visa,
In his 1991 Business Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Hock explained:
Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper – Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition. In 1984, I severed all connections with business for a life of isolation and anonymity, convinced I was making a great bargain by trading money for time, position for liberty, and ego for contentment – that the beasts were securely caged.
Hock had built Visa as a deliberately decentralized organization.[4] In March 1993, Hock gave a dinner speech at the Santa Fe Institute where, based on his experiences founding and operating Visa International, he described systems that are both chaotic and ordered, using the term "chaordic" from the words "chaos" and "order".
In February 1994, Hock accepted a grant from the Joyce Foundation for his travel expenses to study the possibilities of implementing chaordic organizations.[5] The non-profit Alliance for Community Liberty was formed in 1994 by Hock to develop, disseminate and implement these new concepts of organization, and was renamed The Chaordic Alliance in 1996.[4]In spring 2001, The Chaordic Commons, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, was formed to supersede the Chaordic Alliance.[7]
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 he terms chaordic.
Hock has authored a book on the subject, Birth of the Chaordic Age (1999) with an edition named One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization (2005) which includes two new chapters.[8]
Personal life
Hock married his high school girlfriend, Ferol Delors Cragun, when he was 20. She died in 2018. Hock died on July 16, 2022, at the age of 93.[1] At the time of his death, he was survived by two children, seven grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.[9]
References
- ^ a b c d e Sandomir, Richard (August 7, 2022). "Dee Hock, Credit Card Visionary, Is Dead at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ a b c Hock, Dee. "Biography of Dee W Hock". Dee W Hock. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ Meadows, Donella (December 29, 1999). "It's Everywhere You Want To Be". Grist. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Cleveland, Harlan. "A Philosophical Wallop." The Futurist 34.4 (2000): 56-7. ProQuest. Web. March 1, 2014.
- ^ Fast Company magazine. pp. 75–85. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
- ^ Sparks, Evan (June 26, 2017). "Nine Young Bankers Who Changed America: Dee Hock". ABA Banking Journal. Washington, DC: American Bankers Association. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
- ^ "A Brief History of The Chaordic Alliance from 1993 to 2001 and Chaordic Commons from 2001". Chaordic Commons. December 1, 2005. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
- ^ "Publications". Dee W Hock. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved September 2, 2022.