The Stages of Corporate Development

An elementary means of ordering reality for the purpose of understanding it is to employ a classification scheme that distinguishes between different elements of that reality. The development of a classification scheme has been a useful starting point for the subsequent development of scientific theory in many fields but it should in no way be mistaken for theory building itself. By providing a way of describing reality, and a vocabulary for communicating and discussing that reality with others, classification schemes help to develop insight into what is going on. By first dividing up and then comparing phenomena, understanding of them can often be deepened.