Governing Continuous Transformation

This book transposes the ‘free-energy principle’, as espoused by the neuroscientist Karl Friston, to strategic governance, and forming the new concept of Free-Energy Governance (FEG). This concept lays the foundation for a new logic of governing continuous transformation. In addition to guiding the structure, cognition, and capabilities of success in strategic renewal, FEG provides a systematic and practice-relevant approach to predicting a firm’s potential for entropy.


Using this new concept, the author shows that the success of continuous strategic renewal and business innovation, elements crucial for firm survival, are determined by the triplet of a firm’s structure, cognition, and dynamic board capabilities.

“How to govern large organizations in times of high uncertainty and permanent change? To answer this pressing question, … Bijan Khezri has been the first to apply [the free energy] principle to management science …This book is an eyeopener for every reflective leader.¨

Professor Oliver Gassmann, Director of the Institute of Management and Technology, University of St. Gallen

“I really enjoyed reading this book. It was both exciting and reassuring to see how the same fundamental ideas can be found in fields as disparate as nonequilibrium steady-state physics and theories of governance.”

Professor Karl. J. Friston; Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging

“Using a term often applied to best-selling novels, ‘it is a page turner’ in which I learned something new in every chapter! Every board member, all executives and scholars interested in strategic leadership and governance must read this book if they wish to remain relevant in the coming transformational decades.”

Michael A. Hitt 

University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University

Former President, Academy of Management, and former Editor, Academy of Management Journal

"We could not ask for a better author to initiate this new conversation in the board research community and convey its merits to the world of board practice."

Martin Hilb

Professor Emeritus, University of St. Gallen

Founder and Managing Partner, International Board Foundation and President of Swiss Institute of Directors

“Set against a wide swath of literature, the book impressively makes the case for a new logic of strategic renewal in which the board of directors plays a central role.”

Professor Constance E. Helfat, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

For more than 25 years, Bijan Khezri has been CEO, chairman, and investor across a range of leading tech, media, and sports companies in Europe and the USA. Bijan graduated from the Institut de Hautes Etudes Internationales (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and holds a PhD in management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.