Innovative Deal Making & Contracts

“The only sustainable competitive advantage today is the ability to change, adapt, and evolve—and to do it better than the competition – John Marrioti.

Change is far more radical than we are at first inclined to suppose – Henry Bergson.

Though referring to biological systems, Bergson’s assertion can be applied to social systems, especially in the high-technology industries where change has been far more radical than conventional wisdom inclines to suppose. If corporations are to survive and succeed in such an environment, they “should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success,” to use John D. Rockefeller’s words.

Striking new paths and walking on the, however, isn’t easy as it involves both creativity and close monitoring and control, two rather contradictory requirements: Creativity requires an unstructured, a liberal, university-like working environment whereby the members of the organization can experiment with new things with little supervision. Close monitoring and control, by contrast, requires a structured, a factory-like working environment whereby the members of the organization operate under close supervision.

Here is, therefore, the organization dilemma of the high-technology innovator:

Place innovation under a liberal organization structure that unleashes the ingenuity and creativity of its members, risking chaos and disorder at the same time; or place innovation under a conservative organization that constraints and suppresses ingenuity and creativity.”

The above article is an abstract taken from Forbes Magazine and written by contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas.  It raises the question each of us faces as we bring a close to the old year and prepare to reinvent ourselves in preparation for the new one ahead.

Is it reasonable to expect individual or group progress without chaos?  What is the price, if any that we as individuals, as a community or a country are prepared to pay in man hours, money, values, in kind or quality of life to accomplish a breakthrough that will create a new sustainable experience that will catapult us to a new level.

Please share where you think we will be and what you will have accomplished next year this time?  Here is to wishing you a peaceful and joyful holiday season.