[2] Sink or Thwim
Why are there brands at all?
Why are there brands at all? This ia a subset of the question 'Why is there anything at all?' Taking my cue from the prevailing scientific myth (SN Salthe 2002) I think it is because the consumer universe uses brand configurations to dissipate energy gradients. I shall expand on this for however long it takes.
Type the words complexity or complex adaptive systems into any self-respecting search engine and stand back or be prepared to sink or thwim as a cartoon once warned. This is not another blog about complexity. There are very good books dealing with complexity and the constantly updated reading list will list acknowledge those that influenced and shaped this blog in particular. Why blog then ?
There is nothing really new in any book. At best this blog represents a different way of putting key concepts together that are all dealt with in detail and often with greater elegance in the original texts. Those texts and their authors are acknowledged with admiration throughout. In the course of doing so some very outstanding individual contributions will be highlighted. It is this author’s impression that the general quality of acknowledgement is too low and far too superficial. To remedy this situation a little more detail will be given in selected instances and where the appropriate context arises. Sewall Wright is a good case in point, a giant of an intellect against whom everything attempted in what follows is dwarfed. A handful of books and authors however deserve more specific acknowledgement before an attempt is made to answer the question: why write another book on this subject? These acknowledgements are part of the answer. The approach to business and strategy in this book was shaped (and is still being shaped) by Peter Senge’s book The Learning Organization, by Michael Porter, and by Eli Goldratt’s book Theory of Constraints. More recently by Brian Goodwin’s How the Leopard Changed its Spots and above all by A M (At) de Lange who is not known outside of the small circle of contributors to the LearningOrg[1] listserv. Naturally countless other books and papers and contributions to discussion lists have also left their indelible mark.
[1] Learning-org-digest -- Hosted by Rick Karash rkarash@karash.com Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- http://www.learning-org.com Learning-org and the format of msg ids (LO1234 etc.) are trademarks
Why are there brands at all? This ia a subset of the question 'Why is there anything at all?' Taking my cue from the prevailing scientific myth (SN Salthe 2002) I think it is because the consumer universe uses brand configurations to dissipate energy gradients. I shall expand on this for however long it takes.
Type the words complexity or complex adaptive systems into any self-respecting search engine and stand back or be prepared to sink or thwim as a cartoon once warned. This is not another blog about complexity. There are very good books dealing with complexity and the constantly updated reading list will list acknowledge those that influenced and shaped this blog in particular. Why blog then ?
Imagine a chess game, the opening gambit is history, the middle-game is the challenge and the future depends entirely on the end-game. The outcome is in your hands and the stakes are the proverbial matter of life or death. Think, plan and make the next move! …someone implores from behind. I can’t! you say; I have never played chess, I don’t understand what to do, I don’t know the rules of the game. What is impossible in chess is a mere triviality in business where most thinking and planning is done, at best, without any reference to the rules, and at worst in violation of the rules. To paint an even richer picture: acting as if there are no rules is no different from saying I am going to jump out of this 3rd storey window and ignore the law of gravity. No matter how stupid that sounds, it happens everyday in businesses all over the world with somewhat less immediate but equally disastrous results.
The Book of EcclesiastesThe thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and
that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun.
There is nothing really new in any book. At best this blog represents a different way of putting key concepts together that are all dealt with in detail and often with greater elegance in the original texts. Those texts and their authors are acknowledged with admiration throughout. In the course of doing so some very outstanding individual contributions will be highlighted. It is this author’s impression that the general quality of acknowledgement is too low and far too superficial. To remedy this situation a little more detail will be given in selected instances and where the appropriate context arises. Sewall Wright is a good case in point, a giant of an intellect against whom everything attempted in what follows is dwarfed. A handful of books and authors however deserve more specific acknowledgement before an attempt is made to answer the question: why write another book on this subject? These acknowledgements are part of the answer. The approach to business and strategy in this book was shaped (and is still being shaped) by Peter Senge’s book The Learning Organization, by Michael Porter, and by Eli Goldratt’s book Theory of Constraints. More recently by Brian Goodwin’s How the Leopard Changed its Spots and above all by A M (At) de Lange who is not known outside of the small circle of contributors to the LearningOrg[1] listserv. Naturally countless other books and papers and contributions to discussion lists have also left their indelible mark.
[1] Learning-org-digest -- Hosted by Rick Karash rkarash@karash.com Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- http://www.learning-org.com Learning-org and the format of msg ids (LO1234 etc.) are trademarks
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