Long after reading Arie de Geus's indelible quote in Peter Senge's Fifth
Discipline, I found myself questioning the wisdom of his words if taken
too literally and without qualification. I doubt that any of you have not
yet heard De Geus's musing which read: "The ability to learn faster than
your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage."
The question I've asked myself recently is "why would speed of learning
translate into a sustainable advantage?" Speed, by itself, does not
confer sustainability. Clearly the ability to learn faster than one's
competitors carries advantage in the marketplace, but where does the
"sustainable" ability to do so come from? There's nothing in De Geus's
words that would answer that question. So I decided to tackle that issue
myself.
If I had to re-state the same thought in my own words, I'd say: "The
ability to sustainability learn faster than your competitors may be the
ultimate competitive advantage." This places the emphasis not so much on
speed, but on the sustainability of a certain rate of learning. In other
words, I suspect that any organization could ramp up its rate of learning
on a deliberate willful basis for some temporary period of time, but to
institutionalize that higher rate of learning such that it is sustained
over long periods of time is quite another matter. The challenge, then,
is how to achieve higher rates -- or "more competitively advantageous"
rates -- of sustainable innovation. Call me a nut, but I see this as the
Holy Grail in business and organizational performance. It's the
sustainability of innovation that matters more so than speed of it!
List members interested in reading more about my own thoughts on how to
achieve higher rates of sustainable innovation are free to download a copy
of my latest paper entitled, "Managing For Sustainable Innovation" from
my web site at the following URL:
http://www.macroinnovation.com/papers.htm
As always, comments and criticisms are most welcome.
Regards,
Mark W. McElroy
--"Mark W. McElroy" <mmcelroy@vermontel.net>
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