Contrarianism
15th May 2005
I'm becoming a little concerned with the trend towards "contrarianism" by some commentators & companies - taking a conflicting position from the "herd", purely as a point of difference.
Adopting a unique view can be natural and indeed necessary in developing the metrics by which organisations develop, grow and find a different way of interacting with the market (or even a new market - see last entry "competition and innovation").
One example is the fashion of advocating "step changes". The suggestion that "step changes" are inherently superior to incremental ones is seductive. However, even with a clear goal in sight, it seems to be leading some organisations to attempt too much, too soon. The consequence is that the enacted change programs fail reach the promised levels of benefit and are then rejected as having been inappropriate - with the collateral damage to many a manager's career!
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