Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
One of my favorites parts of the story of the Buddha is when, deep in meditation and approaching enlightenment, Mara, spirit of deception, who asks him simply:
“What gives you the right to do this?”
The Buddha then reached forth his hand, touched the earth, and the earth herself bore witness.
Let's face it, my professional geeks, we love it. We also need it – hey, how many of us work to push the envelope or even get beyond envelopes entirely (we must not bow to the envelopes). For that matter, these days, innovation is needed both in a changing world and to deal with old ways of thinking and producing.
We are all about innovation.
The problem is innovation is often about leaving things behind.
So last column I mentioned that some businesses and companies were probably only surviving (perhaps even poorly) because they had simply become social institutions. We are used to these companies, and that keeps them from evolving–or dying off appropriately. So I asked myself, what companies and so forth were probably surviving due to a large part of sheer familiarity? The answer was pretty illustrative.
Here are a few I came up with. This is in no way the end all-be-all.