Month: October 2020

You can tell a lot about someone through their intent. How do they spend their time? What do they talk about? What path are they on? Strong intent can carve a tunnel from the present moment to a better future.

This isn’t restricted to humans. Every type of organization behaves with intent, including entire nations. A change in the intent of a nation indicates a change in the priorities of its people. Can you spot a change in the intent around us?

America seems to be striving towards something different than it did 50+ years ago. The pace of physical improvement has slowed to a trickle. Some groups speak of equalization replacing advancement. Other groups see reaching outer space as a panacea. Sometimes it feels like we’re out of new ideas.

I wonder where we’re headed.

Fame was never an outcome that interested me. Years ago, I made a list of the things I wanted and the tradeoffs I was willing to make to get there. Health, freedom, and money meant the most to me. Fame and status were at the bottom of the list (or so I claimed).

Over time, however, I’ve noticed an uptick in my Twitter activity. A lot of it is because I genuinely enjoy using Twitter; it hosts interesting content created by interesting people. But some of my activity must be a drive for fame, an inherent urge for status.

I say to myself that I don’t want to be in the news. I don’t even want to have 100k followers. But I have to wonder… am I fooling myself? If I obtain fame, will I modify my story and relish the situation?

Companies innovate through bundling and unbundling. Coined by Jim Barksdale, the concept is simple. Companies create a bundle when they combine a set of previously separate products or features. The iPhone bundled a web browser with a music player. Conversely, unbundling breaks a product up and delivers a superior single piece. iTunes unbundled the album by selling individual songs. From the consumer perspective, it’s about what features are combined or separated horizontally. 

Something analogous happens vertically. A single company can deliver a product from start to finish. Think of a corn grower, who plants, grows, and harvests their crop. Alternatively, a product’s supply chain can be broken up into an ecosystem of specialized firms. Think of all the companies involved in creating a new toaster.

Companies make leaps by bundling and unbundling. Similar dynamics carry innovation through supply chain integration and fragmentation.