Here is an anonymous commentator over at Andrew Sullivan, via Conor Friedersdorf guest-blogging:
1. Business is much more about being organized and managing people than it is about ideas. Past a certain scale, ideas don't seem to matter much (unless you are a once-in-a-lifetime Steve Jobs type visionary). You and your competitors all have a basic concept of what to do. The areas that seem to offer the most scope for creativity are actually the areas where not enough data exists to formulate good ideas, and random guesses are worth as much as multi-million-dollar consultant reports. Much of the time spent discussing "ideas" in a business context is actually time spent slowly maneuvering large groups of managers into a compatible mind-space so that they can work together effectively – the results of the discussion in terms of ideas is worth nothing, whereas the result in terms of bonding, organizing, and motivating can be very valuable.
The post is interesting throughout.
See also Robin Hanson on creativity.
The referenced commenter says this:
If you go to Dubai you can see Nigerians selling generators made in China to a mix of Urdu and Persian speakers who captain wooden boats down the Dubai Creek to Al Ain.
Except Al Ain is an inland city about 80 miles from Dubai, way past where the Dubai Creek ends (it only extends about 5 miles inland.) The only boat traffic on the Dubai Creek is across it. The Nigerian is more likely to be selling those generators to Persians who pilot motor boats across the Gulf at night and smuggle them into Iran, although most of that trade originates in Khasab, Oman.
As to the larger point, yes, observing business organization, and how operations get done, is a fascinating piece of applied sociology and psychology.
Echoing anonymous, it’s just one story about how some firms go about maximizing profits. If that’s the best they can do, well … .
The ability to think about and apply software, including everyday software like MS Office, is also underrated. This is becoming more true as businesses turn toward results-oriented organizations instead of process-oriented ones. In other words, the more employers say “just get it done and I don’t care how,” the more there is scope for creativity in the employment relationship.
Apple has a lot of ideas.
But they are ideas about industrial design, about marketing, about positioning in the marketplace, about complementary business strategies.
They aren’t patents, but they are real ideas that make a difference to the business.
The issue with visionaries is they often seem to be the only ones who can run the companies they create. Jobs, Phil Knight and Howard Schultz are three examples of guys compelled for one reason or another to resume oversight of their companies’ day-to-day operations.
Your title is most important — business is about generating cooperation.
Peaceful, voluntary cooperation, the secret heart of Capitalist success.
The Peaceful Market.
Ayn Rand was totally correct about the superior morality of the (peaceful) free market deals over gov’t non-peaceful deals.
Yet she was tragically wrong about believing greed and selfishness was the key.
Peace is the key.
Yet, because of greed, money is such a good lubricant … and the ass-kissing (very real) is done for the cash. Peacefully & voluntarily, for the money (desired because of the selfish greed of the so-very replaceable ass-kissers).
The areas that seem to offer the most scope for creativity are actually the areas where not enough data exists to formulate good ideas,
Ideas don’t implement themselves — organizing is the art of making the real people actually choose to “do the work”. The main top decision is “what to do” (should Dell build a smartphone or not?), the meetings are to get implementor buy in and begin the coordination process of who actually does what, specifically.
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