Just read When Money is Abundant, Knowledge is the Real Wealth. Excellent argument for companies as learning machines, not money making machines.
The purpose of a company is to learn about its environment.[1] [2] Companies are learning machines, and the best ones focus on extracting more information with less noise as fast as possible. This dynamic has always been true, and promises to become even more true because smaller teams increasingly generate outsized returns. This rising competitive pressure means organizations have an ever-shrinking margin for error in their information uptake rates. If you’re planning on participating in the new world, the feedback loop is your primary product.[3]
Companies waste their data, and it’s not for lack of trying. Companies spend billions of dollars extracting and storing information... (read 498 more words →)
an assumption not generally found outside of the Anglo-American Enlightenment intellectual tradition
Is this actually true?
This is a real dynamic that Conway will have to carefully design incentives around — one intermediate solution is to attribute reward and blame to actions instead of individuals. There can still be internal debate over whose responsibility the actions themselves were, which will likely continue to be political and outside of Conway's scope. I think it's reasonable to believe that companies will be penalized for unruly internal politics more now than ever before, but also to concede that some internal politics will probably always persist.