Catalyst Strategic Consultants

Robert Caro has just released “Path to Power”. It’s the fourth volume of his obsessively detailed and compelling biography of Lyndon Johnson.

Wow, but why would I care about that? Caro is fascinated by how power is gathered and wielded, enough that he has devoted a lifetime to that study. And for all time, he has given us the definitive version of the key plays of a world shaping era. For posterity.

Perhaps it’s difficult for folks to get into history. It becomes more central with advancing age. It’s as Churchill said – “Those who would not study history are condemned to repeat it.”

Business demands attention to history. How can that be?

First no biz works without process. Scripts that move service or product along step by step to their ultimate destination. So we don’t have to rely on fugitive memory. And so that the designer of the process can pass it on to others for execution. Along the way, a record of activity is created. The only defence to the inevitable disagreements about what was agreed and what was done.

I now advise companies that a large part of their corporate value is resident in their systems. If the system can not only contain the smarts of their approach but also can train anyone to deliver for the enterprise, we have hit bedrock. You can build on that!

When I am assessing growth prospects of a firm, I am looking for a system builder – someone who can not only DO, but who can CREATE a system out of what has been done. So what if it has to be changed later? WIthout it, we start over every time.

Derek Bullen of S i Systems has that mind. And now his Matchguide system is the core of value of his enviable enterprise.

For posterity. What does that stuffy phrase mean? For those who come after. A distinctive feature of our human species is we can pass learning from one to another. And since writing was invented – I’m reading a History of India – which now backdates script to the 3000 BC Harrapan civilization – we have been able to pass the benefit of experience along.

We are outgrowing and diversifying where these learnings are lodged. Libraries used to contain everything known. No longer. And platforms come and go. In the early days, I wrote my musings in WordPerfect. Now those files are sterilized.

Some use that as a defence to the extra work of leaving tracks and making a library. It’s outdated!

Listen to a great piece of classical music. Handel labored away over a sustained period to move a grand conception from his head into musical notation. And now, we can be impacted anew by the majesty of the Water Music. The fact that he could tune into it himself was nice – for him. The fact that he left it for us? Priceless.

Facebook is going to market at +$100b. It isn’t Zuckerberg. It’s the software!

 

Sincerely,
Doug Bouey
Catalyst Strategic Consultants Ltd.