Let Go To Grow: Escaping the Commodity Trap

4. Creating Business Components

Most companies today are not built on components. Instead, they're built as what we call organizational monoliths. A monolith works but at a high cost of communication, rework, duplication, and delay. The tight interdependence of a monolith has a deadly consequence in a commoditized world: When the system is put under pressure, something has to give. And that something is too often service. As the commodity hell gets hotter, the company cannot raise prices or pass on its cost increases. Trapped in a monolithic organization, it also cannot easily reduce its administrative overhead. In a world of commoditization, companies can only afford service through process excellence, a combination of sourcing best-practice ...