| Nearly anyone trained in the martial arts has a | | | | noted how until quite recently American architects |
| good laugh when watching evildoers attacking | | | | could bill clients about $10,000 for certain designs. |
| good guys in the movies. The hero faces dozens | | | | Now, these can be outsourced to China, and |
| or even hundreds of foes, and each one lines-up | | | | returned in a day or two, for about $600. |
| and takes a shot at the champion, who smartly | | | | Thus, it isn't as if Architect "A" is competing |
| and deftly disables each in turn. | | | | against "B" in the old-fashioned, hand-to-hand |
| "Why don't they attack, simultaneously?" I keep | | | | combat, sense. If they're competing, it is on an |
| asking myself. Because it's a movie, dummy, and | | | | entirely different level, one that involves |
| the hero must win. | | | | world-sourcing, and super-fast turnaround times, |
| I believe this silliness is emblematic of our business | | | | as well as inconceivable price-plunging. |
| challenges. In the slow, pre-Internet polite | | | | Where are the profits? |
| economy in which we'd participate, we could | | | | Short answer: In innovating. |
| seemingly fend off one competitor at a time. | | | | We have to do something new, or something |
| "Company X's price is 10% cheaper? Okay, we'll | | | | we're used to doing but in a very novel way. And |
| show them. We'll cut our price by 15% Aha! Take | | | | when we have done this, we have to quickly |
| that!" We'd take about a month to go to press | | | | invent again, because the half-life of our market |
| with another dead-tree brochure, and our foes | | | | preeminence will be measured in days, weeks, |
| would take about the same to respond, and so | | | | and if we're lucky, in months. |
| went our competitive cut-and-thrust. | | | | Welcome to the martial art of business survival, |
| Quaint, wasn't it? | | | | where challenges are coming at us from all |
| Just today, I read an article in Time Magazine that | | | | directions, simultaneously, and relentlessly. |