Member-only story
Unicorns versus Ants
Exploring a different mental model for building large, coordinated essential service providers
Whether it be in farming or nursing or grocery sales, an unmistakable global phenomenon has been the consolidation of control of essential sectors by centralized actors. Largely, these new consolidated actors enact an extractive strategy to take advantage of the long-tail of suppliers and service providers the industry was built upon. As a result, supply chains have become more brittle, the attractiveness of the essential roles along that long-tail has fallen, leaving entire essential products and services industries at threat of understaffing and undersupply.
We need an organizational strategy optimized towards the long-term societal need for a resilient essential ecosystem
We need to develop a strategy to address the existential challenges facing essential sectors that contends with the relationship between the consolidated actors and the long-tail of suppliers. Given the centrality of essential sectors in the ability of any person and any public to live a comfortable life, we need an organizational strategy optimized towards the long-term societal need for a resilient essential ecosystem.
One way of looking at the essential ecosystem challenge may be to address the power…