Oops, missed a few months there – and now there’s a crispness in the morning air, some glorious colours starting to come on the trees and I’ve realised that it’s summer over, autumn is here. Not a problem – I really like autumn.
But I’ve also realised that the summer (at least here in the UK) wasn’t exactly like summer as I remember it either. The whole thing of each of the four seasons being distinct is less and less true. We’ve had fabulous Februarys in recent years, and horrible Julys for example. And the more I think about it, the more that blurring of boundaries is increasingly true for many aspects of business.
Think of the tech sector for example – and just how many organisations are labelling themselves ‘tech’ when in reality they are simply tech enabling their operations. Just what is a ‘tech’ stock these days is a really interesting question.
Then look at other sectors – and the blurring of lines between media, data, information finance etc – think about a company like Nutmeg – yes it’s a financial services investment company but it is also about information – it’s business model (and the regulatory environment) requires it to provide a lot of information in a way that used be done F2F.
And the blurring of corporate boundaries – collaborative participation such as Network Rail & the Samaritans, or Apple’s Developer Network or Foldit illustrate just how porous some of those boundaries are in terms of key aspects of the business operations.
So blurring of some really traditional boundaries is increasingly common, acceptable and frequently very positive. The trick is to know where staying within boundaries is the right thing to do, and where blurring is a plus!
Curious about change 