Certainly, the interconnected and decentralized world we have created primarily in the West/Center and which use the tools based on telecommunication are a reality because this way of organizing our work is less uncertain. However, it cannot be denied that this organization has also created centers of power leading to a more inequitable distribution of the benefits.

All you need do is visit you neighborhood stores to see how much IT these businesses use; very little. The owners cannot afford to spend their time tweeting and posting and re-posting on social networks to engage with and convert customers because this would be inefficient. They cannot afford to even hire someone to engage in these activities because it costs too much. They don’t want to use web based services – although they some times feel obliged to at the client’s request – because giving up such a huge percentage of their sales is penalizing for them. And so and so forth….

Likewise, virtual companies like those described in the article are idealistic without a mechanism by which uncertainty of payment and of delivery can be satisfied for all the economic actors involved. I have not met one person or business who will work such a high degree of uncertainty be it on the client or vendor side of the equation.

What Marten describes is entirely in the realm of large established organizations who seek productivity gains by shedding non-essential processes to smaller economic actors. The degree to which this can be done is very much a consequence of the laws in the country of operation.

Don’t get me wrong. I subscribe entirely to Marten’s point of view. However, I do so with a certain number of caveats and limitations.

There are cultures which became successful even without considering personal or social sensitivities.

But then as a leader, you have to manage these social sensitivities to a certain extent beneficial to all. Bear in mind that you cannot give in to all social sensitivities. And this supports the imperative for leadership.

A proposal title will be :
Disrupt self before you get disrupted
How:
Hire leadership to deal with complex unknown world.
Assumption:
Leaders know how to go strategise the difficult journey.