The Good Life Part 2
It is a corporate truism that strategy is as much about choosing what not to do, as it is about choosing what to do. Why? Because there will always be less resources than are possible plans, and because some plans simply contradict or cannibalise others. Synergistic adjacencies do exist, but a company that tries to be everything to everyone is increasingly unlikely to succeed as it spreads itself ever thinner, until it breaks. For this reason, we continually have to choose what not to do. This can actually be quite a liberating experience, if we do it right. The psychologist Barry Schwartz noted in his book "The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less", that although autonomy and freedom of choice are critical to well-being, the proliferation of choice in much of modern society does not seem to have resulted in increased happiness. Schwartz posits a few reasons for this (some of which I admit are beyond me!). But here are some points that make sense to me. First, increased in...