The Winning Game of Convergence
"All roads lead to Rome" no doubt glorifies the greatness of the Roman Empire once upon a time. But the saying can be far more elucidating than just that. As people tend to converge into hubs of traffic network, other things in life also do converge into common denominators of metaphysics.
In politics the world over, more often than not, ideologies from left and right converge to the pragmatic centre, where politicians have far better chances to win votes than being stuck at either partisan positions.
Contemporary wisdom recognizes the merits of crossing over between academic disciplines in the development and attainment of knowledge. Education in high places is hardly delivered in silos of modules nowadays, rather more likely in cocktails of doctrines. The East and West converge in medicine, as do mathematics and behavioral psychology in economics. Indeed, as in fresh air, scholars and technology geeks nowadays appreciate the flow - rather than the hoarding - of knowledge for fresh impetuses and opportunities for breakthrough - witness the success stories from the practices of open-sourcing. Otherwise, ie, when flows stop and the know-hows are trapped, it is dead - witness the downfall of Detriot since the 70s and, ironically, that of Toyota nowadays.
The phenomenon of convergence is also observable and forming part of evolution in hi-tech industries. For example, the advance in microprocessing chips and digital technology is blurring the line between computing and communication devices. The functions of personal laptop and handheld PDA phone are converging far more than they are differing.
But in nowhere do traffic, concepts and industries converge any faster than in the cyberspace. In just a couple of decades, the internet has broken down ideological and trade barriers of various sorts and allowed successful enterprises of unprecedented scale to emerge - the likes of Googles and Amazon, if not counting Facebook and those yet to turn volume into profit. Within a relatively short period, these innovative enterprises continue to strike new grounds and reach new heights in scale hardly conceivable to businesses in brick-and-mortal forms established far longer in history. Perhaps no other entrepreneurs/enterprises merge brainpower to transform industries and shape future more creatively and radically than the rain-making Steve Jobs and his iconic Apple.
Indeed the winning business model nowadays is no more just about producing the right product to the right target customer, but creating the right platform for related service propositions to converge, and guess where the winning hub is gonna be - the internet.
In politics the world over, more often than not, ideologies from left and right converge to the pragmatic centre, where politicians have far better chances to win votes than being stuck at either partisan positions.
Contemporary wisdom recognizes the merits of crossing over between academic disciplines in the development and attainment of knowledge. Education in high places is hardly delivered in silos of modules nowadays, rather more likely in cocktails of doctrines. The East and West converge in medicine, as do mathematics and behavioral psychology in economics. Indeed, as in fresh air, scholars and technology geeks nowadays appreciate the flow - rather than the hoarding - of knowledge for fresh impetuses and opportunities for breakthrough - witness the success stories from the practices of open-sourcing. Otherwise, ie, when flows stop and the know-hows are trapped, it is dead - witness the downfall of Detriot since the 70s and, ironically, that of Toyota nowadays.
The phenomenon of convergence is also observable and forming part of evolution in hi-tech industries. For example, the advance in microprocessing chips and digital technology is blurring the line between computing and communication devices. The functions of personal laptop and handheld PDA phone are converging far more than they are differing.
But in nowhere do traffic, concepts and industries converge any faster than in the cyberspace. In just a couple of decades, the internet has broken down ideological and trade barriers of various sorts and allowed successful enterprises of unprecedented scale to emerge - the likes of Googles and Amazon, if not counting Facebook and those yet to turn volume into profit. Within a relatively short period, these innovative enterprises continue to strike new grounds and reach new heights in scale hardly conceivable to businesses in brick-and-mortal forms established far longer in history. Perhaps no other entrepreneurs/enterprises merge brainpower to transform industries and shape future more creatively and radically than the rain-making Steve Jobs and his iconic Apple.
Indeed the winning business model nowadays is no more just about producing the right product to the right target customer, but creating the right platform for related service propositions to converge, and guess where the winning hub is gonna be - the internet.
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