April 14, 2004

This explains a lot. "Suppose that you are a middle manager in a big company that faces a problem that requires an innovative technical solution. Two firms come to you, one offering to solve the problem for $300,000 and the other offering to study the problem and produce a plan for $500,000. Which do you recommend to senior management? I can say, based on personal experience, that the only career-enhancing move is to recommend hiring the firm that will study the problem. That is Churchill's "strange paradox" as it applies in the corporate bureaucracy. Fortunately, I learned my lesson inside a large firm, before I started my own business. It taught me that when you pitch a product or service to a big company, you should position your offering as a tool for analysis rather than as a solution. I know many bitter entrepreneurs who have clever solutions and no profits to show for it, because they failed to appreciate the strange paradox. What Churchill found is that when a group of leaders is confronted with a problem that makes them uneasy, they take out their frustration on those who suggest ways of dealing with the problem. Discomfort with a problem leads many people to develop a passionate hatred for the solution .. ". More ARNOLD KLING. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack