John Kay has a great piece in the FT’s Weekend Magazine about why you should never choose the easiest route in complex systems. He gives quite a few examples of companies that have gone for profits as their goal and failed in comparison to companies that have had a bigger vision. We argued a similar point in The Long Game in relation to how regulators should try to go about their jobs and Paul Skidmore (who I worked with on The Long Game) made a similar point in this interview on Radio 4 last Thursday (Realplayer required and scroll through to 15 mins).
Anyway, John’s now given the idea a name — obliquity.
