Entropy is a consultant's boon

Insight

Organizations naturally decay toward disorder — processes become bloated, focus drifts, exceptions accumulate, and coherence erodes. This is organizational entropy. Left unattended, any system trends toward chaos. Rumelt notes this is why consultants will always have work: the default state of any organization is gradually worsening, and it takes active, focused effort to maintain order or improve.

Why This Matters

Understanding entropy reframes organizational problems as natural rather than exceptional. Decay is not a sign of failure — it's the baseline. The strategic implication is that maintaining coherence requires constant energy. A strategy that worked last year may already be degrading. This means periodic renewal and re-diagnosis are not optional — they are as essential as the original strategy itself.

Source Highlights

!Good Strategy Bad Strategy - Rumelt#^ref-9544

Related Concepts

entropy | organizational-behavior | strategy | systems-thinking