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Lessons From Bold IT Organizations

By : David Rosenbaum

August 15, 2005 — CIO —

Modern capitalism was born at the beginning of the 17th century in what is now the Netherlands. In a bold and revolutionary move, the Dutch East India Company (formed in 1602) distributed the risk of sending ships out to buy nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and other exotic spices in the faraway ports of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea by selling shares in the company on the Bourse, one of the first iterations of a stock exchange. This was a profound economic transformation from the feudal model, in which ownership and wealth were concentrated in the crown and the gently born. By the 1660s, those shares, purchased by Holland’s endlessly energetic burghers, were earning annual dividends of 40 percent to 60 percent. Consequently, the Dutch became the richest people on earth.

And they took that wealth and invested it in...tulips.

It seemed like a good idea, a bold but reasonable investment strategy. Thanks to its sandy, well-drained soil, Holland was an ideal place to grow tulips. The cost of entry into the market was low, and a single, particularly prized bulb could sell for as much as 2,500 guilders—at the time, the yearly yield of a good-sized farm. But unlike the Dutch East India Company model, the tulip business lacked the sine qua non of any bold endeavor: risk mitigation. Once one’s entire wealth had been converted into tulip bulbs or tulip futures (which many did), once one had converted one’s entire farm to tulip cultivation (as many, many did), there was no turning back, no exit strategy. And when the bubble burst (the bulbs had, of course, minimal intrinsic value; they were, after all was said and done, just flowers), the country and its people were devastated.

From this sad tale comes a calculation that hundreds of years later is embedded in all the applications we received for this year’s 18th annual CIO 100 Awards: To be bold is to assume risk; without risk, there can be no reward. But there’s no reward that justifies an endeavor lacking a plan to transfer, diminish or distribute risk.

Time for Boldness

When the Internet became the rage in the 1990s, the need for boldness in thought and action was assumed. It was the price of admission to the great wealth-gathering game. Every day seemed to bring forth a new, transformative technology. Every other day brought forth a new business, a new paradigm and a spate of periodicals (including this one) chronicling and celebrating the new, new thing, whatever it may have been. The accepted wisdom was that companies that did not act boldly, did not innovate, did not change restlessly and relentlessly would not survive. Who had time to worry about risk? While you were worrying, the market—and your competitors—would pass you by.

 

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