The “bottom-line” has dropped out of externally-based business strategies.[i] As corporations seek to out-manoeuvre each other by squeezing the last juice out of their supply chains, they have become unknowingly ensnared by the inherent fault-line of the digital information race. As the information playing field becomes levelled out by the speed-trap of technology, “Business @ the speed of thought” paradoxically results in a technological “groundhog day”. Speed has now become commoditised, reducing “efficiency” and “effectiveness” to “table-stakes”.[ii] Thinking in straight lines, digitally or otherwise, will keep you going round in circles.

Corporate strategy has now moved on from trying to stay one foot ahead of the game, to favouring those who master the skills of divergence, from playing the game by the rules, to generating game-breaking ideas. New business opportunities are now being sought through leveraging the potential of the internal world of human talent to create and innovate.

The model of business has transformed from a mechanical structure focused on optimising content, to a university structure focused on breakthrough ideas and self-inquiry.[iii] The spirit of inquiry ethically stands in stark contrast to the result-orientated stance of the traditional organisation. As human beings turn inward, and begin to really look, then they can use their sense of mortality to ensure they live lives free from regret. When you live as if you may die at any minute then your motivational energy is transformed exponentially into a noble spirit.

In a marketplace measured by meaning and driven by dreams, great ideas, huge ideas, noble ideas mark the pinnacle of human achievement and potential.[iv] The products and services of the “Lotus-Economy” will be dreams.[v] As the driving force of business moves from marshalling numbers to innovation, then the central tenet of its pedagogy moves from the logic of control and management, to the logic of creativity and self-investigation.

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