Economics 101: Territorial Imperative and Sub-Optimization

Back last October, I wrote some thoughts about "territorial imperative" and "sub-optimization" including:

• October 20: Relationships: A change for the better?
• October 15: Relationships: Rules of the Road

One of my sons was a contract worker at a large corporation and found that the bureaucracy seemed to exist to protect its territory and often did so by sub-optimizing the performance of the rest of the organization.

Since then, he has formed his own company and now faces similar hurdles in dealing with clients. One area within the client company wants his services to improve their performance. Another area sees him as an intruder into their "domain" and tries to create barriers to prevent him from having access to critical information to complete the project.

This is why corporations get more difficult to manage as they get larger... and why size does not necessarily mean "economies of scale".