The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

by Ori Brafman

You don’t buy a suit from eClass229 because of the store’s elaborate marketing or snazzy look. You shop there because five thousand other people recommend the store to you.

Sun and IBM have found innovative ways to ride the decentralized wave. IBM saw that Linux—the open-source operating system that rivals Microsoft Windows—was gaining traction. Instead of competing with the decentralized market entrants, IBM supported them. It deployed six hundred engineers whose sole job was to contribute to Linux, and it actively supported the development of Apache and Firefox, the open-source browser that competes with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. IBM’s strategy was based in part on the “whoever is my enemy’s enemy is my friend” philosophy. That is, “if these programs are hurting Microsoft, our competitor, then let’s help them.” But it’s not just about thwarting competitors. IBM has predicted that open-source is going to win out in the end. The company could spend resources developing competitive products, but chances are

they ultimately would lose out. The open-source movement simply has too much momentum. Rather than try to develop a competitive operating system in-house, IBM supported the development of Linux, then designed and sold hardware and software that was Linux-compatible. IBM is harnessing the collective skill of thousands of engineers working collaboratively worldwide, and at no cost to IBM.