In “push” systems the core assumptions are that companies and other institutions can anticipate demand and that mobilizing scarce resources in previously specified ways is the most efficient and reliable way to meet it. But the efficiency of push systems comes at a stiff price, for they require companies to specify, monitor, and enforce detailed activities and tasks. This rigidity necessarily restricts the number and diversity of the participants in push models, thus limiting the innovation and learning that can take place in them. It also tends to turn workers into mere instruments of management at a time when self-directed effort from a broad range of employees is ever more essential to big corporations.
While many companies continue to operate on the flawed assumption that demand is intrinsically foreseeable, others are beginning to embrace a more flexible approach to setting in motion (or mobilizing) tangible and intangible assets (or resources), which may reside within or outside the company. This new approach might be called the “pull” system of resource mobilization.
Authors: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown
Sources: CFO Publishing, McKinsey Quarterly
Subjects: Innovation, Marketing / Sales
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