European hierarchical organizations are the worst of both worlds. In some regions in the world, everyone follows the direction of a senior leader or gets fired if they don’t. In some places, individual initiative is highly celebrated and people have the freedom to act. Many European companies require 10 to 20 stakeholders, if not more, to be involved in any change that someone seeks to drive. If there is a single stakeholder objecting, the change is dead in the water. This leads to incredibly slow and late changes in most companies. Only when the need for a change is clear for all stakeholders, including the “rejectors”, can companies implement it. By that time all business benefits that could have been reaped by exploiting the early mover advantage have been captured by others already. Typically, companies can only play defense and use their energy to avoid being disrupted. And for all that I love Sweden, the consensus culture is not exactly causing lightning fast action. We are too slow in this part of the world and have a real need to accelerate. Move fast and break things!