![]() ![]() Everyone has a voice (including a man whose tongue was cut out his parrot speaks for him). The pirate crew that Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) assembles to chase the Black Pearl is one such open system. ![]() Germany’s Industry 4.0, with its ties to the European Union and the German government, appears to be an open system: The rule of law and consensus governance are the sources of legitimacy. The only problem is that when it needs to do something creative, such as saving the governor’s daughter (Keira Knightley) from drowning, it is too authority-bound to act. To visualize a closed system, think back to The Curse of the Black Pearl. The British Army, commanded by Governor Weatherby Swann (played by Jonathan Pryce), is a quintessential closed system. Everyone knows who the boss is, it is adept at marching in lockstep, and it wins the battle at the movie’s end. But this three-way contest among today’s industrial frenemies could define the patterns of global governance for years to come.Ĭhina’s Belt and Road Initiative seems to be a closed system, in which legitimacy rests with authority: the people in charge. ![]() The fight is not quite as fierce as the movie’s ongoing conflict between the British Navy and two pirate groups. The systems are just getting started, but already their sponsors are jockeying for position in a worldwide battle for platform dominance. Those three events are all linked to vast new industrial infrastructure systems, connecting enterprises and governments together with transportation, logistics, energy sensors, and artificial intelligence. And it has a lot to suggest about three big news events of 2017: China’s 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, the government coalition talks in Germany, and the retrenchment at GE. The movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is, among other things, an incisive parable about management styles. But in fact, it reveals an interesting and useful framework for thinking ahead and making business decisions in the 21st century. You wouldn’t think that a story about fictional pirates in the mid-1700s would have much to do with today’s global industrial infrastructure. ![]()
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