Learning Curve

I've started reading the George Gilder's latest Knowledge and Power. George starts with his favorite metaphor of entropy and moves on to explore the concept of a learning curve and how it impacts the economy and competitive landscape in particular.

I dawned on me George had just named what I was feeling and believing all the time. Where the advantage of an organization comes from. For a number of times I was naming the team, the culture, even the management as far more important than ideas and money. But Gilder has nailed it: the learning curve.

The angle, trajectory and sustainability of the learning curve is the most important factor deciding who will win the race. If an organization learns faster, it will be the first to deliver better product with better quality and products that cost less or bring higher margins than the competition. What else do you need? The thinking follows the Steve Jobs' sentence I quote most often: "there's a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a having a great idea and having a great product". It is so true I will be repeating this over and over. And this is exactly where the learning curve comes down to. The craftsmanship. If you can build what your competitors can, but faster, better and cheaper, you will win.

And to keep building faster, better and cheaper, you have to learn. If you learn, building products will be faster better and will less effort, everyday.

Every company can move further down its curve. Every worker can enhance his performance through increasing his units of experience.

Learning. Seems to be the most important process within the organization. The gap between ideas and products is the most frustrating and challenging for inventors and entrepreneurs. If you master and reward learning, the gap between ideas and products will shrink. Remember: a steep learning curve always means hard work and leaving the comfort zone. But there is nothing more rewarding than being able to materialize creative ideas.