Let me share the story of a prolific ant. I believe that this story is particularly true in the larger orthopedic device companies today.
There was once an ant with an entrepreneurial spirit who went off on his own and found terrific new food source. A miracle. The food source was high in energy and would sustain unlimited growth for the colony.
After a long journey, he brought a sample of the new found food back to the colony.
“Hey, I found this new source of food on the other side of the hill. It’s amazing. It can feed us for years.”
“You are NOT authorized to look for new food… and the fact that you think you could do this is a character flaw and is not the way of the colony.”
A few weeks later, our industrious ant is laid off (with a few others) because the colony growth slowed down last quarter.
