Have essential functions taken over business?
A recent Business Insider examination of how patent “aggregator” Intellectual Ventures works is a good example of one of the problems in modern business – essential ancillary processes have overtaken doing business itself.
Intellectual property rights are an important part of doing business, however what should be an adjunct to doing business has consumed many enterprises.
As the Business Insider article point out, Intellectual Ventures has become some sort of modern day privateer, extracting loot from hapless companies that cross its path.
This problem with intellectual property is part of a larger problem with lawyers, where they have been given too important a role in business.
In any civilised society lawyers are essential and carry out an important role but in western society over the last fifty the scope of the legal system has expanded so dramatically that now the legal tail wags the business dog.
Today company directors, business owners and entrepreneurs live under the shadow of breaching some obscure law that they had no inkling existed. Of course, the lawyers can help with this.
A similar thing has happened in the financial world, accountants have also moved from being an essential adjunct of business into being at the centre of most enterprises.
Much of this explosion in lawyering and accounting has been due to the increased role of government in our lives; each time a new law or regulation is enacted it makes it harder for the average person, or business owner, to understand the system.
A cynic can argue this is by design but most government actions are intended to address some injustice or flaw in society. The problem is there are always unintended consequences.
One can also argue that the increased growth in business overheads like lawyers, accountants and patent attorneys is because of fat, prosperous business conditions.
So maybe what western business has seen in the last fifty years has been because of a favorable market place; politicians have introduced a morass of often contradictory financial and legal rules because they know business, and society, can afford it.
Now times have changed and both business and society can’t afford unnecessary overheads it will be interesting to see exactly how our laws and regulations evolve to respond.
Maybe they won’t and we’ll see a black economy develop where whole groups of society ignore the rules, dispense with lawyers and accountants and hope for the best. This would not be good.
Possibly we’ll see legislatures and courts winding back and reigning in some of the more silly and egregious excesses as they recognise society can’t carry the burden and remain productive.
Whatever happens we can be sure the lawyers, accountants and people like Intellectual Ventures will fight hard against any change that reduces their status and income.
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