Fight Capture

State. Ideological. Producer. Audience. Bureaucratic. All types of Capture that can infect an endeavour. Diverting. Relentless. Fatal.

All capture is bad. The bias brought about veers the pursuit away from focus on those for whom it ought strive; customers. It cannot end well. In fact, the only way to truly be rid of the toxin often seems to scrap the venture. And start over.

Indeed, there's the Second Law of Robert Conquest to adapt;

Any effort that is not explicitly homed in on sating needs of clients, will sooner or later be refashioned by a group that instead chase solely their own interests.

Also cited on wikipedia, is this frightener to chill as to what disaster can unfold;

"the behaviour of an organisation can best be predicted by assuming it to be controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies".

Surely we do not want that.

What capture ruins a Sales drive?

I myself as cubrep once experienced a type of producer capture. Where 'those who provide a service concentrate on their own interests and not on those of whom they serve'. Dev Capture. Every bid was being moulded around the wishes of the coding team. Completely wrong-way-round. It caused chaos. When its pernicious creep began dismantling what was possible at client sites, I knew it was time to move.

I've also witnessed variants of bureaucracy capture. Where a combo of Sales Ops fixated on rigid reporting systems and misguided team leaders going ever deeper down micromanagement dead-ends thwart sales initiatives and suffocate any semblance of proper process.

Even feeling the pain of audience capture. Where a single client slowly but shatteringly skewed resource, delivery and development to their own will, one which did not reflect beyond them into the target market. Broader provision destroyed by compliance to only one narrow, minor need which represented neither wider opportunities nor the core skills and dreams of those supplying.

Spot any like these, and you must crush them. Lest they do for you.