Barrier Paradox

Protective barriers achieve their short-term goal of blocking competitors, but often trigger long-term innovation and workarounds that ultimately render the barriers ineffective or obsolete. Organizations that rely on barriers while abandoning continuous evolution accelerate their own disruption.

Articles on this principle

• Ford Prepares for Chinese Automakers Behind Protectionist Walls: The Self-Defeating Paradox of Barriers

  No trade wall built by America can stop Chinese automakers' technological iteration within five years—Ford's CEO reveals the deepest irony of protectionism: the higher the barriers, the stronger the competitor's drive to innovate.