There was a great post over at Branding Strategy Insider recently which basically ranted about the way the world tends to overcomplicate things, forget about common sense and consequently make lots of mistakes.

I think this is only half the story – often people are aware of what common sense dictates, but they still don’t do it.

So, in intellectual property – how many companies actually set and then rigourously enforce an IP Management system? How many have set up and continue to dedicate time and effort to a thorough invention disclosure / trade mark clearnace process? The answer is only the very successful.

David Maister wrote a great article called ‘Strategy and the Fat Smoker‘ – which his new book is built around which looks at this issue. Why don’t we do what we know we should? and more importantly, how can we change that?

Read David’s article – it applies to many different areas. Basically – you have to work out what you stand for, what you are prepared to permanently change and set a course that will make it inevitable, and then stick to it. You already know all of that – right? It takes tremendous commitment, hard work and courage – the few who can actually do these things will reap the rewards.

What would you add – why do you think people don’t enforce best practice ip management systems? 

What do you think would help them to?