The Year of Thinking Legally

The idea of “The Laws of Disruption” came to me when I noticed how news stories about information technology were increasingly stories about the interference of law and regulation with information technology.

A nice example from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal is Andrew LaVallee’s story, “For Tech Sector, It’s an Antitrust Year.”

Leading technology companies are faced with life-or-death decisions on products, services, operations and even their very existence based on the arcane rules of legal systems forged in the Industrial Revolution.

At the very least, doesn’t this suggest the need for better integration of the legal department with the rest of the executive team? Today, general counsel is the last great bastion of disconnection in most organizations.

Ten years ago, when the Information Revolution reached its tipping point, CIOs learned how to work directly on strategy and operations with their fellow executives. It was painful for everyone, but entirely necessary.

Now it’s time for the lawyers…