Fast technology in a slow world
Real-world impact can only happen when technology bends to bureaucracy, politics, and people.
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The tech world loves to move fast and break things, but the real world does not play by those rules because it runs on institutions, incentives, and inertia.
Technology might advance exponentially, but businesses run logarithmically. Therefore, true impact unfolds slowly, because it must filter through 3 much denser layers:
Bureaucracy,
Politics,
Behavior.
These are not easily “disrupted”: they resist, they adapt, they bite back.
Let’s look at the history of the QR code.
Invented in 1994 by a Japanese guy (who else?!) named Masahiro Hara, the QR code sat around for decades as a curiosity, used mostly in logistics and Japanese vending machines. Then came COVID: almost overnight, every restaurant, airline, and government agency adopted it, not because the technology got better, but because the context did.
Between 2011 and 2022 the usage of the QR code in the USA exploded 8-fold, with people even associating the QR code to COVID itself.
This is the mistake techno-optimists make.
They assume innovation spreads like wildfire when, in reality, it spreads like molasses, until some external pressure melts the system just enough for the thing to slip through.
True impact is less about the brilliance of the code and more about the messiness of the world it enters.
Bureaucracy, Politics, and Behavior: they are our three foes.
Bureaucracy says “not yet”, because it runs on rules, approvals, liabilities. It does not care how smart your algorithm is; it cares whether it fits inside a 200-page compliance manual written a decade ago.
Politics says “only if I control it”, because every new tool is a threat to the existing hierarchy. Your clever AI might save millions, and your blockchain-based ecosystem can disintermediate entire functions, but if this shifts decision-making away from a senior executive, expect resistance wrapped in polite excuses.
Behavior says “why change?”, because people are not waiting for your better mousetrap. They are busy. They have habits, fears, status games they have been playing since they turned 14. New tech does not replace the old, it has to compete with it, negotiate with it, seduce it.
Yes, tech moves fast. But institutions move like sedimentary rock. And unless your breakthrough can bend to the shape of the cliff, it does not get adopted but slowly buried.
This is why so many people declare the world changed before it actually has.
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A flashy demo, some random Proof of Concept, a billion-dollar valuation here and there, or a media frenzy often masks the deeper reality: that nothing meaningful has shifted yet in how people live, work, or make decisions.
Some industries (such as media, logistics, or retail) can be transformed relatively quickly. Others, particularly those tied to regulation, legacy systems, or entrenched behaviors (e.g., education, healthcare, government), may remain largely resistant for years.
You sometimes win by being first. You always win by being right: right in timing, right in context, right in execution.
I can say that real breakthroughs often do not look like breakthroughs at all. They are mundane, almost boring, because they solve actual problems (and problems are f*cking BORING). Breakthroughs fit into people’s messy lives. They play nice with existing structures rather than trying to napalm them.
The most successful applications are modest and practical uses that align with real-world friction.
Which brings me to the real competitive edge: understanding human nature, not chasing the next GPT-X or crypto protocol. If you understand what people actually value, what they fear, and how they behave under pressure, you will know when and where to apply new tools.
AI is the latest of many technologies that won’t disrupt this simple fact of life.
As consultants working at the intersection of business, technology, and culture, we do not get paid for betting on possibilities. More simply, we get paid for solving problems, regardless of whether our clients have already identified them.
Our clients want certainty.
There is no real need of inventing a new future per se, we just need to quietly build the bridge between today’s mess and tomorrow’s potential.
Ciao, until next time! 👋
✍ The Management Consultant
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Brilliant article.
Spot on!