The Economics of Dysfunction
That delay, that complexity, that confusion? Not a bug. It's someone's business model. The gap is the product.
Every organization has friction. Delays between departments. Handoffs that lose information. Approvals that add weeks.
The standard assumption: this is waste. Inefficiency. Something to eliminate.
The reality: every point of friction is someone's revenue stream.
$1.3B
Prior authorization industry
30%
Growth in one year
"Friction isn't entropy. Friction is margin."
Healthcare: Revenue comes from the delay itself. Not from resolving it.
Enterprise Software: Products designed to require consultants. Complexity is the billing mechanism.
Recruiting: 15-25% of first-year salary. Value comes from information asymmetry.
2:1
ratio of paperwork to treatment
$687B administration vs $346B direct care
Remove an approval step. The approvers fight it. Their authority is the friction.
Automate a manual process. The process owners resist. Their jobs are the friction.
Share siloed knowledge. The experts block it. Their scarcity is the friction.
Simplify a complex system. The vendors fight it. Their consultants bill the friction.
371
apps in average enterprise
51%
of SaaS licenses unused
"Why would vendors fix problems that are their revenue stream?"
Legacy system dependencies = maintenance vendor revenue
Custom integrations = consultant billable hours
Proprietary data formats = switching cost protection
Complex approval workflows = middle management justification
Clarity is violence to people whose power depends on ambiguity.
When you measure Decision Latency and expose that decisions take 6 weeks when they could take 6 hours, you're threatening the approval chain's relevance.
GPI doesn't just measure friction. It exposes margin.
That's what makes it dangerous.
FIELD STATE (GPI 1-3)
Friction is waste. Energy flows freely. Decisions at the edge. Makes money by reducing friction for users.
PARTICLE STATE (GPI 7-10)
Friction is structural. Energy gets stuck. Approvals pile up. Makes money by monetizing friction against users.
The gap is the product.
The delay is the margin. The complexity is the business model.
The first step is measuring who profits from your particle state.
From the upcoming book
The Growing Pains Index
Chapter 2: You're Invested in the Waste
Measure where friction is margin in your organization. See the structural lock-in others defend.
TAKE THE GPI DIAGNOSTIC