The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

• Change in Organizational Modeling

•Examples: Apache open source software, Wikipedia, Alcoholics Anonymous, eBay, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn

•Sunni Awakening strategy employed by General David Petraeus in Iraq

IP Enforcement: Holistic Strategy• Strategies

– Creating a climate of deterrence

– Counterfeiter generally won’t stop, it’s too lucrative, so best to move

them away from your brand to another less aggressive rights holder

– Combination of Customs Watch List, police raids, warnings and follow

up, market patrols, calling cards, threats of civil action, publicity: bring all

weapons to bear on the source to decrease their ROI.

– Rational party will move away from the brand which is turning up the

heat

– Strategy is most effective when different affected brands in the same

industry work together to share intelligence and costs: e.g., software

alliance, sports apparel, electronics, video games, pharma, cosmetics,

tobacco. More bang for the (limited) budget

3

– Tactics: Investigation: Tracking Source of Supply

• Developing leads- client info network

• Private Investigators

• Customs & Immigration

• Hotline- phone and email

• Informants and law enforcement tipsters

• Trap purchase: building trust and confidence: Follow the money trail

• Tracing phone/emails of vendor/supplier (no privacy in Thailand)

• Surveillance of retail and internet sales

• Placing CI in supply chain as employee for 2-3 months

• Discovery not available in civil procedure so must obtain documents surreptitiously

• Flipping low level operators (carefully) to work up the food chain

IP Enforcement: Holistic Strategy

Why Have Traditional Strategies not Worked?

EXAMPLE OF THE NEW NORMAL : STARFISH MODEL

Main Traits of Starfish Model

• No “head” or CEO ... Decentralized intelligence

• Starfish is a neural network, made up of cells

• Skill and knowledge distributed throughout the the network- “white collar” criminal service providers . . .

• Community and results based

• Circles form around ideology

• Instead of rules, they depend on norms, which foster trust and equality

The Role of Catalyst: The New Tony Soprano

• A Catalyst is an inspirational figure who spurs others to action

• Spends time communicating , time writing e-mails to the community. Always touching base - people oriented.

• Offers an incredible level of freedom. Does not micro-manage. No controls, no schedules, no direction. Hands-Off Approach.

• The networks are effective because a catalyst empowers people. Trust is placed in people to act and functioneffectively.

• The Catalyst gets out of the way and lets people do their best. This creates a platform for creativity and innovation. Starfish organizations need ambiguity to survive.

What Does This Mean for You?

• Some thoughts to consider in taking on a starfish organization– Decentralize yourself- if you can’t beat them, join them. – The best opponent for a starfish organization is often

another starfish– Change has been so rapid that industries and governments

have found themselves employing outdated strategies. There are new rules to the game.

– This is a lean approach . . . This large decentralized network of users wreaks havoc on the competition.

– As counterintuitive as it sounds, it can be better to be small.

– Starfish organizations create communities

Questions?

• Edward J Kelly, Co-Founder - The Atherton Group

• edwardk@athertonlegal.com

• ekelly_in_thai@yahoo.com

• +6689 526 5305

• www.athertonlegal.com