No, this post has nothing to do with the great 70s rock-funk group War.

Instead, I’ll highlight an article about Cisco Systems and its alternative approach to R&D. Some describe the strategy as A&D — acquisitions and development.

As successful as Cisco has been in identifying hot new technologies and
taking calculated risks in new markets, experts say, the true strength
of its mergers-and-acquisitions operation lies elsewhere. Indeed, if
there is a secret to Cisco’s success, it is this: Cisco has come to
realize that the acquisition of technology really isn’t just about
technology. “For us,” says [Ned] Hooper [Cisco’s vice president of business development], “the people are the most strategic
asset.” If, after the acquisition, Cisco loses the technologists and
product managers who created, say, the Linksys router, then it has lost
the second and third generations of the product that existed only in
those employees’ heads. That, says Hooper, is where the billion-dollar
markets lie. And that is where Cisco’s acquisitions are aimed. “We need
the expertise,” he says. “We need the people.”

Contrast this process with the world of government bureaucracy. And speaking of bureaucracy, how do you think government intervention might have affected the following case?

Heather Burns, 30, lost her job in May 2005 as a product manager at CCB
bank in Raleigh, N.C., after it was acquired by SunTrust. “It’s
discouraging,” she says. “You work hard at a company to become a team,
and you don’t know if tomorrow you will get a call saying that you’ve
been bought out and the headquarters is in another city and you’re out
of luck.” So Burns decided to start her own online business,
SmartMomma. At first it reviewed maternity products and linked to other
sites. But the site was generating little in sales. She rejiggered the
business model so that SmartMomma has become more of an online store
selling pregnancy and baby-related items. Burns, who is pregnant
herself, says that only now is the site starting to earn a profit.
“Doing this takes a lot of trial and error,” she concedes.