Someone was telling me about how BMW thinks about their supply chain.

Instead of BMW killing themselves to make the best car, they have an ecosystem of suppliers killing themselves to be a competitive part of the best car.^[amz]

This is a great example of harnessing the power of the swarm within yourself.

Although presumably it only works if you can figure out how to make the whole be significantly more than the sum of its parts.

For example, BMW's brand implies that they vouch for any of the components used in the car; part of their creative act on the final car is making decisions about what components should exist and what is good enough.