Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
Inflection Points
Inflection Points
Figure 2 . Upper values for inflection points , by percent balanced providers .
Figure 3 . Lower values for inflection points , by percent balanced providers .
real life ? Two major factors may explain this apparent exception . First , “ good ” is hard to define and measure . “ Fast ” can be quantified and measured , with tools ranging from a stopwatch to a calendar . “ Cheap ” can also be quantified and measured , using nothing more than a pocketbook . It may be noted that “ cheap ” and “ fast ” are relative terms , as what is cheap or fast to one person may not be so to another , but they can in fact be measured and compared in at least some degree . Contrariwise , as
noted earlier , “ good ” cannot be so easily measured or consistently defined , even between a consumer and a provider .
The second factor that may help explain this contradiction is the idea of niches & specialization , and scale . During the development of this model and exploring the idea behind it , it has been noted that several restaurants managed to balance cheap , fast , and good ; they may have been slightly more expensive and slower than a typical drive-thru ( cheap & fast ), but
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