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Glossary Entry

Golden cage

Metaphor for an expensive enterprise system that delivers perceived control & compliance while constraining flexibility, change autonomy and domain ownership.

Context: Common label for large MES/EBR deployments that become static after initial rollout.

Why it matters: Masks stagnation – sunk implementation cost is misread as strategic advantage.

Effects:

  • High switching barriers.
  • Innovation slowdown.
  • Loss of domain authority by operations.

Not the same as: Technical debt; rather organizational path dependency.

Breaking out:

  • Decouple critical recipe logic.
  • Introduce focused, lightweight systems (best-of-need).
  • Restore change autonomy.

Further reading: