The first transaction of any Business is Procurement. And Software Procurement and the Software market is least developed among all other Procurement. René Girard established the foundational law of human behavior:
“Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and who turns to others in order to make up his mind.”
Human desire is never linear, autonomous, or spontaneously generated. It is fundamentally triangular (désir triangulaire or désir mimétique). Between the Subject and the Object, there always sits the Mediator (or Model), from whom the Subject borrows the desire for the Object.
THE TRIANGLE OF DESIRE
MEDIATOR / MODEL
(Peer CIO / Competitor)
/ \
/ \
Borrows / \ Models
Desire / \ Value
/ \
v v
SUBJECT ─────────────────► OBJECT
(The Buyer) (SAP / Oracle / ERP)
In enterprise software, the corporate world hides behind what Girard called The Romantic Lie (le mensonge romantique)—the illusion that a procurement committee objectively measures software based on intrinsic utility, architectural elegance, or user ergonomics.
In reality, B2B software procurement is an administrative apparatus of mimetic contagion, internal mediation, and sacrificial expulsion. Enterprise software is rarely purchased to accomplish work; it is acquired as an prophylactic against skandalon (stumbling blocks) and a paper trail of innocence designed to protect executive hierarchies during a sacrificial crisis.
I. External vs. Internal Mediation in the Enterprise Architecture
The character of mimetic desire depends entirely on the spiritual and political distance between the Subject and the Mediator.
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ EXTERNAL VS. INTERNAL MEDIATION │ ├───────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ EXTERNAL MEDIATION │ INTERNAL MEDIATION │ │ • The Mediator sits OUTSIDE │ • The Mediator sits INSIDE the Subject's world. │ │ the Subject's world. │ • The Mediator transforms into a Model-Obstacle │ │ • No possibility of direct │ (le modèle-obstacle). │ │ rivalry or collision. │ • Generates intense envy, double binds, and conformity. │ │ • Example: Steve Jobs / Apple │ • Example: Peer CIOs, Legacy Vendors, Big-4 Consultancies.│ └───────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
1. External Mediation: The Transcendent Model
In External Mediation, the distance between the Mediator and the Subject is vast enough that their spheres of possibility do not overlap. The Mediator provides a model of desire without ever becoming a direct rival.
This was the structural position occupied by Steve Jobs. By refusing to play the B2B game—refusing to sit in procurement committees, draft Requests for Proposals (RFPs), or cater to corporate buyers—Jobs positioned himself completely outside the enterprise arena. From this transcendent vantage point, he modeled a desire aimed directly at the individual human being, offering the computer as a transparent, mind-independent “bicycle for the mind.”
When employees adopted these tools in their private lives and brought them into the office (Bring Your Own Device), they acted under external mediation. Their desire was non-rivalrous; they simply sought the unmediated agency modeled by an external figure.
2. Internal Mediation: The Enterprise Swamp
In Internal Mediation, the distance between the Subject and the Mediator collapses. The Mediator operates on the same political plane as the Subject. Because their worlds overlap, the Mediator inevitably transforms into a Model-Obstacle (le modèle-obstacle)—a figure who commands “Imitate me,” while simultaneously blocking the Subject from occupying the exact same space.
This is the native habitat of Enterprise IT:
- The Subject: The Chief Information Officer (CIO).
- The Internal Mediators: Peer CIOs at competing enterprises, legacy software monopolies (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft), and Big-4 consultancies (Accenture, Deloitte).
The Subject CIO does not evaluate the enterprise database directly. Instead, they look laterally at the rival CIO. When the rival buys a massive, monolithic platform, mimetic contagion spreads instantly. The CIO desires the platform because the mediator desires it.
The legacy vendor feeds this internal mediation by issuing the classic double command: “To be a visionary enterprise leader, you must adopt our industry-standard system; but if you fail to adopt it, your peers will surpass you and render you obsolete.”
II. The Axes of Mimetic Friction: Double Binds and the Commodity Victim
Inside the enterprise, this internal mediation generates structural paralysis across two distinct organizational axes.
HORIZONTAL AXIS (Peer Rivalry)
Peer CIO / Competitor ◄─── Mimetic Rivalry ───► Subject CIO
│
│ CFO / COO
▼ (Internal Mediation)
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
VERTICAL AXIS (Asymmetrical Trap)
Subject CIO
│
▼ (Downward Double Bind)
IT Directors / Mid-Level VPs
│
▼ (The Commodity Victim)
Front-Line End-Users / Workers
1. The Horizontal Axis: The C-Suite Double Bind
Along the horizontal axis, the CIO sits in direct internal mediation with executive peers: the CFO, COO, and CEO.
The C-Suite subjects the CIO to a double bind:
Command 1: "Imitate us! Be a strategic business leader who transforms the enterprise."
Command 2: "Do not imitate us! Do not touch our departmental workflows, budgets, or authority."
- If the CIO pursues true transformation (Option A): The CIO selects an opinionated, mind-independent platform that forces operational efficiency. The CFO and COO immediately perceive the CIO as a hostile rival invading their territory. They block implementation, refuse data integration, and transform the software into a battlefield of mimetic rivalry.
- If the CIO retreats to compliance (Option B): To avoid conflict, the CIO surrenders and purchases a mind-dependent legacy monolith. The CIO pays millions to consultants to write custom code accommodating every legacy habit of the CFO and COO. The platform collapses into an unusable $100M money pit, and the C-Suite turns on the CIO, scorning them as a low-level administrator who wasted corporate capital.
2. The Vertical Axis: The End-User as the Commodity Victim
Downward along the vertical axis, the CIO imposes an asymmetrical double bind onto the front-line workforce:
Command 1: "Be innovative, agile, and hyper-productive!"
Command 2: "Do not alter workflows, bypass controls, or operate outside the machine's protocol!"
The front-line worker is reduced to what Martin Heidegger termed standing-reserve (Bestand)—a human compiler serving the relational database tables.
If the worker strictly obeys the mind-dependent software, spending hours typing obscure transaction codes, their real output drops precipitously, and they are labeled “resistant to digital transformation.” If the worker uses consumer tools or personal Excel sheets to actually execute their tasks, they are reprimanded for security violations and bypassing the corporate paper trail. The worker is condemned if they use the tool, and condemned if they do not.
III. The Five Phases of the Sacrificial Liturgy
Because enterprise software is selected via internal mediation to satisfy executive mimetic anxiety rather than end-user utility, the software inevitably fails once deployed. As the implementation stalls, the enterprise enters what Girard termed the Sacrificial Crisis (la crise sacrificielle)—a state of chaotic, undifferentiated blame where internal rivalry threatens to tear the executive hierarchy apart.
To resolve this crisis and restore order without destroying the C-Suite, the enterprise executes the archaic Scapegoat Mechanism (le mécanisme du bouc émissaire):
1. Sacrificial Crisis ──► 2. The Sacred Liturgy ──► 3. Systemic Collapse
(Executive Panic) (500-page RFP & Big-4) (Software Breakdown)
│
▼
4. Restoration of Order ◄── 5. Expulsion of Pharmakos ◄──┘
(C-Suite Absolved) (Scapegoat Terminated)
Phase 1: Institutional Panic and Mimetic Contagion
The enterprise experiences a baseline of existential terror—fear of quarterly misses, market disruption, or being outflanked by rivals. As vendors amplify this anxiety, rational evaluation ceases, and mimetic panic overwhelms the organization.
Phase 2: The Sacred Liturgy (The RFP as Prophylactic)
To erect an administrative defense, the C-Suite engages an external priesthood: Big-4 Consultancies. They draft a 500-page RFP and select a legacy vendor under the corporate chant: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”
The True Function of the RFP: The 500-page RFP is not an engineering document. It is a paper trail of innocence. It is designed to prove that, when the sacrificial crisis arrives, the CIO followed every dictate of “The They” (Das Man).
Phase 3: Systemic Collapse and Phenomenological Breakdown
The software goes live. Engineered for compliance checklists rather than human hands, it suffers immediate phenomenological breakdown (presence-at-hand). Productivity drops, inventory desynchronizes, and costs explode. The community reaches a fever pitch of mutual accusation.
Phase 4: Identification of the Pharmakos (The Scapegoat)
The organization cannot blame the CEO, the Board, or the CIO without undermining the legitimacy of the hierarchy itself. Instead, the mimetic mob instinctively aligns against an acceptable victim—a pharmakos who can absorb the sins of the collective:
- The Third-Party System Integrator (“The implementation partner failed us”).
- A Mid-Level IT Vice President / Project Director (who is promptly terminated).
- Abstract “Legacy Technical Debt” (an inanimate victim loaded with organizational guilt).
Phase 5: Expulsion, Mythmaking, and Absolution
The pharmakos is expelled: contracts are canceled, consultants are dismissed, or executives are terminated with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The C-Suite constructs a myth—an official post-mortem report written entirely from the perspective of the persecutors—declaring that the corrupting element has been purged. Order is restored, executive bonuses are preserved, and the C-Suite is fully absolved of guilt.
IV. The Unmasked Mechanism: Pagan Liturgy Without Sacred Peace
Here lies the ultimate, apocalyptic paradox of the modern enterprise.
In the archaic world, the scapegoat mechanism was remarkably effective because the mob 100% believed in the guilt of the victim. Because the tribe genuinely believed the victim was the demonic source of the plague, slaughtering the pharmakos generated genuine, awe-inspiring, unifying peace (catharsis).
However, as Girard established in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, the Judeo-Christian revelation permanently unmasked the scapegoat mechanism. By revealing the absolute innocence of the victim (Christ), the Passion narrative destroyed humanity’s capacity to unconsciously believe in the guilt of the scapegoat.
Simultaneously, when Steve Jobs established in Consumer IT that computing can be mind-independent and transparent, he destroyed the technological myth that enterprise software must be complex and clunky.
The modern enterprise is trapped in an unforgiving reality: the tool of scapegoating remains completely intact and physically wielded, but its efficacy has been permanently destroyed.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ PATHOLOGIES OF THE UNMASKED ENTERPRISE SCAPEGOAT │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1. CHRONIC CORPORATE CYNICISM ──► Employees recognize the expulsion as a │ │ hollow performance of executive safety.│ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 2. ACCELERATED CHURN ──► Because sacrifices fail to bring peace,│ │ CIO tenures collapse to 24-36 months. │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 3. COLD ADMINISTRATIVE RUIN ──► Denied mythic sacralization, victims │ │ receive NDAs and immediate erasure. │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 4. PREVENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY ──► Employees spend 50% of their time │ │ building "Cover-Your-Ass" paper trails.│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Because everyone in the enterprise knows deep down that the fired IT Vice President or discarded System Integrator was merely an innocent proxy sacrificed to protect executive bonuses, the expulsion yields zero catharsis. Instead, it generates four distinct pathologies:
- Chronic Corporate Cynicism: Employees stop believing in transformation initiatives altogether, recognizing them as seasonal public executions.
- Accelerated Executive Churn: Because each sacrifice yields less lasting peace, the enterprise must cycle through executives at a feverish pace (average CIO tenure has collapsed to 24–36 months).
- Cold Administrative Ruin: Stripped of ancient sacralization, the modern victim receives zero mythic dignity. They receive a severance check, an NDA, and immediate deletion from company servers—pure, unreciprocated, administrative destruction.
- Preventative Bureaucracy (CYA Culture): Knowing that any innocent person can be selected as the next pharmakos, managers spend their working hours building paper trails of personal innocence—CC’ing dozens of executives, forming steering committees, and requiring audit sign-offs so no individual can be held accountable.
Conclusion: The Pagan Enterprise
Enterprise software procurement remains broken not because B2B technology is inherently complex, but because enterprise leadership prefers the sacrificial camouflage of a complex liturgy over the terrifying accountability of transparent execution.
Mind-dependent software, 500-page RFPs, and third-party consultancies are the structural pillars of a modern pagan sanctuary. They exist to absorb blame, manage internal mediation, and supply acceptable targets when strategy fails.
However, the camouflage has burned away. When Consumer IT has proved that tools can be mind-independent, and the gospel revelation has proved that the scapegoat is innocent, the enterprise is left swinging an unaltered weapon in a room fully lit by transparency.
When you strip away the clunky software, the RFP liturgies, and the sacrificial firings, nothing remains to hide behind—leaving the human strategy, organizational intent, and raw domain judgment facing the test/exam of reality.