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Six degrees of separation

Posted by Henry on October 21, 2004

In Reply to: As due to..... posted by Leslie on October 21, 2004

: Hi,

: I read an article from Design Management Review. There's a sentence I found very confusing. Could anyone here kindly help me out? Could you please phrase the whole sentence in a simpler way? especially the 'as due to rationalization......reducing risk' part and 'by some six degrees ' part. Thank you very much for your help.
: "Its [Strategic Initiatives Group] mere existence could be interpreted by some business analysts as due to the rationalization of innovation investments that comes as industries mature and become more competent at reducing risk. This is often done by 'unbundling' the corporation--of separating, sometimes by just six degrees, from the company's normal operations the generally higher-risk business of innovation that sets out to achieve sustained high growth by finding gaps, incongruities, and opportunities in the marketplace."

There is a theory that any two individuals are separated by no more than six acquaintances, the 'six degrees of separation' theory. I don't know how this accords with the phrase 'by just six degrees'. According to the theory, the maximum degree of separation is six degrees.