Professional service supply chains

From the sub-prime mortgage backed securities meltdown to the Mediator drug scandal, from the Enron-Anderson bankruptcy to getting the Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, from child protection horror stories to finding relief for that recurring back-pain problem, complex chains of interfacing professionals are at work.  These chains evolve and adapt to subtle and brutal changes in their environment much as natural systems do (think of a virus adapting to a new vaccine).  They are complex adaptive systems capable of non-programmed, but non-random, responses to efforts aimed at bringing them under control, often making the latter counterproductive.