The requirement of sustainability in the above definition of competence encompasses both forms of dynamics. To be sustainable, a competence must respond to the dynamics of the external environment by enabling an organization to maintain its ability to create value in the marketplace even as changes take place in market preferences and available technologies. Sustainability also requires overcoming internal organizational dynamics that result in various forms of organizational entropy, such as a gradual loss of organizational focus, a narrowing and increasing rigidity in the patterns of activity the organization can or does perform, a progressive lowering of organizational expectations for performance and success, and the like. The notion of organizational entropy reflects the concept of entropy in the laws of thermodynamics. The essential feature of the law of entropy is that systems naturally tend to devolve to lower states of energy, which takes the form of a loss of structure and information content. Ongoing inputs of energy are required simply to maintain a system in its current state of structure and information. Further inputs of energy are then required to increase the structure and information content of a system. Analogously, in organizations as systems, managers must provide continuous inputs of energy and attention to maintain or improve the order and structure in an organization's value-creation processes.