one other point adrian – “business” itself is contested terrain – not just the holder of rituals, values, mission, etc. it’s a meaning making enterprise itself. from the 3 martini lunch to the watercooler to the coffee break – all “industrial business” rituals that tried to get access, coalition building, mutual support,etc – in their own historically specific, masculinist way.

oh yeah – great post & the usual stimulating thinking. thanks!

As far as ROI goes, there are lots of studies which all say different things – ROI is hard to generalise across different media and different marketing objectives I think.

However, I do think people are re-thinking what’s inside the business and what’s not. I know we talk about this all the time.

@Ross Gatekeepers is a very valuable add! You are absolutely right. Old business is about preventing the smooth flow of information, capital, goods or whatever and New business is about providing open access. Thanks!

I would add two things to your comparative list. In the left column, I’d add “gatekeepers” to reflect that in most industries gatekeepers sprung up to keep competition at bay. Record labels in the music industry and major media in the newspaper industry are two examples. And in the right column, I’d add “level playing field”.

Today, bloggers, simply through their talents and well-written articles, are showing a staying power and reach that was unexpected only a few years ago. Open source developers are putting a great hurt on established corporations. And talented creatives from around the world are challenging the status quo in the design industry. The internet and technology has enabled such groups and there’s no turning back. And you are absolutely correct that there are huge opportunities.

And all of these industries have at least two things in common. First – they’ve all reacted the same way to the challenges – by rejecting the notion that anyone could or should change their decades old practices. Second – they’ve all come to realize (perhaps too late for some), that they are complaining in an echo chamber and that businesses and consumers aren’t listening. People want free markets and opportunities – and the gatekeepers can no longer sustain the old ways of doing business.

This fall, my business partner and I presented a talk on this subject. If you’re interested, you can view the video here: http://blog.crowdspring.com/2009/01/12/beware-the-underdog/

I’m particularly curious about the above’s implication to fundamental re-orging (or disaggregation) of business from a staffing perspective. Consider the industrial age notion “you must be on the assembly line to make the widgets” mentality? How much does this really apply in a connected world, particularly in a service economy? You’d think that people resources, how business considers FTO hires vs a kind of “molecular” staffing could move to customized solutions that are much more flexible. Not to say that that everyone will be a freelancer, or office space etc will go away tomorrow but from my view of the world at the moment it’s entirely possible for things to dramitically shift in that direction (particularly for marketing and advertising).

the fundamental infrastructure to make this happen is all around us.. from Oracle’s ventures into video applications, crowdsourcing,auction project markets like elance and crowdspring, discussions of connecting business intelligence and metadata into non-linear databases on the web (see TED talks) as well as what I’m guessing to be part of the vision of the Peter Kim..Jeff Dachis “social computing” venture. the infrastructure to break down hierarchical business structures is flattening much like communication, media and product/service distribution already has.

point being is that the industrial age business assumptions dont only break down at the business and marketing level.. but they flip over to the staffing, “career” and employment side of things as well.

I think this could hit marketing first. imagine a situation where marketing work is ad-hoc yet somewhat instantaneous in nature to initiate. you’ll have molecular organizations that combine and detach frequently to solve problems. And technology will facilitate the collaboration, pricing and payment of this work.

Some would see this as pretty strenuous and scary for marketing and creative people. “Commodization” is what you hear from many, particularly design folks. But I think the opposite, it’s liberating. You pick the best work, you land the deals and individuals build careers the are multifaceted, dynamic, constantly changing. That sounds pretty cool to me.

Hopefully we won’t be working in home pods and eating oatmeal from a tube, but otherwise I’m in.

I’m sure you’ve read Umair Haque at Harvard Business. He has several posts recently on the economy of the future based on rewriting the rules and reconsidering the valuation and concept of resources.

Thanks for keeping me intrigued.

Jake

my initial response, however, was the matrix and something to do with the kid who got videotaped after the dentist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs&eurl=http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/02/is_this_real_life.php&feature=player_embedded