In today’s world there is almost no need for journalists, and no need for ink on paper. This is not to say ink and paper will go away - they won't. They are great comforts, like junk food, or mom's cooking. No matter how bad it is for us, - there is something satisfying about a burger, a big fat piece of home-made chocolate cake. We'll eat it, just in moderation. And then we'll go exercise, or eat better for the rest of the week.
Today, the equivalent in information is the internet, allowing us to surpass ink and paper, and the old methods that controlled the flow of information. Even if you run an ad in a beautiful magazine, or a place a newspaper announcement about a foreclosure of a real estate project, your information, and all it will touch, will end up with a web search. Information "off-line", drives more presence on-line due to the "conversation marketing" of today. This conversation is known as Twitter, Facebook, linked in and Blogging. It’s the organic spread of information; person to person, through multiple channels – unrestricted and free.
We live in a re-shaped information age. It is a self-discovery market; things that we think about will lead us online. Something we see in passing or hear in passing, on the web or off, will lead us to a discovery on the internet. If it is on our mind, we can now track down and find almost any information we want, and better yet, we all do this now as second nature. Awareness of information is at the most raw level of our consciousness today. Have you ever bought a car, or thought about buying a car, and noticed, all of a sudden, how many are on the road? Did they produce more of that model car because you decided that was the one you were interested in? Of course not. Awareness took care of your recognition of the cars, their colors and numbers. They were always there before. The difference is you had entered the self-discovery paradigm - a place where you were completely oblivious to the existence of information, until it became relevant to you.
The self-discovery paradigm and the conversation marketing of today have created a “word of mouth for the web” that redistributes power from the media titans and put it in the hands of the people. This has not only begun to occur, it has accelerated as an unstoppable wave of human connections. A paradigm shift of people who form the core of business understanding has occurred: intuitive entrepreneurs and business people who understand the new “word of mouth” system know they must have access to this rapid transmission of information because an information distribution shift has taken hold.
How can we manage ourselves in this new world? How can we use that knowledge and power that we all have now so we might gain in this process? How can we get connected, stay connected and enter our Connected Market Space? The Connected Market Space is a bubble of information, word of mouth and self discovery that inevitably will encircle our lives, our businesses and our brain waves. That is what being Connected means. Being responsibly Connected – creating a space were accurate information flows between all parties informing all decisions - rests in our hands as individuals and organizations.
Today, the internet resembles a city suffering from "urban sprawl" - a sprawl that continues to clutter the view of searchers and surfers. It is a traffic pattern that is gridlocked - blocking the reach for accurate and real information. In the Connected Market Space companies and people will both create and contain the sprawl. It is clear to me that we will see connections through communities that evolve into vertical sky-scrappers of technologically efficient structures, information and delivery systems within industry sectors. The thirst for a single point of contact: one that can filter, report and provide true and accurate communication, information, and enable transactions, overcome the uncertainty, the crowds, the complexity of the "results" of this sprawl of information - will begin to provide trusted, connected communities. It will be like a strong neighborhood, served by local businesses in a vertically connected global world. My team and I believe every important decision that affects lives and livelihoods, deserves a Connected Market Space with an organic Triple Bottom Line for people, presence and profits on all sides of the transaction - the buyers, the sellers and the facilitators.
For better or for worse, it has been proven over and over again in the last two years that everything and everyone in the world is connected.
Of course, we are all connected in the online ecosystem, plugged into each other with social networking sites, search engines and blogs. The unprecedented scale at which we freely share information about ourselves has given rise to a new concern – are we are too connected? Do we really want people to know all about everything we’re doing all the time? We are connected economically, as we all learned too well during the economic meltdown. Seemingly unimportant defaulting mortgages in the US began piling up, and all at once, people began to realize the bad debt had crept into the whole system like a cancer - weakening the entire global economy; causing job losses from Detroit to Denmark. The environment connects us all – the volcano in Iceland reminded us of that too – one tiny place disrupted the whole world – stopping people, goods and money from making the journeys we’ve come to rely on for our survival.
Almost everyone now recognizes that the world is now, and forever Connected in an economic, environmental and social ecosystem. Then again, many of the corporations, regulators and businesses of the world, small and large… but mostly large, already knew this. Some of them abused the ecosystem for wealth and gain at the expense of everyone else. These companies and individuals – the Goldman Sachs, the Bernie Madoffs of the world - have been decidedly internally, individually motivated. They used the forces of regulations, legal manipulations and governments to create their profits -while the rest of the world was the unaware participant – duped into helping, and then left to clean up the mess.
To be blunt, this stinks! Nobody likes to be tricked, but the recent chaos has a bright side – people now understand that we have to overcome a crisis. We understand, at our roots, we have to build a solution. We have to reclaim our connected ecosystem and make it our own. We have to use the interconnected nature of the world and turn it into a tool to help all of us, not just a select few. We have shape the connected ecosystem into a Connected Market Space.
A business today, in any sector, exists for the purpose of rapid response – transmitting candid, accurate information to all sides - not just inside the organization. This is more commonly known as the triple bottom line - people, planet, profit, or the "three pillars". The triple bottom line is about being truly, a custodian of this planet - a business seeking to profit, should be finding positive connections and fulfilling a purpose. If you are in any kind of business you will affect other people – so the responsible and smart thing to do is to connect to the world in a positive way.
It’s not hard create a Connected Market Space and use the ecosystem for good. The Connected Market Space is, at its meaning, the connection of any enterprise, to any market, with accurate, open and honest information. How do you know you’re really connected? It’s not just about advertising and using Twitter – it’s about making meaningful connections that make the world a better, more useful place. When is a business using its power for good? A business in the Connected Market Space demonstrates that: Clients and business know more about each other
- Clients and business can trust each other
- Each party has accurate information
- Everyone can carry on a conversation
- Everyone can complete a transaction safely
When you’re connected responsibly, positively and fulfill a purpose, no matter what you do, you’re using the power of the Connected Market Space.
Posted by: tim in travel, tim, reflection, business on
Sep , 2009
In the last three weeks I've covered the ground from West to East accross Europe - on the hunt for depressed economic conditions. They seem to be more rare than the sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. From London to Paris to Budapest - Picadilly to the Champs Elysees - and East to Andrássy Avenue in Budapest - the crowds fill shop floors and businss workers I've spoken with say "...business is good..."
What struck me was the numbers of people traveling and buying. The other thing that was apparent is whether you're used to walking down (or shopping - not my favorite pass time - but I do like to walk in and see the business models) New York's 5th Avenue or Robson Street in Vancouver, the main stay stores are all broadly distributed accross these European Cities.
