Factory is over.
Not only according to Seth in Linchpin; also according to Chris Anderson in Wired (watch their video, too), and other visionaries. If you read this excerpt, take a view around you. What does it mean in your universe?
Now, working within a company often imposes higher transaction costs than running a project online. Why turn to the person who happens to be in the next cubicle when it’s just as easy to turn to an online community member from a global marketplace of talent? Companies are full of bureaucracy, procedures, and approval processes, a structure designed to defend the integrity of the organization. Communities form around shared interests and needs and have no more process than they require. The community exists for the project, not to support the company in which the project resides.
Thus the new industrial organizational model. It’s built around small pieces, loosely joined. Companies are small, virtual, and informal. Most participants are not employees. They form and re-form on the fly, driven by ability and need rather than affiliation and obligation. It doesn’t matter who the best people work for; if the project is interesting enough, the best people will find it.
Hat tip to Alex Osterwalder for spotting this and sharing via twitter.
This hit me like a virtual wall of bricks without mortar, tumbling town when tapped. A few business models around me need rapid correction. I know who to talk to. Hackerspaces show the way.
What story would you tell to get the shiny purple point across?
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