The future of Local Teams and Global Networks

I’ve been thinking a lot about teams and networks lately. There is nothing more unified, focussed, and driven than a functional local team. On the other end, there’s nothing more powerful and influential than a global network.

Local team = time efficiency, focus, cohesion, unity,

Global network = large talent pool, flexibility, diversity

The pros and cons continue for ages. It’s clear, that unified local teams are better at creating targeted solutions. Global networks are better at aligning a massive amount individuals to conquer a diversified set of problems.

Take Airbnb. They have a relatively small set of employees in comparison to the number of individuals they provide housing for. Their solution is relatively small and targeted: making staying at other’s homes easy through technology. They have one app, one website, one core focus.

In terms of their network, the people therein solve an infinite amount of issues: thousands of places to stay in multitudes of countries across the US. These hosts, equipped by this very simple software now have the opportunity to effect millions of people. Even Marriott with its giant portfolio of hotels world-wide has a far less global reach than Airbnb’s network.

My point is this: traditional businesses have serious limitations because they don’t leverage global networks. The global, on-demand economy is disrupting every business. If you don’t believe so, just wait. Ancient industries like car manufacturing and law-making are slowly but surely being changed from the inside out.

To do the sharing economy correctly, we must leverage a strong internal team for areas of simple solutions that equip our global networks to solve problems of magnitude.

If we don’t, we’ll either be weak and solve nothing, or we’ll be strong and solve something small. At that point, why even try?