Transformation and the Network Economy
By: Jayden Stewart
We get asked one question here a lot at TribalScale, and that is why are we so willing to hand over the secrets of our success in transformation engagements?
It’s true that our biggest assets are our people and our processes. And it’s also true that we use these things to their fullest potential in transformations, where we embed ourselves within our client’s organization and teach them to use Agile methodologies, and empower them to develop high-quality software independently.
But it’s not true that sharing our biggest assets with others weakens us in the long run, in fact, the opposite is the case, and I’ll tell you why.
In the past, it was possible, and the norm, for enterprises to create value entirely within themselves: New products and new ideas could be created by the people, processes, and property of one organization, and ownership and revenue would reflect this.
In the internet age, this is no longer the case. The dramatic rise in the number of connected devices has created an equally dramatic reduction in costs for gathering and sharing information; and the more easily information can be shared, the more pressure there is to do so.
The new possibilities for collecting information have allowed consumers to make their preferences known like never before, opening up new choices and therefore new spaces for companies to compete. This has driven power away from producers and into the hands of consumers.
The result is that organizations must now share information in order to remain competitive. New market forces have compelled companies to collaborate and the spread of networks, both collaborative networks and the networks of connected devices that power them, has been truly global.
These networks add an immense amount of value to our economy as the products and services that are created through them are far better than what any one company could achieve on its own.
This is known as the ‘network economy.’
Forbes’ Greg Satell put it this way:
“The reality that we need to grapple with now is that competitive advantage is no longer the sum of all efficiencies but the sum of all connections. To win in today’s connected economy, you need to deepen and widen networks.”
When we conduct transformation engagements, we arm enterprises with the skills, tools, and processes needed to build modern, user-centric, cloud-based software; but just as importantly, we help build a network of smart, creative people who are empowered to build better products for end-users.
We can’t speak for any other companies out there, but we think the movement of power from businesses to users is a great thing. It means that the economy is moving towards a function of improving lives, rather than filling pockets, and that we as people get to work on projects that add value to people’s lives.
It also means that as we expand our network through transformation engagements, through every engagement in fact, we grow our ability to create meaningful digital experiences. We couldn’t be more excited to keep doing exactly that.
Jayden Stewart is TribalScale’s Proposal Writer from Melbourne, Australia. He can correctly identify 168 countries on a map, loves a cheeky pint, and knows the difference between ‘between’ and ‘among’.
