2008 October 09

Is the end of capitalism near & new ways of value exchange emerging?

Like you probably are, I’m trying to fathom the depth of the global financial crisis and ultimately what it means for my family and I. Unless you are a hedge fund manager who successfully shorted companies and are now sitting on a pile of cash, you probably are worried and fearful too.

We’ll eventually get out of this mess, but it’s brought to the forefront something I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time: that peer-to-peer production (think Wikipedia, crowdsourcing, et al) is fundamentally changing how we create and exchange value in the world.

Huh? Isn’t that socialism or at least communism Borsch? No, I don’t think so and many others don’t either. In many discussions with people much smarter than me (with advanced degrees in economics or folks like Peter Drucker who wrote Post Capitalist Society in the early 1990′s), I’m pleased and a bit surprised that more of them also recognize that we are right-smack-dab in the middle of a shift in value creation, distribution of value, and the beginnings of the end of scarcity.

First an anecdote: on a Star Trek Next Generation episode, the Enterprise comes across a ship with most people dead, but there are three survivors in suspended animation. They awaken these three who’ve been like this for 300 years. The woman in the group is stunned and sad she’ll never see her son again, but the Enterprise crew has discovered his descendants. One guy was a country singer who gets Picard to use the replicator and get him a famous Gibson guitar. The last guy is SO EXCITED at the prospect of getting back to Earth so he can see how compounding has worked on his investments. "I’ll be extremely wealthy," he cries out.

This brings to a head something about Picard’s century and material value. Picard tries to get him to understand that "there is no more ‘want’ in the world" since they can make anything instantly and money is no longer an exchange of value (though it’s never exactly clear how economics work in their time and how people are incented and motivated). This guy finally realizes that he is going to have to adapt to a world and time where anything material can be created at the touch of a button, and he’ll have to find other motivators.

Aren’t we there in some ways right now?

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“Collaboration Now!” on CNBC Oct. 12th

When a topic is worthy of a television show, you know it’s hit the mainstream of business consciousness and is one you should sit up and take notice of right away.

Collaboration Now! is a new show on the business channel, CNBC, hosted by Donny Deutsch. This is a successful advertising guy I’ve come to admire through one of the most positive, uplifting and motivating entrepreneurial shows on television he hosts, The Big Idea, and this new show looks to be just as instructive, informative and intriguing.

Here’s the premise:

Collaboration is essential to compete in the global arena. In order to stay ahead of the curve, organizations need to redefine the rules of collaboration, build trust in new ways, collaborate in virtual environments and partner with those who help make it happen.

Find out how Boeing’s global partners are building the airplanes of the future, Cisco is helping companies collaborate from remote locations in real time and how NFTRA is working together to enhance trade, not restrict it.

Does your collaboration have the right ingredients to succeed?

With upcoming shows about collaborating in human resources, social responsibility, the future of tools, technologies and approaches, Collaboration Now! will undoubtedly be one that you will want to set to record on your DVR like I did last evening.

In my talks, attending conferences and interacting with my client executives, there seems to be a surprising leadership reluctance to focus resources on collaboration (or, by extension, any crowdsourcing initiatives) and too strong a need to have teams create elaborate business and use-cases in order to justify collaboration software or services within a company.

Sadly in this time of high oil prices, collapsing financial markets and a near capital lending freeze — all making collaboration software, services and training more imperative and yet tougher to invest in and move forward on — there seems to be a new openness to embrace it as the recognition sinks in that we’re living in a time of the greatest shift in human connection ever and finding ways to collaborate with one another is already a critical success factor.

If nothing else this show will certainly provide strong evidence — and do it with well produced, slick and entertaining segments — that you can use to help justify having collaboration be a much higher priority and worthy of investment.

If you’re a leader in your company, an entrepreneur delivering any kind of web applications or social media, or just a frustrated functional area leader who sees the need for more impactful collaboration, then you’ll certainly absorb some key ideas from the topics they cover and the guests they invite on.