‘New Business’ Paradigms, Part Six—Reciprocated Business:
In a distributed network, each ‘point’ on the network is equal to any other
point—information or resources may originate there and work may be processed
there as easily as at any other point. This model establishes a new way of
doing business.
Last week we introduced the idea that in this new business mode, customers
are actually part of the business in that they become ‘points’ on the network
in the same way that employees or processing sites are. The new business, in
its entirety, is a vast network of individuals that exist globally 24X7.
This new business model is what I call the "Reciprocated Business.”
Reciprocal means to give and receive mutually, or to enjoy equal rights or
benefits, especially the equal commercial rights or privileges enjoyed
mutually by two countries trading together.
In the Reciprocated Business, customers partner with the business and its
employees to create products and to vision future needs and desires. The
network facilitates an exchange: the customers’ information about how s/he
would like to use a product and the employees skill & know-how about how the
product should look, function or be delivered.
Is this vision for a new business model just marketing hype? What is the
pay-back for the customers?
The payback is quality products that more closely match customers’ real, and
individual, needs. Note the emphasis on “quality.” Reciprocated businesses
need to build on the learnings of our industrial past by creating more
efficient and environmentally-friendly use of resources; more exacting
delivery and production standards; real customer service, not lip service;
and products that create satisfaction and enhance life values for consumers,
not products that marketing reps must create a need for.
Tune in next week for more on the “Vision of the Reciprocated Business.”
