‘New Business’ Paradigms, Part Eight—Reciprocated Business:
In a Reciprocated Business, value is being added to the system in smaller
increments scattered over a vaster territory. Digital commerce is perfectly
suited for distributing a huge inventory of products to a high volume of
consumers. Because of the current competitive climate on the web, the margin
for these products is very small— the business value is delivered by the
product portal itself: the community, the traffic of online shoppers, the
array of information or products and services available, the delivery
processes, in other words. . . the system itself.
Because virtual shoppers want the best of all possible worlds—the cheapest
price, the fastest delivery and the best service—they enter into an agreement
to provide personal information in exchange for these best business
practices. (Is it a Faustian contract?) Amazon's one click shopping model has
been made possible by trusting consumers who have entered their credit card
numbers, their addresses, and their shipping preferences.
In the Reciprocated Business Model, the sophisticated online consumer becomes
part of the product development, marketing, branding, sales and delivery
system. Aol.com, eBay, amazon.com, Yahoo!—the major online shopping and
information portals listen to their customers meticulously; enlist their help
in evaluating new product lines; create sales opportunities for current
customers (amazon’s associates program was a stroke of genius); and get users
feedback about site content.
In its ideal form, the Reciprocated Business is about communications—it’s
about gathering, analyzing, evaluating and utilizing information to promote
its community of users. The reciprocated business model is a kind of Gaia: a
self-maintaining, self-organizing system based on cooperation whose purpose
is the general good and well-being of members of the system. The network or
Gaia changes shape, learns to adapt, evolves and requires that its members
evolve based on a systemic learning with the sole purpose of perpetuating its
existence as a whole structure.
But Gaia doesn’t have any personalized attachment to the individual points on
the network. Gaia comes into existence when the network flashes into being.
It has no commitment to the continued existence of amazon.com or the
well-being of any one customer.
Next week, we conclude our discussion of the Reciprocated Business Paradigm.
