‘New Business’ Paradigms, Part Nine— Reciprocated Business™:
Networks, personal computers, and digital technology are perfectly suited for
distributing a huge inventory of products to a high volume of consumers at
the lowest possible cost. Web price wars will be brutal and the
undercapitalized businesses will fall in droves until only the most savvy and
robust portal and web-community winners are left standing.
Then we’ll see the true colors of the Reciprocated Business™ model. Can it
meet the expectations touted by CEOs like Jeff Bezos? Is it possible to build
a community around a ‘selling proposition?’
In his latest book, REAL TIME (Harvard Business School Press; 204, pages,
$12.95 paperback), Regis McKenna (www.mckenna-group.com/publications.html) talks about the phenomenon of internet marketing in terms that support my view of the Reciprocated Business™. He says, “Marketing is real time dialogue, always asking customers
what they want, how they want it, when they want to get it. In turn, the
customers, when they come to the website, always feel welcomed, engaged and
revitalized
by the process.”
That is the exchange and the potential promise that the Reciprocated
Business™ model holds, but will it be manifested in the real world? Only
internet time will tell.
We’ll return to further discussions of this concept in the weeks to come.
Stay tuned next week for some tips on Management.
