YOU ARE THE LEADER OF YOUR OWN NETWORK

TO REPEAT OUR REFRAIN, it’s all about networks. The world has changed, and the sources and distribution of value are not the same as they were twenty years ago. These changes have unlocked the potential for enormous economic value, but, to get there, our organizations need to change.

We arrived at this spot because we started, many years ago, in a world without digital technology, without the internet, and without smartphones. During that time, we developed many best practices, operating procedures, and ideas about how businesses and organizations worked. We did the best we could with what we had. Now, with a lot more, we can do a better job of creating and capturing what is really, enduringly valuable, be it things, labor, intellect, or relationships. We just need to adopt new, network-based mental and business models.

To get from here to there, all of us must accept that the way businesses have always been organized, led, and governed is not the only way. It’s only “the way it’s always been done.” Now, remarkable digital advances and new network-based business models allow us to access the excess capacities and intangible assets that belong to each of us. Those organizations that create and orchestrate networks are benefiting from this core understanding, and will benefit well into tomorrow. And for good reason: the rewards are great.

Network orchestrators grow faster, create greater profits, scale at nearly zero cost, and earn the best multipliers from investors, who are already beginning to reallocate capital based on the business model. On top of that, the leaders, partners, and customers of network orchestrators benefit from fulfilling, mutually rewarding, and self-organizing relationships. To be a network business, organizations must do a lot of work. To achieve network value, leaders must pivot their people, processes, pricing, products, and entire mental models, entering into the network realm. When organizations spend less time making, selling, and owning, and spend more time inviting, accessing, and sharing, the outcome is different for everyone.

From the organization side, there is a new focus on accessing the initiative, ideas, creativity, and relationships of employees and customers (and this practice can extend even to investors, suppliers, distributors, and more).

From the consumer side, people enjoy increased openness and fulfillment of broader desires. Customers want to interact more deeply with their favorite brands—communicating on social media, sharing promotions, contributing to product development or advertising, and generally creating a mutual, symbiotic relationship that goes far beyond the normal money-for-products exchange.

From the investor side, less capital needs to be used, given that network organizations rely on the excess capacity of assets—including labor, knowledge, and relationships—that already exist and have been developed. The result: more growth, at lower cost, with often greater returns.

Our final message is a personal one. The transformation of your firm into a network is dependent on a transformation of the people inside the firm—and, specifically, on you. Organizational change must begin with the action of a single motivated individual—someone like you.

Recognize that your different roles or personas—spouse, parent, leader, customer, investor, owner—are intertwined and interdependent. Bring your whole self to work, and back home, each day; that is how the rest of the world will view you anyway. And then bring that same attitude to your organization. The walls are coming down, and, like it or not, you are a member of the digital network. Given that, it is the responsibility of all of us to act with kindness, openness, and mutual respect. There is no other way.

It’s time for all of our actions to reflect this reality: we are deeply intertwined with the networks that surround us, and we all have a lot to offer. Those leaders who reach out to the network with an open mind will find that they and their firms can give, and receive, more, based on the new open spaces that are created.

We wish you unprecedented success in this new world order we’re co-creating and accessing. We have all the assets we need. We only need to access them.

May the power of the network be with us all. An abundant future awaits each and every one of us. It is our hope that this book will accelerate that reality.

For more information about creating network value, join the movement at openmatters.com.