Organizations: The New Network

Companies are very often relatively autonomous entities that live by themselves for themselves. These same societies even tend to break down into autonomous silos, having the same mindset as society itself. However, they would greatly benefit from having a network-based operation developed, whether internally or externally within the organization.

Creating More Value in The Knowledge Economy

We are moving into what is called the knowledge economy, with knowledge that is easily accessible to a large number of people, creating lots of opportunities. At the same time, the indicators are on the red so that growth is fuelled by the traditional economy. Indeed, there is a consensus that there will be 9 billion people on earth in 2025, with the risk that the population will no longer grow beyond that. This means that growth will no longer be driven by population growth. If you are looking for growth drivers, you might as well look into the knowledge economy. And this knowledge-based economy works as a network, because communication sparks new ideas that create growth.

We will therefore have to take inspiration from what is already being done, such as :

• Scientific culture, with scientists sharing knowledge among themselves to advance science;

• Open source governance leads us to collaborate with the whole world, without distinction in the nature of the participants;

• APIs, and more particularly open APIs, allowing you to disseminate your knowledge everywhere in the world;

And obviously within organizations, with the development of collective intelligence, but also current initiatives like the digital workplace, even if these advances remain weak in ambition.

Focus on What Matters and What You Want to Do

I come back to the open source governance charge. Why do you think Netflix and Spotify deliver part of their open source code to the community? Certainly not to see competitors appear! The code they share is code that can be used and modified by everyone, and does not bring a firm added value to the core business. Providing the world with what is not strategic for you, can allow you to focus on what is your core business. This can obviously affect your code, but any general know-how you may have developed that is not strategic for your company deserves to be shared!