Smarter Together: How Communities Are Shaping the Next Revolution in Business

by Rob Bernshteyn

Driving value today requires information. Lots and lots of information. Most of us are becoming good at distilling the data within our own companies, but that's not enough if we want a competitive advantage. In Smarter Together, Coupa Software CEO Rob Bernshteyn explains how we will soon be able to draw upon the intelligence of the community collectively what we, and the organizations we work for, know to benefit the community, our companies, and ourselves.   For example, we'll easily
·         Real-time best practices for virtually every element of our business.
·         The best way to offer our products and services.
·         Who delivers exactly what they say they will, on time, with the best price, quality and reliability.   As Bernshteyn explains, the prescriptive insights gleaned from the massive amount of community data available worldwide will transform entire industries and break down long-standing barriers to value. All of us will grow smarter together. Commerce will never be the same again.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Ebooks

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2020

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic -- the author is correct that we're finally at the starting point of being able to reap the rewards of community intelligence (because we now have the technology available to capture and process it in a timely manner). However, I'm left with a lot of questions:
• Where does the element of chance or trying something new fall into the community intelligence framework?
• How will reliance on community intelligence not turn everything into the least common denominator?
• How will new artists/interests ever become discoverable if all actions are based on recommendations that are based on previous actions?

I received a free copy of this book from a GoodReads giveaway.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I work with communities and reading this book has made me look at data and sharing of data in a new light. It goes beyond numbers and influence and more towards how collaboration can increase power or better yet kind of pool it for greater good, hence creating that win-win situation.

This is a very handy book to read and have and more so get an organization and team working objectively. I loved it.

Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[Adriyana Grotseva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in a simple, understandable way, the book is talking about the pros of big data. It doesn’t give much real examples but mainly made up ones. I would recommend the book for people who have no clue about big data/ data being collected from people and their activities (in the book they call it “community power”), and are skeptical of implementing it in their businesses. Of course at the end of the book the author pitches his own company and its services. Though no solid evidence for their findings/ index was provided. But for me I didn’t learn anything new from the book. Also the book doesn’t review many good and controversial questions on power of big data (eg being fed the same information and not having a chance to discover something new, least common denominator, ways and security of information - author says just share what is not traceable to you but that is very simplistic and doesn’t work that way, and other questions). The main points from the book for me:

3 key components of “community power”/ big data: data and intelligence, information sharing and collaboration/ pooling of power.
Without information you can rationalize anything away. With information you can avoid blind spots.
Subscriptions and results-based selling will become the norm. All companies will go through 3 phases/ waves of commerce: 1) they simply offer a product or service 2) they provide value as a service 3) they offer exponential value thanks to community intelligence.
4 ways community intelligence can help your company operate more efficiently:
1. Benchmarking - objectively evaluate how well you are doing compared to others in the industry.
2. Best practices - you always want to know how the best do it.
3. Improving IT.
4. Controlling business spending.
When you get community intelligence, you need to consider it in the context of understanding, eg your company’s culture, goals, your own vision of your profession in general and your job in particular, and all of these together create value. See the data from different angles/ views. It only enables you to work more efficiently and effectively.
You should be open to share any data, that is not proprietary or competitive advantage, as long as the benefit you receive is greater than the cost of providing it.
Interpretation and action upon your interpretation of the data is on you.
When math is simple and repetitive, we outsource it, eg to calculators, so we can spend more time concentrating on what the numbers mean. People strive to make their lives easier, especially for repetitive and rudimentary tasks. But then they are freed to do higher level work.
COUPA business spend index BSI - how much companies are spending on employees, what %age of those are approved, and how long it takes to approve or reject that request. According to the author, these 3 factors give us much more visibility in the future for forecasting (generalized): how much we are spending, how quickly we approve the spending (time to approve a request), and whether things are rejected along the way (average rate of spent rejection/ approval).

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole book is a case study of why we should adopt community intelligence sharing of data and research across industries. Siting apps like Waze and narrowing down preferences based on previous choices like Netflix can do.
"The power has shifted from the sellers to the buyers, and it will never shift back. As information becomes more and more transparent, those with the money to spend will have more and more power." I won this book through the Goodreads giveaway.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this in the giveaway. Really looked forward to this book and so excited to read it. This is not a one time read. A wonderful BIG picture concept of where we are going with the next revolution on communities of people in Business. I wish that data used to make this happen will become more open, especially in the fields of science, health and education. That is where society as a whole in my opinion can benefit the most.

[txncupcake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in the giveaway section. It is a very informative book regarding how businesses should utilize Community Intelligence. Interpreting data would allow businesses to make sound decisions and adjust areas of concern. Plus, the businesses would be able to provide stellar service to consumers based on data.

[Brianna Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book as a giveaway. I thought the whole concept was pretty realistic in terms of how big data can be used to inform decisions at many different levels in many applications. The book is a few years old and I feel like some of the concepts are already well in action.

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 1 out of 5]

it's not you, it's me, i hate business