Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

by Andrew McAfee

In addition to egalitarianism, and often in support of it, second-machine-age companies have high levels of transparency: they share more information more widely than has been typical. Wall Street Journal technology columnist Christopher Mims points out that information transparency and a flat, fast, evidence-based management style are highly complementary. As he puts it, “What makes this relatively flat hierarchy possible is that front-line workers have essentially unlimited access to data that used to be difficult to obtain, or required more senior managers to interpret.” Mims summarizes that the combination of egalitarianism and transparency “isn’t the end of middle management, but it is an evolution. Every company I talked to had middle and even senior managers who operated as player-coaches, tasked with both doing things and directing others.”