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

by Rob Bernshteyn

So the driving community, including you and me on the road, is actually creating information that is helping the community get where we’re going faster.

As Waze puts it: “By connecting drivers to one another, we help people create local driving communities that work together to improve the quality of everyone’s daily driving. That might mean helping them avoid the frustration

The first is that you are truly getting behavior-based data and not opinions.

The second great thing is that you are getting information from every member of the community.

First, we finally have the technology that makes it possible to collect and aggregate mass amounts of data nonintrusively.

Second, the horsepower to crunch these massive data sets (and the more information we have, the more accurate the findings can be) is finally available,

And third, we are entering into a business environment where there is increased willingness among people and companies to share information, in an anonymous fashion, and collaborate.

What can flow out of a connection is collaboration, enabled by technology, of course. And collaboration, in part, makes us a community.

One reason people have privacy concerns is that they are afraid their information is going to be sold. But in this Revolution, what happens to your information is explained transparently up front—you are contributing your data to get value in exchange (i.e., insights from the broader community); nothing more, nothing less.

It’s human nature to want to feel you are at least getting as much in return as you are giving, and perhaps a bit more.

But as Christensen pointed out, it is extremely difficult for a large, successful, established company to alter the way it does things.

Also, it is extremely rare that the data generated by benchmarks allows a company to make real-time adjustments to help them compete.

If there were a willingness to share information anonymously, have it aggregated, and then have it delivered back, businesses could have information that was relevant, real time, and valuable.

Beyond benchmarking, the ability to draw on what the community knows and is willing to share—Community Intelligence—fosters two key outcomes:

Faster decision-making. If you are aware of best practices in your industry, you don’t have to waste time figuring them out on your own. You can move faster. No small feat these days.

Increased operating efficiency. That’s the logical conclusion that flows from benchmarking and faster decision-making.

Subscriptions and results-based selling (“If you don’t get the outcome/value we agreed on, you don’t pay”) will become the norm.

Wave 3. Companies will be able to offer exponential value thanks to Community Intelligence. (This is the wave we are about to enter.)

Value-as-a-Service, which is where a lot of enterprise software companies are today. Today, a software company can take their

With the subscription model, you’re still likely to be paying the same $3 million, but it will be spread out over three years—a million dollars a year for a three-year subscription, as an example.

Drawing on Community Intelligence could provide better benchmarks so that companies can improve in all areas—spending, recruiting, marketing, IT, and so on.

Companies could gain better insights into their suppliers (Part I). Who is giving the best deals? Can we consolidate our spending with fewer vendors to gain economies of scale?

Companies could gain better insights into their suppliers (Part II). An increasing number of customers will only do business with firms that are locally and ethically sourced or use sustainable materials. It will be easier to find suppliers who meet specific needs.

This is extremely important because, again, providing value will be the battleground going forward.

We will be competing on the basis of how much value we can deliver to our customer.

One of the biggest changes is the willingness of people like you and me to share information. We now live in a sharing economy.

And along with that sharing has come an increased willingness to connect and then to collaborate.

With Community Intelligence you get facts.

So, data, technology, and people are the three fundamental components that are shifting to create the proverbial perfect storm that is leading to this community concept. BUT SHOULD WE DO IT?

We live in a relative world. You need to know where you fit in. And to do that, you need to have a wider data set to compare yourself to.

A whole host of patterns are related to what drives great performances. Best practices can be leveraged by anyone when you find those patterns. But first, you have to have the information to be able to drill down and find them.

With information becoming increasingly transparent, it’s only a matter of time until someone working with information technology will find a way to start sharing information among the community for the benefit of the community.

Data and intelligence 2. Information sharing 3. Collaboration and pooling of power

That’s the first thing to understand. There is value in giving. Why? Because when you give, you have the opportunity to get.

Sharing is central to any community you can think of, social or business.

You need to choose to do it.

If you are a consumer, for example, you can benefit from sharing information about yourself, because companies will pay you for it. Really.3 They want to know more about you and will give you cash in return.

If you have all of your own data and you don’t do anything with it, how is it an asset?

People need to feel they are getting back at least as much as they are giving in order to participate.

The act of sharing needs to be completely transparent. That means people need to opt in.

the scenario around. Not every competitor will be getting this information because they are not participating in sharing their own, so you will be ahead of those who are not.

The reality is you want to share your information to get an understanding of how people are viewing your product in relation to the industry overall. These are things you want to know in real time.

Because you want to use data that has the greatest likelihood of predicting what will happen. As

So when there is a conflict, you need to look at the data and draw on your own instincts and merge those two inputs to make a decision.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS Your job as a leader in your company is to command the resources of your organization in the most opportune ways, to take advantage of market dynamics, and to allow your organization to competitively win and reap the rewards