Open & Free Business Model
Do You Have Business Faith?
There it is…. the question, do you have business faith? That question leads me to the very core of your fear, the fear of what it means to be Open & Free. It ultimately means, you must trust the people formerly known as consumers. How do you do that, how do you trust people you may never know on a personal level? And what does faith mean to you?
Faith is described in the dictionary, as taken from http://dictionary.reference.com:
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology . the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.
The best description of faith (to me) is taken from the Bible: Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
I like that statement on faith for primarily one thing, it means we believe that something good is coming, something good will happen, and we want to hang on to that notion because it actually is a driving force within us.
If you didn’t have faith, why are you in business? You are in the business your in because you have hope, faith for a result better than what you have now. The Open & Free Business Model practices just that, it forces you the business owner to trust people, to have faith not only in them, but in yourself. We have a desired outcome in most everything we do, but we can’t see it physically, we do however see it as a vision, maybe what you might call a dream. My good friend Rick Rake is a dreamer, and he practices dreaming (see his Blog), he can see a better world, a better way, and a better place to be in life, and in business. He says, don’t stop dreaming! I love it, he is always forward thinking. To me, I think, the dream never dies, just the dreamer.
Business faith needs to happen on many levels, you have to risk on those levels, only you can decide what that might be. I encourage you to look deep inside and try to identify what fear is preventing you from having business faith, what is stopping you from trusting people to actually use your product/service. I would suggest to you that fear is root in a lie. Why? Because people are creatures of habit, you already know what they’re going to do and what risk they will take. It’s a calculate risk on your part! You also know, in the future (the next 3 -5 years), those very people will not be forced to do what the business world at large does today, it forces people to pay before getting any value. That’s the old model of business faith, you pay first, then they have faith.
The Open & Free Business Model requires that you have true business faith, that you have confidence in your product or service, that you would even dare to give some of those products and services away for free. This kind of business faith takes a longer span of time to see the results you have hope for, but in the long run, you will get followers of your business, you will get the attention of enough people, that will crystallize what it means to have business faith. Having an Open & Free Business Model = Business Faith.
Are you sure of what you hope for? Are you certain of what you can not see?
If you want to learn more about the Open & Free Business Model, and you live in my area, contact me to attend one of my workshops by e-mailing me at: workshop@owengreaves.com
Paywalls Have Their Place
There has been so much talk about paywalls in the Newspaper industry lately, for the most part they aren’t needed there, but they do have there place in that industry. The issue of paywalls today is not about money, it’s more about control, or the fact of that industry is losing what control it felt it had over you & I.
I preach an Open & Free Business Model, this model does have paywalls, and they are well throughout in placement. As I have said before, Open & Free does not always mean Open & Free.
I would suggest that industries that are trying to maintain control by forcing users to pay first, they consider better less friction type mechanisms. The paywall isn’t going away, it is however going to feel like you’re not paying because it will be seamless in your interaction with that product or service.
Rupert Murdoch is a man born & raised at the beginning of the industrial age, he’s 79 years old, and we shouldn’t be shocked at his narrow view of how newspapers should function on the Internet. It’s not his fault really, he has been conditioned into believing something that is no longer true. The Independent website released an article called, “Has Rupert Murdoch’s paywall gamble paid off?”, yesterday. It’s very well written, and it raises the question again about paywalls and the stand many are taking. Rupert is almost viewed as a criminal for his stand on paywalls, and I don’t see him backing down any time soon. The move to prevent content from being found through search engines has to be suicide. This is not the kind of attention he should want to have, it’s negative, and it eventually will not make money.
Two months ago, he had paywalls erected on The Times & The Sunday Times, which prevents search engines from accessing that content. One of the first things to happen, traffic to the site dropped through the floor. You & I both know that traffic is paramount for any website trying to make a buck. Rupert’s primary concern appears to be about muscle, he stated that newspapers will have less muscle in Internet advertising campaigns than they do in print. That statement alone screams control over what you & I can have access to, and he wants to force you & I to pay for his control. But is it control he wants, or is it meta-data? It is suggested this paywall move is more about gathering consumer information than selling content, what do you think?
In the new business environment of the future, being open & free will bring about better results than Rupert Murdoch is suggesting. There are countless number’s of sites using paywalls, and there even more moving to a open & free business model, and having great success. As I have said before, Open & Free is not a skill set, it’s a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking, a new way of doing business.
The best paywall, one that doesn’t make you work hard to make payment, one that is seamless, and one that doesn’t give you that uneasy feeling of throwing your money away. One of the biggest concerns about open & free, it will raise the level of bad content, that’s going to happen anyway when the other 3 Billion get here online, so get over it.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Traditional Business Is Still In Denial
Here it is, September 1st, 2010 and two things jumped out at me this morning after reading some business news. Newspapers still think they have something solid going, and Mall’s are still being touted as a good investment. With all the evidence that traditional business is failing in most sectors, those incredibly smart people are making critical errors in judgement.
Yesterday, a company called POSTMEDIA/Network announced that they have a new logo. Now it’s not the logo that has me scratching my head this morning. Former President of Roger’s Paul Godfrey is the President & CEO of Postmedia Network, this group’s list of brands should make you wonder why they continue down the futile path of print. Considering that Newspapers are dropping like flies these days, the predicting doom of book stores and other outbound media, why would you or anyone else invest in this venture? Not one but 11 brands under the Postmedia Network umbrella, all newspapers! They handle the National Post, Times Colonists, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Leader-Post, The StarPheonix, Ottawa Citizen, The Windsor Star and The Gazzette. These are probably the most read newspapers in Canada, and are also failing.
You can find Canadian Newspapers listed in iPad, you can’t read them, the list is of their websites you have to go visit, this will have to change if they want to survive. Newspapers should scrambling to make as many mobile apps as possible, build other ways of generating revenue. The online ad market is staggeringly huge, but for some reason print & TV are merely poking a stick at it. They will all but be forgotten when the other 3 billion people come online in the next 2 -3 years.
Another confusing move this morning, I was actually surprised how I responded when I read that a Mall in Surrey, B.C., Canada was sold for $91 Million, that’s cheap by today’s standards but it still sold. But a mall? Granted this mall is anchored by some heavy weights, SAVE-ON FOODS, Canadian Tire, Staples, Winners, HomeSense, Cactus Club and HSBC, plus 26 other businesses. Back in the 70’s & 80’s, he who owned the channel of distribution, had a secure future, would never be in danger of being out of business. Now, we still need some box stores, we will need warehouses, forklift drivers and so on. But you can also see where most of these mall businesses will either be 100% online or gone.
So the questions begs to be asked, why would you buy a mall? The investment of the land? Maybe. The longevity of these businesses remaining long time anchors in a mall? Maybe, but I doubt it.
These moves in of themselves are not life threatening or even bad for that matter by today’s standards, but in the next 3 – 5 years, I suspect they will be asking themselves what they were thinking.
Consider these two small movements today, and I quote, profits in Canada’s non-residential construction sector will fall to a five-year low this year, that’s according to a report by the Conference Board of Canada. Pre-tax profits for this year in this sector will be 1.2 billion, down from $1.4 billion in 2009, and will not recover to pre-recession levels until 2014, at it’s earliest, it’s survey forecast. If at all I wonder.
In Washington there is more bank demise, the number of problem-ridden US banks rose to the hihest levels in 17 years, just in the second quarter! The number of institutions on its “problem list” rose more than 7 percent in the second quarter.
Traditional business is still in denial, they keep doing business as usual thinking everything will turn out alright. Really? Do you really think things aren’t changing, do you really believe that a global population who screams to be heard, to be served the way they want to be served, they want it to be almost free or extremely low cost, they want it in an Open & Free Business Model. Today’s public will look until they find it the way they want it, no longer can you force people to do it your way big business, you best pay attention, because if you won’t, someone will pay attention and take your business. Wake Up!
On a positive note, today the Bank of Canada interest rate hike has been delayed : )
Lessons From Fashion's Free Culture – Open & Free!
I love it when I find evidence that Copyright Protection doesn’t generate the same kind of revenue that an Open & Free Business Model does, it puts a smile on my face. No it’s not perfect, but neither is Copyright Protected sectors, they are failing miserably in this new open business model, they are trying to function within it and still can’t figure out what to do. Why? They are trying to use old industrial age thinking on a model that doesn’t require alot of control. Some control yes, but not nearly enough to keep everyone comfortable.
Companies that practice or use the big C (Copyright) are struggling to function in the New Open Marketplace, where FREE is almost impossible to compete with, so don’t compete! There are many, many sectors that do not qualify for Copyright Protection, and they generate more revenues than most with Copyright Protection. Copyright is about one thing and one thing only, control! I’m generalizing of course, but that’s the core motive when you strip all away.
Here is a TED Talk that is very interesting, with much to think about, food for thought.
Johanna Blakely: Lessons from fashion’s free culture.
Cloud Computing & The Power Of One
The world of business is struggling to re-invent itself, the comfort zone of executives paralyzing corporations everywhere is coming to a point of no return. With the shift from baby Boomers to Zoomers, the business handbook is about to be thrown out the window and rewritten by these fine young business cannibals. They will cannibalize the very business models that succeeded the last 100 years, only to be thrown out or completely rewritten. The Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y generations are doubling over in pain from the paradigm that is taking place. We are moving to Cloud Computing & The Power of One.
Ten years ago I shared at a conference, that one day Microsoft would have you save your documents on their servers, today we have Microsoft Office in a web based format, and you are saving your documents out there on the Cloud. Now I had no idea what it would look like, but it was predictable. Google Doc’s has you doing the same, not too mention all the other tools you use for free at Google. Google has us, just like Neo in the movie the Matrix. We just can’t help but use Google’s FREE tools, search, Google Earth, Google Maps and so on. Google has figured out how to get our attention, they came to us, they made themselves available to us 24/7, and they did it without making us spend a dime. The Cloud is here and it’s going to get better, stronger and safer. Think about the power you now have because of Google, they have shown you how to take control, they have shown you your true power without telling you.
We have also moved into a new generation of entrepreneurs, we the people are getting the power back again, back from those who have kept us in a fragmented state. The Power of One is unparalleled here on the Internet today, and it’s just beginning. Social Media for some reason woke the world up, and yet, being Social is not new. We’ve been doing it for centuries, it’s just different now, it’s been transform into a digital realm. We are now driven indoors, we can do things today we couldn’t do before, and no each one of us has power we didn’t have before. The challenge with that power, we’re still not sure what to do with it. Sure, some individuals are making good use of this power, but for the most part, the world still doesn’t know they have it. This Power of One.
When speaking or doing workshops, people are so confused by the power they have in their hands, and when you share a few things they have the power to do, they say they don’t know how. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility, it could be that is the underlying fear that immobilizes people. The power of converting mass market to mass niches, which in turn takes the control away from the very people that have kept we the people in a fragmented state.
In the book, What Would Google Do?
The shifts, the paradigm shift we all must go through is a painful one, as we move to the cloud & the power of one, we are a threat to those who want to keep control. To keep you coming to them, to pay for things kept behind walls, to force you to act in a manner that makes you feel sold. Those days are over, the marketplace is now becoming Open & Free, where Open & Free is a Business Model.
The Cloud is a very useful tool, and it will get better. The Cloud will also assist in giving you power you’ve never had before. You do have control, just open your eyes, remove the fear, and let your voice be heard, because the world is listening unlike they ever have before. So speak up, use the cloud & you will be one of the many known as The Power of One.