In the last few years, traditional collaboration - in a meeting room, a
conference call, even a convention center - has been superceded by collaborations on an
astronomical scale.
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items
are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders
fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear
is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation,
growth, and success.
A brilliant primer on one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics
challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable
to anyone who wants to understand the key forces driving competitiveness in the
twenty-first century.
Based on a $9 million research project led by bestselling author Don Tapscott,
Wikinomics shows how the masses of people can participate in the economy like never
before. They are creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their
favorite music, designing software, finding a cure for disease, editing school texts,
inventing new cosmetics, and even building motorcycles.
You'll read about:
- Rob McEwen, the Goldcorp, Inc. CEO, former investment banker, and gold
mining newbie, who used open source tactics and an online competition to breathe new life
into a struggling business cobbled by the rules of an old-fashioned industry.
- Flickr, Second Life, YouTube, and other thriving online communities
that transcend social networking to pioneer a new form of collaborative production that
will revolutionize markets and firms.
- Smart, multibillion dollar companies like Procter & Gamble that
cultivate nimble, trust-based relationships with external collaborators to form vibrant
business ecosystems that create value more effectively than hierarchically organized
businesses.
An important look into the future, Wikinomics will be your road map for doing business
in the twenty-first century.
Don Tapscott
, one of the world's leading authorities on business strategy, is
Chief Executive of international think tank New Paradigm. New Paradigm, founded in 1993,
produces groundbreaking research focused on the role of technology in productivity,
business design, effectiveness and competitiveness. Tapscott recently completed a $4
million investigation of how firms will innovate in the 21st Century entitled
IT and
Competitive Advantage, funded by 22 global corporations. The project continues in
2006. Tapscott is the author of 10 widely read books about information technology in
business and society, including
Paradigm Shift,
Growing Up Digital and
The
Naked Corporation. His new book (coming January, 2007), co-authored with Anthony
Williams, is
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. He is also
adjunct professor of management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University
of Toronto. His clients include top executives at many of the world's largest corporations
and government leaders from many countries. He holds a Master's degree in Research
Methodology and an (Hon.) Doctor of Laws.
Anthony D. Williams is an author and avid researcher
with over a decade of experience examining the impact of new technologies on social and
economic life. His work has been featured in Business 2.0 and Optimize magazine and widely
circulated in syndicated research programs. Anthony is Vice President and Executive Editor
at New Paradigm where he is responsible for ensuring high standards of quality,
innovation, effective communication, and client value. He has authored numerous
influential reports on innovation and intellectual property for New Paradigm, most
recently for a $5 million multi-client investigation on IT and competitive advantage.
Anthony was previously a leader in Digital 4Sight's multi-client research business. He led
a multi-million dollar effort to understand how transparency is revolutionizing business
and helped charter a new course for digital governance for a global consortium of twenty
top-level government agencies. Anthony holds a Masters in Research from the London School
of Economics and is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government.
Contents
Introduction
Subtitles
1. Wikinomics
2. The Perfect Storm
2. The Peer Pioneers
4. Ideagoras
5. The Prosumers
6. The New Alexandrians
7. Platforms for Participation
8. The Global Plant Floor
9. The Wiki Workplace
10. Collaborative Minds
11. The Wikinomics Playbook
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Hardback, 324 pages
Reviews
What people are saying about 'Wikinomics'
"If you think you know it all already, think again - Don Tapscott and Anthony
Williams provide deep insights and clarify early trends at the dynamic intersection of
collaboration and leading edge IT, stopping along the way to address innovative approaches
to managing intellectual property, the emerging prosumer society where anyone can
simultaneously be a producer or consumer, and open platforms to harness collective
intelligence. Not content to merely report on this revolution, they cogently explain root
causes and provide key insights that any business or technology leader must have to remain
competitive." Joseph Weinman, Executive Director, Strategy and
Emerging Services, ATT
"No company today, no matter how large or how global, can innovate fast enough or
big enough by itself. Collaboration - externally with consumers and customers, suppliers
and business partners, and internally across business and organization boundaries - is
critical. Wikinomics reveals the next historic step - the art and science of mass
collaboration where companies open up to the world. It is an important book."
A. G. Lafley, CEO, Procter & Gamble
"A deeply profound and hopeful book. Wikinomics
provides compelling evidence that the emerging 'creative commons' can be a boon, not a
threat to business. Every CEO should read this book and heed its wise counsel if they want
to succeed in the emerging global economy."
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
"Not only a superb book, but an essential one
for anyone who wants to understand the major forces that will revolutionize the way
organizations perform and the way they are led."
Warren Bennis, Dist. Professor of Management, University of Southern
California, and author, On Becoming a Leader
"Wikinomics illuminates the truth we
are seeing in markets around the globe. The more you share, the more you win. Wikinomics
sheds light on the many faces of business collaboration and presents a powerful new
strategy for business leaders in a world where customers, employees, and low-cost
producers are seizing control."
Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO, OgilvyOne Worldwide
"One of the most profound shifts transforming
business and society in the early 21st century is the rapid emergence of open,
collaborative innovation models. Wikinomics captures and explains this in a way that
demands the immediate attention of every business, academic and government leader who is
interested in driving change."
Nick Donofrio, EVP of Innovation and Technology, IBM Corporation
"Wikinomics explains that the Net is
no longer just abut Web sites - it's changing innovation, the corporation, and every
industry. Business Executives who want to be able to stay competitive in the future should
read this compelling and excellently written book."
Tiffany Olson, President and CEO, Roche Diagnostics Corporation, North
America
"In an era of globalization in every industry,
collaboration is more important than ever. Tapscott and Wiliams have found a way to help
companies gain efficiencies by revealing a unique blend of peer interaction, creative
modeling and collaboration, or as they call it - Wikinomics."
Ann M. Purr, FLMI, CSP, PCS, Second Vice President of Information
Management, LOMA
"I love this book. How counter-intuitive is it
that openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally would become key to corporate
competitiveness, growth and profit? Mass collaboration is the most disruptive development
in business in a long time. Consider Wikinomics your survival kit."
Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext
"Wikinomics highlights a sea change
in business today. Customers have more knowledge and power, corporate boundaries are
becoming more porous, and people can now collaborate on a scale previously unthinkable.
The consequences will be significant if businesses fail to recognize these shifts or, more
importantly, find ways to capitalize on them. Wikinomics will help you understand
the changes, why they should be good news for businesses, and how to win in this new
world."
Gord Nixon, President, CEO, and Director, Royal Bank of Canada
"A MapQuest-like guide to the future of the
business to consumer relationship. This book should be invaluable to any manager - helping
us chart our way in an increasingly digital world."
Tony Scott, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Walt Disney
Company
"After the crash of the dotcoms many business
leaders breathed a sigh of relief that their traditional business model was safe.
Wikinomics shows how such complacency is foolish. Fueled by the global adoption of the
Internet, which has enabled new forms of collaboration and spawned new types of
communities, we are entering a second bigger wave of the Internet age. What an insightful
analysis of the business upheaval we are facing!"
Steven L. Sheinheit, EVP & Chief Information Officer, MetLife
"Wikinomics heralds the biggest
change in collaboration to date. Thanks to the Internet, masses of people outside the
boundaries of traditional hierarchies can innovate to produce content, goods and services.
In order to understand the opportunities this presents for companies, read this book.
Eric Schmidt, CEO Google
"An extraordinary book. Tapscott and his team
continuously break new ground, with insights and revelations that undoubtedly will define
our marketplace and the organizational ethos of the future. Forward thinking leaders need
to understand what this book offers. It was highly meaningful learning for me."
Michael H. McCain, CEO, Maple Leaf Foods
"Knowledge creation happens in social networks
where people learn and teach each other. Wikinomics shows where this phenomenon is headed
when turbo charged to engage the ideas and energy of customers, suppliers, producers in
mass collaboration. It's a must-read for those who want a map of where the world is
headed."
Noel Tichy, Professor, University of Michigan and author of CYCLE OF
LEADERSHIP
"Wiknomics captures and explains the
essential nature of the next generation of the Internet - how collaboration and
communication technologies are democratizing the creation of value. An insightful,
engaging and very important book."
John Chambers, President and CEO Cisco Systems
Introduction to the Book
Throughout history corporations have organized
themselves according to strict hierarchical lines of authority. Everyone was a subordinate
to someone else - employees versus managers, marketers versus customers, producers versus
supply chain subcontractors, companies versus the community.
There was always someone or some company in charge,
controlling things, at the "top" of the food chain. While hierarchies are not
vanishing, profound changes in the nature of technology, demographics, and the global
economy are giving rise to powerful new models of production based on community,
collaboration, and self-organization rather than on hierarchy and control.
Millions of media buffs now use blogs, wikis, chat
rooms, and personal broadcasting to add their voices to a vociferous stream of dialogue
and debate called the "blogosphere." Employees drive performance by
collaborating with peers across organizational boundaries, creating what we call a
"wiki workplace." Customers become "prosumers" by cocreating goods and
services rather than simply consuming the end product. So-called supply chains work more
effectively when the risk, reward, and capability to complete major projects - including
massively complex products like cars, motorcycles, and airplanes - are distributed across
planetary networks of partners who work as peers.
Smart companies are encouraging, rather than fighting,
the heaving growth of massive online communities - many of which emerged from the fringes
of the Web to attract tens of millions of participants overnight. Even ardent competitors
are collaborating on path-breaking science initiatives that accelerate discovery in their
industries. Indeed, as a growing number of firms see the benefits of mass collaboration,
this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional corporate structures
as the economy's primary engine of wealth creation.
Already this new economic model extends beyond
software, music, publishing, pharmaceuticals, and other bellwethers to virtually every
part of the global economy. But as this process unravels, many managers have concluded
that the new mass collaboration is far from benign. Some critics look at successful
"open source" projects such as Linux and Wikipedia, for example, and assume they
are an attack on the legitimate right and need of companies to make a profit. Others see
this new cornucopia of participation in the economy as a threat to their very existence
(has anyone bought a music CD lately?).
We paint a very different picture with the evidence we
have accumulated in this book. Yes, there are examples of pain and suffering in industries
and firms that have so far failed to grasp the new economic logic. But the forthcoming
pages are filled with many tales of how ordinary people and firms are linking up in
imaginative new ways to drive innovation and success. A number of these stories revolve
around the explosive growth of phenomena such as MySpace, InnoCentive, flickr, Second
Life, YouTube, and the Human Genome Project. These organizations are harnessing mass
collaboration to create real value for participants and have enjoyed phenomenal successes
as a result.
Many mature firms are benefiting from this new
business paradigm, and we share their stories too. Companies such as Boeing, BMW, and
Procter & Gamble have been around for the better part of a century. And yet these
organization and their leaders have seized on collaboration and self organization as
powerful new levers to cut costs, innovate faster, co-create with customers and partners,
and generally do whatever it takes to usher their organizations into the twenty-first
century business environment.
This book, too, is the product of several long-running
collaborations. In the last few years the New Paradigm team has conducted several large
multiclient investigations to understand how the new Web (sometimes called the Web 2.0)
changes the corporation and how companies innovate, build relationships, market, and
compete.
A $3 million study in 2000-2001 examined the rise of
an increasingly mobile and pervasive Web and its impact on business models.
- In 2003 we raised $2 million to study Web-enabled transparency as a new force to foster
powerful networked businesses and trust.
- In 2005-2006 a $4 million program explored how new technology and collaborative models
change business designs and competitive dynamics.
- The conclusion from all of this work is striking and enormously positive.
Billions of connected individuals can now actively
participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only
dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate they can collectively advance the
arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but
ultimately profitable ways. Companies that engage with these exploding Web-enabled
communities are already discovering the true dividends of collective capability and
genius.
To succeed, it will not be sufficient to simply
intensify existing management strategies. Leaders must think differently about how to
compete and be profitable, and embrace a new art and science of collaboration we call
wikinomics. This is more than open source, social networking, so-called crowdsourcing,
smart mobs, crowd wisdom, or other ideas that touch upon the subject. Rather, we are
talking about deep changes in the structure and modus operandi of the corporation and our
economy, based on new competitive principles such as openness, peering, sharing, and
acting globally.
The results of this foundational research are
proprietary to the members that funded it, including over one hundred in-depth reports and
countless executive briefings, seminars, and workshops. However, our work with these
companies inspired us to devote weekends and evenings to write a book that would take this
work to the next level and inspire a broad audience to apply its ideas, frameworks, and
guidelines.
In the process, we, as authors, learned something
about collaboration too. We authored these pages on separate continents, with Don working
primarily from Toronto, Canada, and Anthony based in London, England. When we were both
working on the manuscript at the same time we hooked up with a Skype connection, talking,
exchanging material, or being silent as appropriate. At times it felt like we were in the
same room.
We have also collaborated intensely with over a
hundred leading thinkers and practitioners. Their roles in bringing this book to life is
graciously acknowledged below. In one interesting twist we decided that the best way to
come up with a great subtitle was to hold an open discussion on the Web. Within
twenty-four hours we had dozens of great subtitle suggestions - the best of which are
listed on the Subtitles page.
Most notably, with Wikinomics we're making a modest
attempt to reinvent the concept of a book. You'll note that the final chapter, The
Wikinomics Playbook, has only fifteen words: "Join us in peer producing the
definitive guide to the twenty-first-century corporation on www.wikinomics.com."
It is our hope that this book will transcend its
physical form to become a living, real-time, collaborative document, co-created by leading
thinkers. As such, we view the book as a call to arms to create a wikinomics community.
And we hope that the book and community will be uniquely helpful to corporate
practitioners and anyone who wants to participate in the economy in new ways.