Zappos is a market maker. They are defining the standard of customer service for on-line sales. Zappos does not see the local shoe store as the competition and I bet that the local shoe store would say that they are not competing with Zappos.

I added a few words at the end.  The key point being that we are entering a new phase of business, as characterized by the style of corporate leadership and corporate culture -- one defined by market making innovation.

This is the Blue Ocean strategy approach. Share takers operate in the red ocean of competition, rather than discover/create a new blue ocean (market). There’s an operational side to share taking that I think is important — the ability to drive to efficiency/effectiveness once the market opens up — and I’ve worked with some great six-sigma trained operations guys/gals from the GE management training program. But it’s my opinion that things may be changing. Neil Fligstein talked about corporate leadership and corporate culture in terms of dominant characteristics of a time period. The period we are exiting, capped off by the current financial mess, is the Financial period, which stretches back to 1970 or so. The question is, what will characterize the new phase? In line with your points in “Wanted: Market Makers” I feel the next phase will be defined by product and service innovation, with innovators in the lead roles, and design a very important tool.

Todd Sundsted

While we three authors are definitely immersed in coworking, it is absolutely true that we see/saw coworking as a bellwether for larger changes in the world of work. The first draft of the book was barely about coworking at all (slight exaggeration, but not much).

While things like coworking existed before coworking, things like ubiquitous wifi and good telecommunications tools force us to ask questions that challenge the status quo. More to the point, they have allowed a growing number of people to actually experiment with alternatives. Right now, coworking is an anomaly; but as Drew likes to point out, anomalies are often the leading indicators of significant/revolutionary forward change.

That's where we see coworking.

Todd Sundsted

Sadly, the most important part of the post was overlooked in the commotion:

“Transformation” deals with a new Creativity Society, in which we are all both producers and consumers of value. Look around and you can see Gen Y in particular creating practically from birth, mashing music, designing Facebook or MySpace pages, doing videos and podcasts—creating value.

My comment to his post follows:

I agree with and like the sound of so much of what you wrote. But I don't think another term is necessary. While I like "transformation" because it implies a shift or a change, and is in some ways a more focused activity, it is just as likely to achieve buzzword status once money enters the picture.

That was the problem with "innovation". "Innovation" got hot; consultants, speakers, designers, artists, ex-CEO's jumped on the bandwagon and started selling "innovation". The hype machine rev'd up and reality distorted. Like innovation, you really can't deliver "transformation" or "change". But if they get hot enough, people will try to sell them to you.

So what did I like about your post?

The point almost got lost in the ensuing commotion, but you touch on one trend that *will* make a difference in the next 10 years -- the speed and ease with which ordinary people can create sustainable value by building narrow, tightly focused solutions that address needs in niche markets that they understand well, but that can be served nationally or globally using the power of the commerce and communication infrastructure the last two waves of tech investment have created.

These innovators won't *talk* about "innovation". They might not even know what the word means, but they will be the ones creating value.

More to come on this idea.  I'm in the midst of a series of meetings with people and companies who are creating this next round of infrastructure and business.

- Todd

It's important to bridge this gap. To grow, coworking needs to cross the chasm between bleeding-edge/leading-edge early adopters and the mainstream audience.

What follows is an early draft of the of the first part of the proposal (the motivation for the project).

Coworking is the intentional banding together of independents, entrepreneurs, small teams, and other nomadic or untethered workers around a shared space that serves as work space, meeting space, office, and increasingly incubator for ideas and projects.  Coworking has grown rapidly over the last two years.  There are currently 70+ coworking spaces open world wide, and casual ad hoc work meetups called Jellies in 40+ cities world wide.

Coworking allows coworkers to connect with like-minded peers in order to create communities of their own choosing in which to work, and to do their work in spaces that are open and inherently collaborative.  Community and collaboration are strongly held values that characterize the members of the creative and technical professions that are increasingly important to value creation in businesses.

The motivation for our research was to explore and understand the reasons for the explosive growth of a fundamentally grass roots program, and to look for the points at which coworking will influence real estate, organizational design, and strategic planning today.

Modern coworking grew out of Open Source culture.  Like earlier successful Open Source initiatives, coworking appears to be a solution to a deep rooted need--a need that has been developing/incubating for years (support for a growing population of nomadic, untethered workers) catalyzed by technology (pervasive networking and wifi) and other environmental factors (price of gas, commute time). History has demonstrated that successful Open Source initiative take hold and grow rapidly, and have a transformative effect on business (see http://www.flossimpact.eu/ for the study on economic impact of Open Source Software in Europe).

Coworking and similar alternative workspace arrangements carry a similar potential to transform the "remote working" future of American business. This movement is currently driven by bleeding edge/leading-edge early adopters on the far side of the chasm. What they are doing, however, is demonstrating, clearly and concretely, that it is possible to create substantial business value outside of traditional office and organizational structures. In fact, they are demonstrating that the popular belief that the traditional office may actually inhibit the creation of value may be true.

Your thoughts?

- Todd Sundsted