[Towards a credo for any business serious about engaging with and transforming through networked technologies. The overarching thought is that the adoption of such tools drives attention, knowledge and skills out into the World, not in into neat 'managed' silos within the business]
- Everything you do is being done better elsewhere. Get used to it.
What does that leave? What you have: talent, brand, reputation, your social networks. What you are: elegant, charming, engaged. Generous.
- Outsource the rest to the Cloud. (You will need to find someone with the skills to manage this process).
- Audit yourself: do you understand your reputation, your brand?
- Map your social networks.
- Employ hackers. They were here first. They know the rules. But employ hackers who share your values and talents: generous hackers. Elegant, charming. Engaged. You may learn from them how to share.
- (Re-)Focus the effort you spend on process onto improvement and adaption, not on invention. Learn the craft skills of the networked society: to stitch and glue, patch and fold together others’ excellence into your own fabric. To give back to the commons for the common good. You will find opportunities for real innovation & creative excellence along the way. Seize them and use the skills and connections you’ve developed to exploit the possibilities you see.
- Invention will come, but it will arise where there’s a real value to it, and you will find you have at hand the tools to invent speedily and well, and access to other hands which will help in the task.
- Think in interfaces, as much as in functions. The power of the hand is in the relations between the fingers, not in their individual strength.
- Befriend tall giants, with strong shoulders. Climb bravely. Stand tall. See further.
- Fail gracefully. Not all should be lost because one plan (or all of them until now) didn’t work out. “Try. Fail. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”.












[...] to here all too easily. I readily admit that most businesses won’t (and shouldn’t!) outsource process to the cloud — but they can certainly try and employ people with a demonstrated ability at pattern [...]
Pingback by cluster - mediated space etc. » Innovation Is the Strategy, Not the Challenge — Friday 12 October 2007 @ 5:42 pm