The Mesh
Why the Future of Business Is Sharing
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3.8 • 29 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A simple, powerful idea that's reinventing the way smart, adaptive companies do business.
Most businesses follow the same basic formula: create a product or service, sell it, and collect money. What Lisa Gansky calls "Mesh" businesses throw this model out the window. Instead, these companies use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright. The Mesh gives companies a better understanding of what customers really want.
Already, hundreds of successful Mesh companies are redefining how we interact with the people, goods, and services in our lives. These businesses are easier to start and spreading like wildfire, from bike sharing and home exchanges to peer-to-peer lending, energy cooperatives, and open source design. Consider:
• ZipCar profits from streamlined car sharing
• Kickstarter connects artists with funding from enthusiastic supporters
• Music Gym makes finding a recording studio as easy as joining a gym
The Mesh reveals the next wave of information-enabled commerce, showing readers how to plug in and profit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gansky believes that business will be dominated by companies that use social media, have a strong brand, and share, rather than sell, their products or services (like Scott Martin, who started the Christmas tree rental service Living Christmas). By adopting this ethos, companies will help customers buy less but use more of what they buy and, through the use of consumer data, will provide their customers with exactly what they want at the precise moment they want it. Gansky, founder of internet startups Good News Now and Ofoto, profiles well-known "Mesh" companies like Zipcar, Best Buy, and Netflix, and many that will be obscure to most readers, include thredUP, an "internet-enabled clothing exchange program," Basic Electric, a non-profit, consumer-owned power cooperative (that together with a hundred other rural electric cooperatives own and maintain over half the country's distribution lines), and smartypig, an online piggy bank. The profiles and case studies are entertaining, and the author also includes an almost 60 page "Mesh Directory." A lot of this information will be new to the reader, unlike many of her insights. Those truly interested in starting a business may find value in Gansky's narrow focus, but her effort is best enjoyed as a 411.
