Book Reviews

This book is an interesting, well written and researched exploration into the movements, concepts and tools that are filling the space that empty purchasing leaves behind. This book examines how we consume and how we are moving from passive consumers to highly enabled collaborators. The authors acknowledge that contemporary consumers are becoming cognisant that the stuff is not really real end goal but rather the experience or need that that item can address. The CD is bought becomes of the music that is on it, the drill is purchased for the hole it creates and the vacation or hotel is organized for the time and experience it allows.

Modern technology, the world wide web and the emergence of “digital natives” are creating different systems and tools for meeting this desire for an experience rather than for the item itself and as a result, different behaviours to standard consumerism are emerging. One of the authors, Rachel Botsman, is fascinated by collaborative behaviours and the trust mechanics that many digital tools enable and facilitate and her premise is that recent technological advances are enabling the necessary trust between strangers to support these emerging collaborative systems. And while collaboration is nothing new, technology is enabled collaboration to be more far reaching, faster, dynamic and in much more appealing forms. The book’s authors believe that people have ‘wired their world to share’ and that the human condition leans instinctively towards collaboration.

This is a fascinating topic in the face of LIXI’s collaborative approach to standards development and I highly recommend this book. Each reader will most likely recognize themselves in at least one of the stories and the book’s focus on the history of collaborative technologies will interest many LIXI members.

To listen to more of what author Rachel Botsman has to say on collaborative consumerism, visit this link: http://www.rachelbotsman.com/

Written by Prof. David Limerick, Dr. Bert Cunnington & Ass. Prof. Frank Crowther

Published in 1993, this second edition printing looks and feels like a textbook but the language is engaging and easy to read. Catering for Australian managers, this book takes a look at the history, or ‘blueprints’, of managerial mindsets across an organisation and its values. It discusses the “Fourth Blueprint” as the ‘Collaborative Organisation’ and argues that the era of a lifetime job has ceased and in its place the power of the ‘collaborative individual’ is building; a person who builds and works at “Me, Inc.” and is only affiliated with an organisation for the length of time that their individual values and the values of the organisation align. For anyone who has ever changed careers or pondered the future of how workers and business will interact (or has been a part of a LIXI Working Group!), this book is worth reading.

Innovation was a key theme of the third annual LIXI Forum. The event kicked off with a provocative presentation live from London by Dr James Gardner, Head of Innovation, Lloyds Bank. Click here to view his blog observations on banking and innovation. From a LIXI perspective this presentation highlighted a key point for members to think about - LIXI standards are not, in themselves, an innovation, but they can, and do, reduce the costs of innovating. As the way of doing business, LIXI standards enable participants to innovate and to create competitive advantage.

Innovation is the process of converting new things into business-as-usual. There are few banks today that fail to recognise the capability to do this is a key way of sustaining competitive advantage. Many, however, have little idea of how to go about building such capabilities. Because of this, they expose themselves to uncertain futures, as other players enter and out-innovate them in core markets.There are some banks, however, who always seem to be ahead of the curve. They have created capabilities that enable them to out-innovate the innovators. This is a book about those practices in banks.