Internet entrepreneur Lisa Gansky has written an insightful new book, The Mesh, which reveals the inner workings of scores of bleeding-edge businesses that have in common one key fact: they derive their unique selling proposition from a "share platform."
While the concept of sharing dates from the time of the Cro-Magnons, the Web has made it possible for 21st Century consumers to lease commodities on a grand scale. Everything from artworks to apartments, books to boats, cars to clothing. Even cats and dogs.
Supplanting old-school "buyer/seller/own-it" businesses, Gansky says, "a new model is starting to take root and grow, one in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more power to guide those choices. I call this emerging model 'The Mesh'."
Mesh businesses (or what we used to call "rental companies"), Gansky says, are based on "network-enabled sharing—on access rather than ownership."
Sounds like a Commie plot to me.
But it's pure capitalism. Clever Mesh businesses, after perfecting a foundational service, boost their revenues through a blend of partnerships and affinity programs.
Zipcar, for example, offers customers not only car-sharing, but hotel rooms, restaurant reservations, foods, wines, fitness centers, event tickets and access to a host of other goods and services.
The Mesh is eye-opening and provocative. Borrow—don't buy—a copy today.
