Hooray for the Flat, Pink, and Gray

Flag waving (red, white, and blue or insert your country’s flag colors here) will not ensure future economic prosperity or the solutions to the really big problems of our day including security, healthcare, education, and quality of life. Protectionist approaches will inevitably fail and give way to the flat, pink, and gray.

Tom Friedman is right. The World is Flat. Sure, it is still a work in progress and there will be many speed bumps along the way but the trend is real and inexorable. The evidence of a connected global community with free flowing dollars, labor, and ideas is obvious. The potential to harness these global flows is limitless. Of course it is a double edged sword. The premium for leadership with the capacity to inspire progress toward the positive edge of the sword will be tested like no other time in our human history. The only winnable strategy is to embrace the trend and to view the flat world as the enabling infrastructure for global prosperity.

We are still in the first act of the play which focuses on shifting value around the flat global stage. Companies take advantage of the opportunity to shift work around the stage and consumers benefit from access to cheaper goods and services. This initial act leverages technology to build efficiencies into existing business models. Exhibit 'A' is Wal-Mart and its suppliers. It is only the first act. If you think the transition is troubling now (job losses due to outsourcing and companies that split their business models into many movable pieces holding communities hostage to keep or attract them) just wait until the next act takes hold.

In the second act the flat stage will provide the platform for next generation innovative business models that harness technology not just for efficiency but for completely new ways to deliver value to customers (patients, students, citizens, and consumers). Better ways to deliver value that are not burdened by the existing business models and institutions that are stubbornly resistant to change. Consumers are getting increasingly frustrated by today’s institutions (companies, government agencies, schools, healthcare systems etc) and are beginning to stick their collective heads out of the window to scream “We aren’t going to take it any more." Consumers vote with their feet and their purchasing power. Consumers, not institutions, will star in the second act. Today’s transitions will seem tame when compared to the next wave in which we will see entire industry segments change before our eyes and local communities. We will need to play offense.

Dan Pink is also right. For this next act we need to develop A Whole New Mind. We are all actors in the beginning of what he calls the “Conceptual Age." The flat world is our stage and our whole new minds provide us with the tools for the improvisation which will change the world. There is no single script. It will be a perpetual improvisation and the uncertainty of the outcome is both exciting and scary at the same time. The ensemble will be global and will constantly evolve by combining and recombining possibilities. Pink calls attention to the imperative to develop “right brain” abilities including design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. The winners will be horizontal players and integrators that are experimental by nature. This will be true for individuals and for institutions. Large entrenched players will quickly become dinosaurs if they are not able to recombine the pieces and collaborate across sectors and institutions to constantly create better ways to deliver value. Winners will establish the capacity to do R&D for new business models not just new products and technologies.

Gray is good. Or is it grey is good? Is Friedman right in suggesting the need for a recommitment to math and science in the U.S. (rising to the level of urgency similar to putting a man on the moon) or is Pink right in suggesting that left brain math and science skills will take a back seat to right brain design and storytelling skills? The answer is in the gray area between the two assertions. The real answers are almost always found in the gray areas between silos, sectors, and disciplines. We must learn to be comfortable in the gray areas because that is where the real value and solutions to today’s biggest problems lie. We must build horizontal communities to take advantage of a true diversity of approaches and ideas. We must celebrate the anti-silo. Innovation is all about better ways to deliver value and the best opportunities to create value will be found in the gray areas between silos. Collaborative innovation is the imperative.

Our non-profit Business Innovation Factory (BIF) is all about enabling collaborative innovation and facilitating access to a real world test bed in Rhode Island to explore and test better ways to deliver value. Economic prosperity depends on our ability to play offense and to confidently lead the way. Hooray for the flat, pink, and gray.