Moving from analogue to digital systems is a big deal. 

The key to understanding the difference between digital and analogue business models is to "think" culture not people.  What you should be most interested in is whether this is an open or a closed culture.

What chattering clusters influence your culture?  Are you part of a clan or a tribe?  Clans are full of early adopters and so they are open to their environs.  Tribes are the long tail of old ideas and methods so they are closed to their environs.

Digital networks are new - they are the future.  In the main they are theory rather than practice.  They are frameworks rather than working business models.

Digital networks are all about "getting beyond people" for our organisation.  This does not mean that people are less important than before it means that people, you and me, will be utilised in different ways then ever before in networked production and distribtuion processes.

Let us take a step back.  All people based organisations have an inside and an outside.  Staff and customers.  Systems and people.  Rules and behaviours. Brands and competitors.  Regulators and public interest.  Someone is working to meet your need or in your interests - well you hope that is the case.  You in turn work to help meet your customer's need or to best serve your public's interests.  These systems of organisation work on the exclusion principle.  The customer is excluded from the benefits of your labour unless or until she pays the going price for it.  When markets fail the customer is the public and so you, as a public servant, work to provide what is deemed to be in the public interest.  Well that is the old analogue system.  That is the serial or sequential system.  That is nothing like what we get from a digital networked system.

Digital networks are inclusive not exclusive.  They have no inside or outside.  They have communities not people.  These communities are what I often term 'chattering clusters'.  Within these communities there is a common purpose or cause.  The execution of that purpose determines whether these communities become what I term 'chattering clans' or 'chattering tribes'.  Clans pursue discontinuites.  Tribes cling to continuities.

So going into 2009 we have a range of technologies that enable digital networks.  As a digital warrior it is my job, and your task if you choose to participate, to create meet the inclusive demands of clusters, clans, and tribes.

The following is the gist of what I tell my sons..

* Be lucky in your life...

* Make your own luck in your life...

* Use 'directed practice' to become the best of the best at whatever it is you love doing...

* Learn all you can about what you love doing - learn so much that it makes you 'curious'...

* Help those who are willing to help themselves...

* If you are given too much change by a shopkeeper give it back - don't ever take what is not yours!

* Be proud of yourself always - never do anything that lowers your feeling of self-worth...

* Hard work is at the core of being good at what you do...

* Be guided by the commonsense approach towards life that you have seen demonstrated - day in and day out - by your mother..

Tribes are purpose driven.  They are local.  They thrive on continuity.  They are "experience rich".

The inherent nature of Tribes means they will struggle with the systemic changes that are coming their way in 2009.  It is the Tribes within Nation-State economies that will do it tough in 2009.  Already we see the Tribe that is GM having to be "bailed out" by the White House.  More of these Tribes will claim victim status in 2009 and seek government assistance.  In the end many of these Tribes will dissipate and disappear.

In their place we will see the rise and rise of Clans.

Clans are change driven.  They are global (and local).  They thrive on discontinuity.  They are "theory rich".  They will thrive in 2009.  They will supplement the misery of main street.  They will be the place where opportunities are created.  They will be home to the leaders of all the next big things.

(Please note - I have written extensively over the past 12 months about Chattering clusters, clans and tribes.)

Malcolm Gladwell asserts that most people are "experience rich and theory poor"...  He works to redress that imbalance.  To do that one needs time and space to think.  One needs a theoretical framework to direct one's experience towards a useful purpose.  If the purpose you seek is founded on continuity then being "experience rich" is a useful asset.  If the purpose you seek is founded on discontinuity then being "theory rich" is a useful asset.  As a digital warrior what you seek is founded on discontinuity.  The new digital networked globe is full of discontinuities.  The life of a digital warrior is greatly enhanced if you are "theory rich".  Are you experience rich and theory poor?  What do you need to do to become "theory rich"?  What will you need to do then to also become  "experience rich"?

Theme --- Prepare yourself to make a difference through personal sacrifice?

One thing is clear - the next decade is going to be very different to the last. This difference will have a universal impact and yet it will also impact directly upon you as an individual.

We all have to make sacrifices if we are to reap the enormous benefits of these times. By way of helping you to set your agenda for the next 10 years, let me pose a few simple questions to each of you.

How much education do you have? How much knowledge do you possess? How creative are you with ideas and change? How do you intend to live and work over the next 5 to 10 years? How much do you think you have to change - your habits, mindsets, and ways of thinking about your world if you are to fully benefit from the emerging global economy?

If you are deficient in education or work choices or flexibility of mind and habit then you will have to sacrifice more than you might have been expecting to reap the huge benefits coming our way over the next 10 years.

Ahead is a period of great opportunities. These opportunities are greater for the fact that they were almost completely unexpected just 5 years ago. The challenge ahead for those of you who want to make the most of your opportunities are few but nonetheless important.

First and foremost you have to embrace new technology. This might well mean you have to sacrifice as you are forced to retrain, move jobs, move location, and generally rearrange your life's priorities.

As I stand before you as your newly elected President there is one self evident fact - the new digital global economy is here to stay.

This digital economy is forming a new middle class that lives in China, India, Asia, Africa, and South America. Americans have to workout where we fit in this new global schema. You have to work out where you fit and what you can bring to the table so that your family might benefit from all the new prosperity that is coming our way.

Second all Americans, and that includes YOU, must now accept the challenge of living, working, and doing business on a green planet. A planet that has to dramatically and quickly lower its carbon footprint.

Accepting this challenge is not easy because it means taking on some real sacrifices. It means changing habits, mindsets, and ways of thinking that have been with you all your life. It means becoming a minimalist where carbon is concerned which, in turn, means having and using less of most of what you take for granted today. Are you preparing to go green in your life, at work, and within your community?

Third some of you have to be prepared to put yourselves in "harms way" as we continue to engage our enemies wherever they may be.

These are not conflicts of our choosing and if we can negotiate a peace to end them then we will BUT, be assured sometimes we have to fight for our freedom as others have fought for on our behalf in the distance and the recent past.

Fourth we all have to sacrifice if we are to build a new sense of "social cohesion" across the length and the breath of America. The gap between our haves and our havenots must be closed. We can no longer merely continue to "paper over" these gaps with increased entitlements or earmarked grants from Washington.

Instead all Americans must now adopt a "zero tolerance" for any lack of transparency, accountability, or equity within our Governments, businesses, or communities.

We can no longer tolerate the "self-centered" actions of those who like to paper over the cracks to make themselves look good, those who want to deny inequality of opportunity because they fear competition, or those who are not prepared to be held fully accountable for their own actions. Finally my administration will be transparent, accountable, and equitable in all its dealings with you and your community. Together we can and we will rebuild America....  Yes we can...  Yes we can....

Digital networks are populated by users but live or die on their strategy.  The core strategy is to be inclusive, transparent, and devolved.  Digital networks will always expand or contract quickly.  They will expand if the users build new clusters.  Users will do this if your content is relevant and remarkable and so they feel compelled to share it with their cohorts.  If your content, process, and purpose is transparent to all your users then they will continue to build the clusters you need to expand your network.  If you do everything possible to devolve control of your network to your users then it can and probably will experience viral growth.  If your network is not inclusive, transparent, and devolved then it will implode.

YOU can become a digital warrior.... If you have 'perfect' consumer feedback loops. If you design consumer demand by chattering.  If you embed themes into consumers chatter. If you befriend 'nanosecond consumers'. If you let consumers sell their ideas to you. If you build networks not revenue models. If you provide use value > $ cost of sale.

Do you give your customers stuff free? Do you seek feedback from your competitors' customers? Do you cherish feedback from your customers? Do you do things today that stretch you so you will be the best you can be in 2013? Do you recommend customers to go to your competitors if they have a better product or service? Do you always provide greater 'use value' than dollar cost to your customers? If you said 'yes' to two or more of those questions then you are a digital warrior....

I am a Digital Warrior- I do three simple things! Clear. Hold. Build. Clear out old ideologies - replace them with new ideas and a framework for action. Hold these new ideas in models that can be prototyped. Build working prototypes into useful revenue models.

It will be interesting to see what consumer habits change during this economic transition... What role will new government services have to play in all this? What impact will climate change policies and the emergence of new low carbon footprint providers have on consumer demand across the age spectrum?  Someone/somewhere has even better questions and is working very hard to provide unique solutions. Please talk to each other and me about your new services and products...

As you know if you read this blog often I have been thinking of closing it down.  Instead I want to update it so I have changed the name and will slightly alter the content.  I want this blog to a be remarkable and relevant within the social networking world.  I want it to be a Sweet Tweet.

This is a repeat of almost all of an earlier blog - brought to you by popular request......

When I was pretending to be an academic - a long time ago and yeah there is no sign of it now - I would tire of being told that every idea I came up with was in this book or that book.  "Oh I know what you are talking about that was the key theme in Professor Kanter's book...."   "NO, NO... don't tell me it is in Peter Drucker's book..."  "Yeah that's right.... you read Drucker - well he is a good thinker and you have a good point there!"

Well no actually if it is in any book it would be in one of De Bono's books on lateral thinking - I would nearly always be thinking to myself...  The reason I think of De Bono is because he wrote about this syndromme - he understands all too well how much people need to label ideas, to tag them, to assign them to a box, and to assert that they are totally comfortable and familiar with them when they are not.

The truth of the matter is that most of my ideas, like everyone else's ideas, were derivatives of some collection of ideas that I got from my various workplaces.  They were based on doing not reading.  They were stolen from others or more precisely they were composites of many ideas I had stolen from my colleagues.  But through the weird sieve that serves as my brain I had developed a particular slant on them all.  Enough of a slant to claim them as my own original ideas.

Today this problem seems to have become worse than ever before or is it just me?  I find that when you engage people in a serious discussion about ideas - original, new, borrowed, or used - they quickly resort to talking in quotes, slogans, tag lines, and wise sayings.  They have an endless repertoire of these things.  They can chatter for hours saying absolutely naught but quoting every genius who ever lived. Is it just me or is this the new substitute for really having a serious discussion about ideas, about differences, about clashes of ideologies, about values, or about social mores?

My son Jezza and his team mates - Jordie, Josh, Bert, big Cam, little Cam, and Alex - won the Australian National Volleyball Under 16 year Honours Championship.  Added to that list of players is Jason the coach - he is (I am reliably informed) the best junior coach in our country.  Jason is not much older than them himself but he is much wiser.

Winning the National title for your age group in the highest grade of Volleyball played is a remarkable achievement. But this team has done it all before as they have previously won the U15s last year, and the U14s the year before. 

National Champions three times in a row - it is hard to get one's head around just what an achievement that is for this group of boys.  Along the way they won three State Volleyball Championships in a row. Yep it goes on and on. Add to that some Beach Volleyball Championships and you can get the picture that these are "outliers" to the normal profile of success in junior sport down here in Australia where we take sport very seriously - perhaps too seriously.

Over the past three years this team has only been beaten once at any major tournament.  They were beaten in the Round Robin game by the team they had to beat to claim their third National Championship.  Everyone inside the team's support group and beyond were shocked that they were beaten yet not really surprised but more on that in a moment.  After their loss the whole tournament was a buzz with the news that Jezza's team had finally been beaten in a close five set match.  In fact his team had won more points over all but still lost the match.

The chattering clusters, clans, and tribes were full of the story about why and how Jezza's team lost.  Everyone wanted to ask me about it.  But all I could do was to confirm what they already suspected, had heard, or instinctively knew.

I told everyone who asked, including Jezza, that his team had shown absolutely no respect to the opposition.  Even when they led in the fifth set I could sense that they did not respect their opponents.  They got their buttocks kicked because of it.

In the final Jezza had his team focused, working hard together, and yet still confident enough to play their explosive game.  In that match they proved to themselves and to the crowd watching that they were worthy champions for the third time.  They also rediscovered that there is no magic pudding - there is no magic formula as to why they are the best.

They are the best because they train harder, try harder, and work harder for each other than any other team in their age group in the country.

What each of them has learned from this experience - over three long and often difficult years - is that if they commit, focus, and work hard for themselves and their team mates then successes like these will surely come to them for the rest of their lives....

Debt has kept C20th management alive for the past 20 years.  It has papered over inefficient and ineffective management practices.  It has kept people in jobs where no jobs should exist.  It has kept investors fixated with asset prices rather than economic fundamentals.  It has saved the nation-state economy when it should have been bankrupted.

Ahead is more pain.  De-leveraging of debt backed assets will continue throughout 2009 and beyond.  Within this process organisations have to de-leverage their dependence upon manual processes.  Automation and self-service are the keys to survival.  If you can automate any part of your business then do it in 2009.  If you can provide more self-service facilities and amenities to your customers then do it too in 2009.

The old question "and what do you do for a living?" has never been asked as much as it will be in 2009.  More importantly, this is not an ice-breaker question nor is it polite conversation.  This is a question that will demand an answer.  That answer will prompt more questions.  The answers to those questions will also be of great interest to whomever is asking.

The world is about to de-leverage debt and people simultaneously.  Just as there are toxic debts in the sub-prime real estate belt so there are toxic jobs. In 2009 those jobs that no longer make economic sense will quickly disappear. 

GM, Ford, and Chrysler in the US have many of those types of jobs - toxic jobs.  They have to go.  I assume at least GM and Chrysler will go too.  Ford may just survive.  If is does it will be a much different place to work in the future than it is today.  The old reliance on union labour will have to go.  The old notions of workers as the key to production will have to go. 

If the car maker Ford is to survive then it has to go global and it has to become networked.  Around the globe clusters of Ford customers and workers will cooperate to make parts of a new range of products that offer new transport options.  Will they be cars, trucks, and recreational vehicles?  Yes and no!  They will perform similar functions to what those transport modes do now but they will be radically different in concept and execution.  They will be made in a totally new way too.  They will be made here there and everywhere.  They will be made just-in-time and in response to a customer order.  The whole notion of manufacturing these entities will be low scale and yet cost effective.  The idea of mass production and scale is gone.  These orders will be filled more like Boeing or Airbus fills its orders.  Prototypes are made.  Orders are collected around the world to customise these prototypes and then individual products are produced.

Ford will look more like Linux than Microsoft.  It will look nothing like GM does today.  It will be a networked entity with inputs from all around the world - much of the research and development will be done for free.  Yeah free!  There may also be a new purchasing plan which enables the product to built, used, and environmentally disposed of within a whole of life product rental agreement.

Of course none of that might happen.  What could happen is ........   (here is where you come in and use your imagination to think of new ways of doing business at Ford in the C21st).....