RelayRides and WhipCar, AirBnB, Roomorama and One Fine Stay are all stellar examples of how new, access-based offers entice and provoke insurance companies and banks to re-think risk, value, customers and deal terms.
I really like Kickstarter because you don't have to be a Medici to fund the arts and sciences or to get behind a big idea or a person that sparks your imagination. It's a type of microfunding directed toward creators.
Insurance and funding traditionally drive capital investment. But in a world based on access, not ownership, the duration, value, cost and extent of financial services is distinctly different.
Some of history's cleverest business minds understood the power of share platforms, from the aggressive titans who made fortunes building the nation's railroads, to Conrad Hilton, who created the first premier brand of international hotels.
A shift toward access and service would deepen the big-box retailer's relationship to customers and win their loyalty. A service focus would bring more rewarding, frequent, and lasting contact with grateful customers.
Cities are ripe for redesign, and many are already well on that path. Cloud-based networks that provide easy and inexpensive access to and tracking of services like transportation, energy, waste management, bill pay, citizen engagement and more are testing and enriching their services.
Those projects most successful on Kickstarter - those that receive funding completely and quickly - do so largely because the creator has a strong social network and invites people to be engaged.
Walmart and other big-boxers could become the center of gravity for the conservation of goods, employ people with actual know-how, and develop deeper, longer term, more profitable relationships with their customers.
The Mesh is about creating and managing what's perishable. It provides businesses with the ability to reach an audience of one, at a precise time.
The Mesh difference is that with GPS-enabled mobile Web devices and social networks, physical goods are now easily located in space and time.
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 these choices. I call this emerging model 'The Mesh.'
The mobile Web, location-based services, inexpensive and pervasive mobile apps, and new sorts of opportunities to access cars, bikes, tools, talent, and more from our neighbors and colleagues will propel peer-to-peer access services into market.
A brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir.
