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the Economist on buying local
- A "character" argument: "local and independent businesses have more individual character" and "are owned by your friends and neighbours. "
- An environmental argument: "it takes much less carbon to haul a truck from a few towns over than from halfway across the country. "
- An economic argument: studies show that "locally-owned businesses put about twice as much money back into the community as the chains do."
I can understand the first two as valid reasons to buy local, but I question the third. No doubt there is a short-term economic boost to a particular community if people start buying local, and part of this may come from locally-owned businesses putting more money "back into the community."
But it seems to me that the inevitable response will be that other communities start buying local, too, which means that the first community loses a portion of its "export" markets. On balance, I don't think we are better off with an economy characterized by lots of small, regional markets that don't trade much with each other.
via International Economic Law and Policy Blog by Simon Lester on 8/7/09
the new wave is open collaboration
A recent article in MIT Sloan Review has posed the question whether one's firm should embrace it or not.
What, though, I admired most about the post was that the authors, Bougreau and Lakhani, addressed the topic of business models.
What's the Business Model?
Whether a company's product is a computer operating system, a social network, a motorcycle, a kitchen appliance or even a board game, the decision to open it to external innovation means that the product will be transformed into a platform. And to generate revenues from that platform, executives need to think about the nature of the accompanying business model.
I could not have said it any better. This is a question that is rarely neither confronted nor thought of by the recent Social Media scene.
I think we all do agree that there is no question that leading firms undoubtedly do adopt some form of open innovation, the article tackled however how to best position oneself in deciding which type of open innovation to select, whether it be " a collaborative community or a competitive market"
The answer however "... depends on three crucial issues," the article concluded.
