book | Kevin Koym

A Preview of Exponential Entrepreneurship

November 12, 2007 by kkoym 8 Comments

Here is a quick preview of the conceptual shifts that I am wring about in my forthcoming book Exponential Entrepreneurship: Building Business Ecologies for the 21st Century. Marla my editor has been kicking butt (mainly mine and taking names as we refine the trends that I see shifting the way work is being done. Please share your feedback with me as well- whether through this blog as a comment or a private email to me- let me know how you see these shifts driving the way work is happening. Jumping right in- there are four trends that I am trending as well as predicting:

The Superempowerment of the Individual: we’re entering a time that not only is it cheaper to build a business because the cost of doing so has gone way down, but also, a true shift to knowledge work is empowering entrepreneurs at a level that has never been seen before on this planet
Shifting from a Knowledge Economy to a Knowledge Ecology: Talking about the Knowledge Economy is oh-so-1999. Knowledge Economy companies used their old industrial mindsets to drive knowledge work. Yet work changed, and now many of these old world companies are getting their lunch eaten by swift forward thinking competitors that know how to leverage human minds. What is emerging is a Knowledge Ecology of providers of open knowledge flows. Most interestingly, this shows us how even one individual, if he or she is prepared, can create their place in the ecology and thrive.
An Attitudinal Shift: The Millennials (sometimes called Generation Y- individuals that are in their early twenties) are driving a new relationship with work… where work serves living (not the other way around). Although many companies try to placate these new workers “helping them fit in” what entrepreneurs and companies need to see is that the Millennials are driving a new paradigm of work- that will dominate the way that all work gets done within this decade.
Superconductivity: Social networking technology and word of mouth combined with these new attitudes are drastically shifting how ideas, technology, and life are perceived and adopted. The world is in motion, and it is moving faster. Some will see these changes as chaotic; If you understand the underlying dynamics that are lowering the barriers between people, superconductivity can be leveraged for benefit.

How are you adapting to these trends? what do you see happening? Let me know.

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Escape the “labor-mentality” Matrix

October 18, 2007 by kkoym Leave a Comment

The world is shifting too quick to try to keep up with the labor-mentality of the past. It is time to escape the matrix.

Let me try to explain… When I mentioned “Superempowerment of the Individual” in my blog recently, several collegues immediately were drawn to think of the lower cost of production being what I was saying- that because cost are now so low, anyone can start a venture or make a business happen… but that is only part of the picture… To recognize the superempowerment of the individual, we must also see that our world is shifting out of the “labor tradition” to the “knowledge tradition”. By the labor tradition, I mean the idea that man’s body is just an extension of the machines that he used, all prompted by the Industrial Revolution, and that we must work harder to be more productive…. We have moved on beyond that. Ideas are what the world is made up now… yet it sickens me to see many of my brilliant friends still stuck in this old mentality… “If I work really hard around the clock somehow I will make it all happen”… resulting in over worked, over stressed individuals that can not use most of their brains to be creative and create solutions that uniquely solve the issues that their companies are facing. Do you really think that cranking on that spreadsheet is really going to produce blockbuster results if you did not sleep the night before? I doubt it.

We must escape the matrix of this historical thinking, and recognize that the tectonic shift towards knowledge work has begun, and is accelerating…. and if you are not finding ways to relax so that you can leverage your whole mind, you are going to get run over by this shift. Superempowered individuals take advantage of the lowered cost of production, and they escape the “extension of a machine” mentality.

The following image is part of a class that I present on this; To give credit where it is due, my this is a concept that I originally learned from Fernando Flores:

The problem that many of us, especially us Generation X’ers (and I would argue even more so for the Baby Boomers before us) is that work has changed, and we are just now learning about it… but emotionally, down deep, something just does not feel right about what the Milliennials (or Generation Y’ers if you prefer) are teaching us… which happens to be Conceptual Shift #3 from my forthcoming book… work is being restructured by the Attitudinal Shift of the Millennials… They might be younger than us all, they might not have the power that we have, but their ideas and desires are shifting all of us towards their way of thinking. To ground this point, let’s look to Richard Florida, author of the Creative Class who recently stated on his blog:

The workplace is being re-organized radically away from the old bureaucratic corporation Alfred Chandler wrote about. The relationship between workers and their managers and tasks is changing. What people expect at work is changing too. Work and production organization are being reshaped; design and creativity have entered the picture in a big way. Production increasingly takes the form of globe straddling networks. Cities and communities are being reshaped, becoming more specialized economically, occupationally and demographically. We are in the midst of a great migration. Our culture is being radically reshaped.

Or, if you prefer, listen to one of the Milliennials directly. Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Workweek (book and blog) tells us this directly with his concept of the four hour work week… His subtitle by the way is “Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich”. This book describes how to de-engineer (not just re-engineer) your job, and focus on your life. And for those of you who know me, yes, this is the book that I read this past June that had me cut back on my “work” (read that as “busy work”) and start producing real results while taking much more time off. Thank you Tim.

The world that is coming is going to require you to learn how to superempower yourself. Taking advantage of the lower cost of starting and running your business is only a start. Escape the labor-mentality Matrix, and free your mind up to create the ideas that truly innovate… or get run over while slaving it out in old-style thinking.

Early signs of the “Superempowerment of the individual”

October 10, 2007 by kkoym 6 Comments

As I have mentioned- I am writing a book… and with the framework that I have produced, I am going to start posting here to get your feedback on this material. Together we will produce a better book, and analyze deeper together what is happening. I will post every few days on how events that are happening in the world line up with the conceptual shifts that I am seeing. Join me in this conversation by either commenting on these post, or emailing me.

One of the biggest conceptual shifts that I see driving the entrepreneurial opportunities of the future – what I call “Exponential Entrepreneurship”- is the concept of the super-empowerment of the individual. Author John Robb writes about this concept in his book Brave New War, although he writes about it in terms of being a “global guerrilla” in a negative sense… but there is also an equally empowering opportunity for entrepreneurs of the world. Today’s news represents a tectonic shift showing the “super-empowerment of the individual/ entrepreneur”- here is an example of what the future is brining:
Trent Reznor, of the band Nine Inch Nails along with Radiohead and Oasis have just announced that they are not going to release their music through traditional channels, but directly to listeners side-stepping the major recording labels that they have utilized in the past. Trent Reznor released the following statement on his blog two days ago:

Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.

Certainly, other artist, including my friend Sean, have been releasing music directly to their friends and listeners over the last few years… but what these announcements forebode is a major shift disrupting the existing music industry, in the favor of individuals (the artist, the listeners)…. creating a more intimate relationship between the two. This ties directly into what the Wizard of Ads Roy Williams has been saying since 2003:

But in the waning years of each generation, “alpha voices” ring out as prophets in the wilderness, providing a glimpse of the new generation that will soon emerge like a baby chick struggling to break out of its shell.

Except Trent Reznor, Radiohead, and Oasis’ message is no longer a little chick struggling to break out of its shell. Alpha voices no longer are “ringing out”… they are storming the castles of the existing order.

Entrepreneurs of the world should look to these trends for opportunities abound as industries of all types start being restructured. This is not just a passing fad, but represents the way that we all will be doing business in the short future. Entrepreneurs recognizing and harnessing these trends will be empowered, while those who fight these trends will suffer.

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