Especially with the advancements in ICT, the way of doing business is rapidly taking a different shape. The flyer below is frequently shared on Social Media, emphasizing the contrasting nature of modern global giants when compared with traditional businesses.
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Image Courtesy: Iulia
Tudor
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As seen from the flyer, having inventory or the ‘strength’ in terms of ‘own’ resources is no more capable of giving you the competitive advantage to become a market leader. Even though the large amount of inventory and the sophisticated inventory management system continue to be core strengths of Walmart and many other businesses, E-Commerce is also gaining pace. Generally overshadowed by factors such as convenience and low cost, ‘Creating and Matching Needs’ is also playing a pivotal role in popularizing E-Commerce, along with ‘Crowdsourcing’.
E-Commerce has made it unbelievably easy to purchase almost anything, while presenting consumers with items they have not even thought of. This doesn’t stop at catering the need to buy ‘essentials’. The temptation to try out new items and the convenience in purchasing them is a deadly combination that directly affects and weakens the consumers’ resistance to spending. In other words, it creates the ‘need’ to buy non-essential items, merely because of the ‘ability to purchase’ created by E-Commerce. At the same time, E-Commerce allows people to have their own ‘stores’, catering the needs of earning an extra revenue and getting rid of used items etc.. Mainstream E-Commerce websites such as e-Bay, Amazon and alibaba are providing both these parties with an opportunity to fulfill their requirements. This is where the website’s success is really achieved. Where the first party fulfill the needs (or the created needs) of purchasing wanted (and unwanted) items, the latter party provide them with various purchase options. The E-Commerce business eventually becomes just a platform, where the marketplace is ‘crowdsourced’ with community being both the seller and the buyer, complementing each others’ needs.
Uber has a more focused approach to this, allowing the community to complement each other’s needs, thus providing a unique solution for one of the burning issues in the society. In the age of electronic money and mobile technology, Uber provides a service with minimal operational overheads, which is extremely convenient for users. It does not include any cash transactions and no communication is required, unless the passenger is willing to have a chitchat with the driver. The disruption, however, is largely supported by crowdsourcing. Unlike a traditional cab service, the Uber driver community is made up with ordinary people. Similar to the previously mentioned E-Commerce websites, Uber is yet another platform, on which people can complement their needs; drivers, their need to earn money (or extra money, as Uber asks you to do with your car) and passengers, their need for a hassle free, cost effective ride. Once established and optimised, the system runs on its own with minimal supervision and attention from the Uber staff, which is a win-win for all. Airbnb follows the same model, catering a different market.
However, the best example for needs creation and crowdsourcing would be social media, spearheaded by Facebook. It is the Mark Zuckerburg’s ingenious way of manipulating the natural human need to be social and connected, thus taking it to a completely new level, where people feel that irresistible urge to be even more connected than ever before. Just like what the mobile phone became few years back, social media is becoming a necessity, not just because you like it but because everybody else are more or less dependent on social media. The richness of social media as a sharing and ‘caring’ platform has given it the magical ability of becoming a ‘crowdsourced’ content hub. As the flyer correctly states, Facebook literally creates no content but the 1.6 billion strong Facebook community makes up for that through voluntary ‘crowdsourcing’. From photos to various links, individuals and businesses voluntarily generate an incredible flow of content to keep the online community fed with enough data to sustain the system, while fulfilling own needs of connecting with friends, clients and various other stakeholders. In doing that, users allow Facebook to be the platform on which they can match and complement each other’s needs (natural and created).
Following the footsteps of disruptive leaders, many others are taking advantage of these concepts, not only to gain competitive advantage but also to create new businesses. However, it all comes down to one thing; how effective and creative they are in execution.
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