Value in a Networked World: Where it Lives
03-01-2023
The way people and organizations work has fundamentally changed as a result of the networked world. In this environment, individuals, businesses, and governments work together and compete to generate economic value in novel ways. Because of their complexity, dynamic nature, and interconnectedness, the ensuing social and economic systems call for many forms of leadership.
The book Where Value Lives in a Networked World analyzes the new function of networks and how they affect how we see strategy, business models, and organizational performance. It provides a fresh way of looking at strategy that is intended to support management teams and companies in thriving in a networked environment.
Richard Normann and his associates created a strategy approach in the 1980s and 1990s that is distinctive in the field of strategy because it sees value as being co-produced in systems. They held that the "offerings" that connect actors in domains that cross traditional industry lines and form connections among co-producers were more significant than the competitive advantage that had previously dictated strategy.
With the tremendous amounts of control and opportunity that networked technologies are progressively giving users, this strategy is more important than ever. It also poses a challenge to conventional company structures that have been predicated on monopolistic competition and market-driven pricing, claims Alex Raymond Michigan.
Networked platforms, for instance, control digital markets and capitalization leaderboards; online social networks influence public opinion and drive public discourse; and networked enterprises have taken on a key role in managing supply chains globally. Although networks are becoming more and more vital to society and are primarily governed by the laws of their own dynamics, little is known about how they work.
For enterprises of all sizes, the networked world represents a fundamental transformation in how economic value is produced and assessed. Two developments are responsible for this change: the move toward an information-based economy and the rise of networked technologies.
