The Mesh - Lisa Gansky [54]
5. Extend the Mesh ecosystem. Hotels can easily integrate car and bike sharing into their suite of services. Virgin’s taxi2 program is a partnership with a taxi-sharing service. Kimpton Hotels and Six Flags are just two of the many companies that have partnered with Zipcar to reach common markets. A good example of a distribution partnership is World of Good (textiles, bags, and jewelry made in developing countries), which uses Whole Foods stores to extend its reach.
networks of Meshworks.
In a very short time, Facebook has become the dominant social networking platform, with nearly 500 million users worldwide. It arguably has more relevant and textured information on its users than anyone else. What’s more, Facebook has created a share platform that is brilliant for hosting new Mesh businesses. Like Amazon, it has grown its own company by providing an expanding list of tools that enable other businesses and organizations to build and serve their audiences. Facebook, one of the best-known and fastest-growing brands in the world, is largely built on a Mesh foundation.
Google, the other Internet giant, also uses Mesh strategies with several of its products. Google Maps has become a crucial, widely used share platform for many businesses, consumers, and nonprofit organizations. The maps provide location data—such as directions to the nearest bike-sharing outlet—that are crucial to many Mesh businesses. Google Earth is another share platform, continually improved by users through network services. And information available on Google Earth is often the basis for coordinated real-time action in the physical world. Jane Goodall, for example, uses the platform with the company’s Android phone to monitor forests and wildlife. Information-enabled, user-influenced share platforms and community trust-building are core features of the Mesh.
test-drive Mesh elements.
Even without going Full Mesh, there are a number of ways for corporations to leverage physical assets—including the materials used in their products—as share platforms. Goodyear, for example, could migrate from selling tires to creating a tire service. Embedded chips could monitor the wear and tear on tires, and feed that information to both driver and company. Rotated tires could be swapped out to other vehicles to maximize their life cycle, and worn-out tires recycled into new ones or other products. (As we’ve noted, several governments are instituting requirements on many manufacturers to take back and upcycle the parts and materials in their products.) In this model, Goodyear would establish a long-term relationship with customers, enabled by mobile and data networks. They’d also help move their image toward more environmental responsibility, another trust builder.
complete the feedback loop.
Another Mesh strategy involves using data networks to seek more frequent and layered interactions with current and potential customers—and then using the information to improve products and services. Companies can and do use third parties to accomplish this. Flextronics is a publicly traded company that specializes in distributed manufacturing on behalf of technology companies. It coordinates the manufacture of products by Dell, Motorola, HP, and many other brands. In recent years, Flextronics has started to collect information from end users to suggest product design changes on behalf of itd clients. Manufacturers’ products are mostly