The 3 Rules Of The New Economy

There are a few principles that companies will have to thoroughly integrate into the way they work if they wish to succeed in the new economy. I’ll be talking a lot more about this in my new book (available now!) and in upcoming speaking engagements (join me in Anaheim!), but I wanted to give you a quick preview.

All organizations in the new economy must be:

1. Connected,
2. Human, and
3. Meaningful.

Being Connected is about seeing how our choices affect everything else. Being Human is about leveraging the unique genius in every person. Being Meaningful is about having a noble cause that will improve the world in some unique way. Anything you can do to align the human systems of your company to operate more in these ways will help it thrive in the new world.

The other way to leverage this shift is to advertise how your company lives out the 3 Rules in the marketplace. Here are a few examples:

CONNECTED: Pike Place Fish Market
In the world of fish markets, not harming habitats in any way or depleting populations by overfishing is incredibly rare, and Pike Place is committed to being 100% sustainable in these ways.

HUMAN: Zappos
By offering new employees cash on the spot to quit, building all systems around good employees (instead of the troublemakers), and insisting on the continual creation of “fun and a little weirdness,” Zappos literally treats their call center employees like kings and queens.

MEANINGFUL: TOMS
By embedding one-for-one gifts into their business model, a simple shoe company inspired meaningful copycats everywhere and has delivered over 1 million pairs of desperately needed footwear to kids around the world.

These companies use their Connected-ness, Human-ness, or Meaningful-ness as ways to engender customer loyalty and even get new patrons.

What is your organization doing to align with these principles?

UPDATE 11/13/12 — Read a lot more about this, and the other rules of the new economy, in my new book Igniting the Invisible Tribe: Designing An Organization That Doesn’t Suck, AVAILABLE NOW!

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