The Connection Economy

Notre économie industrielle devient une économie de la connexion, où la création de valeur se redéfinit au-delà de l’argent et des biens matériels, par les flux d’information, de confiance et d’émotions.

We believe the industrial economy that was build by the engineers is now transitionning towards the connection economy built by the entrepreneurs. The value we create is now driven by how much valuable information we can produce, how much love and trust we can earn, and how often we let innovation spur. It boils down to creating connection between human beings whose quality is becoming of greater importance than the quality of the product or service you are offering.

“If your factory burns down but you have loyal customers, you’ll be fine. On the other hand, if you lose your customers, even your factory isn’t going to help you – Detroit is filled with empty factories.”

Seth Godin

The 4 pillars of the connection economy are defined by Seth Godin as:

1. Coordination : Get people to be synchronized, create opportunities for people to connect by putting those with the same motives at the same place at the same time
2. Trust : Create a climate of “default to trust” that will allow exchanges and transaction to occur with minimal transaction cost
3. Permission: A connection will start only once you’ve earned the privilege of getting someone who accepts listen to you. However we see too many occurence of people having permission who do not use it because of muting social norms.
4. Exchange of ideas : Once connection is taking place, it has to go beyond the simple “poke” to get valuable. It becomes fruitful when ideas gets confronted and feelings reinforced, or original ideas emerge.

Goods still need to be produced of course but no one is interested in the 7th sigma, in the absolute zero defects. Quality standard is a given and the lonesome defect has actually an important role in creating connections with your customers, maintaining your humanity though imperfection, and building personal stories 

Watch Seth Godin explain about the Connection Revolution (3'39) :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXZgTzEyWY