I recently read the book We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business. It's a book project written by Barry Libert & John Spector along with thousands of contributers. The basic premise of the book is that group collaboration produces better results than what an individual can produce. At first this seems like a 'well duh' statement but further reading explained just how much of an impact adaptation of this mindset can have on a business.

The book explains in detail how you can use the power of groups to improve your business, from asking a group to solve a particular problem to letting group feedback influence business decisions to making use of the talents of groups members and more. All require a loosening of the reins, so to speak, on the part of business owners & management. All require a willingness to share business resources either in the form of money, time, or acknowledgment. People want to know that their voices are being heard and are willing to share their ideas with businesses they feel loyal to, but no one wants to feel used. Business that want to embrace the spirit of this book must be willing to share.

I also liked the layout of the book. It is formatted in a way that relevant points jump out at you, and gives one page information that explains how you can apply points to your business. This is great for the busy professional on the go. The concise blocks of info stated as being from members of the We community are also neat and I think it would lead to easy communication within a group reading this book together.

While We Are Smarter Than Me relies heavily on examples of how business are using the internet to engage customers, the most important thing I learned from this book is that the medium is not the message. The goal for people in business, whether individuals, owners of mom & pop shops, members of small co-ops, or large corporations is to effectively engage customers & potential customers in communication, as their feedback is invaluable. The means of interacting with people is secondary. I find this fascinating because as an individual business owner and someone heavily involved with online communication I sometimes forget this.

Overall the book is insightful and gives powerful evidence to adjust your business strategy to include the group model. Doing so can help you increase profits by clarifying your business goals and allowing the feedback you get from community of customers & potential customers to help define what successful products or services would mean to and for them. It's a neat book and a great read to jump start your business goals for 2008.
Buy the We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business book
Visit the We Are Smarter Than Me community
Website http://wearesmarter.org

Labels: book reviews, business stuff on other sites