Reading time: < 1 minute

Yes, you read right.  Check out the announcement when you have a chance and, even better, just go right ahead and RSVP. Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time: 6:30pm – 9pm
Place: John Barleycorn’s – 3524 N Clark (where it always is)
Cost: $0 (per usual)

As usual we’re looking for some sponsors to help us out so if you know any, or if you are one, please send any questions my way and, if you are ready rock, just head over to the RSVP page where you can purchase a sponsorship electronically (I love technology).

Lastly, if you are interested in demoing please shoot me a note and we can figure out the details.

Rock on.

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

I have begun to read Umair Haque more and more lately.  Haque’s writings have done a few things for me:

1. Reminded me why I love to write and share my ideas.
2. Challenged me to think differently and more critically about the current state of the economy and of business in general.
3. Fired me up about the possibilities for the future.

As all of you know, I love innovation.  I particularly love innovation in technology but I also love innovation in business models, management styles, organizational structures, etc.  I love pushing the boundaries of what is possible and challenging assumptions and commonly held beliefs.

Recently I read a post by Haque that got me thinking.  The post was entitled, “A Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution“, and in the post Haque does a great job at assessing where things are and then follows on with what he thinks the future looks like.

Haque suggests that the future of, say, finance, isn’t simply getting more money to lend, it is about organizing the system better.  Haque uses the example of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank to illustrate this point.  Yunus didn’t simply get some money together to loan to the folks at the bottom of the pyramid, he changed the way lending worked by organizing the lendees into groups that would create necessary lendee payback discipline via peer pressure (this was much needed since there was no collateral available to back the loans) in order to keep payback rates high, which, in turn, made the whole Grameen system sustainable and able to help many more people.

Haque thinks that organizing things is where the innovation that will fuel the next industrial revolution will come from and I don’t think he is far off.

Google is probably one of the most shining examples of the organizing phenomenon.  Their mission is to organize the world’s information and, in doing so, they revolutionized the advertising industry while making it more efficient.  This of course let to incredible growth and huge profits for Google.

Some other examples include Threadless (organizing a group of t-shirt designers and t-shirt buyers who create and buy the shirts rather than Threadless trying to guess at what people might want) and Etsy (organizing production of handmade goods into one place).  Both of these websites list in my top ten and both are centered around organizing and enabling people to choose and create what they want rather than trying to guess at what people may want, mass produce that product and then jam it down people’s throats until the inventory is sold.

What is interesting about both Threadless and Etsy to me is that at a high level they really created marketplaces and marketplaces aren’t new at all.  Perhaps rather than using the term organize we should really use the term market.  Creating markets where people can interact and exchange ideas, goods and services are inherently valuable.  The trick is trying to figure out where the business who facilitates the market can extract the value that will keep the organization and its market up and running.

With Etsy and Threadless the value extraction is fairly simple in that goods are sold to people who pay for them and the companies make a profit (Etsy from fees from the sellers and Threadless through the sales of the t-shirts).  Selling goods is a clear cut way to extract value but perhaps there are other innovative ways to extract value from a market in other industries.

Haque throws out some more things that need organizing including the world’s hunger, energy, thirst, health, finance and education.  All of these are industries that need fresh ideas and new blood and are perhaps areas in which businesses that organize can thrive.

I personally get fired up about innovating in the financial space since I have always been a fan of the financial markets but also realize that they are in dire need of innovation.  What ideas do you all have for a business that organizes things in a way that benefits the business and the financial industry? How do you think the theme of markets and organization can help with the other areas Haque mentions?  I am curious to hear your thoughts and I hope this idea of organization as a means of change and innovation inspires you as much as it has inspired me.

Midwest side note: I see organization as a part of the solution around making the Midwest into the technology hub is really should be.  I find that a lot of people around the Midwest don’t know what other folks are doing and that lack of information really stalls innovation here.

Think of the issue in comparison to Silicon Valley.  In the Valley there are a number of events, meetups, etc. that you can attend in any given night.  This allows for great networking and fantastic visibility into what is going on in the area.  This visibility really helps people to collaborate on things, find talent for their business, get the funding they need and many other things.

The idea of organization as a means to innovate and create value is exactly what Frank and I had in mind when we created TECH cocktail.  We believed, and still believe, that organizing technology focused people in the area would lay the ground work for some amazing change to happen here in the Midwest and we’re starting to see the idea become reality.

We’re going to continue on with our organizing mission by working on events in each of the Midwest cities (i.e. Ann Arbor, Madison, etc.), which will be added the current roster of Chicago, Champaign, D.C. and Boulder.  The intent here is to organize the local communities and then to bring all of the Midwest communities (and some other select communities) together once or twice a year so that everyone from the Midwestcan start a regular dialog with one another.

When combined the Midwest is much more, and will be much more, than the sum of its parts and we hope to be the folks that organize and, therefore, catalyze the technology innovation here in the Midwest.