Right Side Up

Supply chains are made possible by the art and science of logistics: getting the right things to the right places at the right time, at the lowest possible cost.

Demand chains – or to be more precise, demand webs – are made possible by the art and science of personal information logistics: the right information to and from the right person at the right place in the right format at the right time, at the lowest possible cost.

Personal information logistics will become the pivotal service infrastructure of 21^st economies. Using personal information logistics, marketers will be able to make sure customers get the right information about the right things at the right time. Product producers will be able to make sure they make the right amounts of the right products at the right time. Distributors will be able to make these products available at the right places at the right times.

And crucially, service providers will be able to offer new dimensions of value by providing the right combinations of product, service, advice and information, configured, calibrated and integrated around the specific needs, circumstances, preferences and priorities of individuals.

They will be able to do this because personal information logistics mechanisms will be able to provide them with accurate, up-to-the-minute information from individuals about the nature, shape, scope and scale and timing of demand, as it evolves and changes.

Personal information logistics will, then, help product and service providers eliminate huge amounts of waste from current approaches to production, distribution and communication while also opening up rich new growth markets.

But please note the phrase ‘service infrastructure’ above, because ‘service infrastructure’ is not the same as good old physical infrastructure. Roads provide modern economies with the physical infrastructure for distribution. But it is very easy to make a complete hash of things – to get the wrong things to the wrong places at the wrong times – if you put trucks on roads in the wrong way. Logistics is the service skill that realises the economic potential of roads.

Likewise, the Internet provides us with the pipelines of information distribution but, by making more information more easily available, the Internet can actually make it harder to find the information we need and harder to use it efficiently and effectively to achieve desired outcomes. Personal information logistics is the service that realises the economic potential of the Internet.

Like any service infrastructure, personal information logistics is only made possible by many supporting building blocks. These include:

• Personal Knowledge Banks (which help individuals gather, store, access and use personal data)
• Personal Digital Identity Services (which help individuals define, secure and authenticate the data they need to share with other parties to conduct exchanges and transactions)
• Personal Publishing Services (which help individuals choose what data they wish to make available to chosen audiences, including their current interests, priorities and preferences)
• Personal Information Management Services (which help individuals search for, analyse, integrate and use the information they need to achieve desired outcomes).

At the moment, most of these service building blocks are either nascent or in the earliest infancy. We have an entire new industry – and a whole host of new markets – to build.

Alan Mitchell

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AlanMitchell Data

With the launch of M&S’s ‘Look behind the Label’ campaign,
we are going to see increased competition among the supermarkets to
open up the the can of worms that is global supply-chains…

Fairtrade jumpers is a lovely thought…and a good marketing ploy…

The decision to ban Indian leather on welfare grounds is equally smart…

But what about Chinese leather?  What about the environmental impact of
unregulated dying factories? What about biodiversity impacts?  What
about carbon emissions?

A single-brand approach (organic/fairtrade/GM-free/low salt) is
fine…but as the number and scope of these ‘single issue’ brands
proliferates, so consumers will start to ask deeper questions of
value-chain accountability.  Ultimately, it’s ethical transparency of
the underlying data that matters – not the brands on the surface…

The real challenge is to give me access to the real information – and the tools to access it.

M&S deserves respect for opening the can of worms, but it does not remotely compare to what ROMP has done, by adopting MyString right through the value-chain…

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timkitchin Branding

Seller-centricity and buyer-centricity are both ways of organising a win-win economic system.

Under seller-centricity, if individuals cooperate with firms’ attempts to improve their economics, firms will share some of the benefits with these individuals. Thus, for example, if individuals buy a firm’s products it can make and sell more of them, which means it can make them and sell them at a lower price.

Under buyer-centricity, if firms cooperate with individuals’ attempts to improve their economics, individuals will share some of the benefits with these firms. If firms help individuals use their time, attention and information better, individuals will make some of this time, attention and information available to firms.

In both cases there is a win-win, but they are a different type of win-win.

The content of these win-wins are different (for example, they are generated by better use of information rather than economies of scale in production and distribution).

The pivotal organising entity is different: from firm to individual, which in turn means that mechanisms and processes needed to realise these win-wins also need to change.

The main purpose of economic activity also shifts: from corporate enrichment as the centre of gravity to individual enrichment.

Finally, measures of success also change, because individuals measure enrichment in different ways to corporations.

A change like this doesn’t happen over night. Rather, it’s a long and sometimes painful process of adjustment where, slowly, over time pieces of the new jigsaw fall into place one by one.

The challenge is to identify those jigsaw pieces that are ripe for reshaping and replacing.

Alan Mitchell

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AlanMitchell Buyer centric services