I’m hoping you can help me identify potential exemplars / interviewees for my forthcoming book: ‘The 10 Principles of Open Business’. It is due for completion in July this year for publication with Palgrave-Macmillan for feb 2014. They have ambitious marketing plans in mind for it with the intent to make it a top 10 business book in 2014.

Co-author David Cushman and I are looking for representatives from both major companies and start ups. I have a list of potentials but am reaching out to you to give me a better chance of including the right stories.

They need not be using all 10 of the Principles – using just one of them in a truly effective way is more important.

The principles are: Purpose, Open Capital, Networked organisation, Share-ability, Connectedness, Open Innovation, Open data, Transparency, Member(Customer)-Led, Trust,

They are defined below, together with a brief synopsis:

If you were starting your business today knowing what you now know about how new technologies have disrupted traditional business processes (from marketing to customer service, from raising capital to delivering innovation) would you choose to recreate your organisation as it is now?
The 10 Principles of Open Business is intended as a challenging but ultimately practical guide to organisational design for the 21st Century. This is organisational design which takes account of the world as it actually is, rather than as it once was.

The Principles are founded on the facts of today’s economy – one which demands ever greater connectedness, openness and meaning from the relationships organisations have with their stakeholders.

Through the 10 Principles of Open Business we define how businesses and institutions must adapt to survive and thrive. We provide a practical way to assess the reader’s own organisation and help them take first steps towards becoming an Open Business.

The 10 Principles acknowledge an epoch-making shift and deliver a way in which its impact need no longer be dealt with on an issue-by-issue basis. Reactive piece-meal tactics have created a state of panic-ridden catch-up for many in which learnings are lost in silos and failures swept under carpets.

The 10 Principles of Open Business are the holistic strategic solution, leap-frogging the tick-box exercise of simple implementation of social technologies. They make organisations future-ready like never before.

Why is this important and why now?

Many of the greatest success stories of the 21st Century are built on multiple Open Business Principles. Google, Apple and Amazon among the more famous. Many of its biggest failures aren’t and won’t be.

According to IBM’s CEO survey in May 2012, companies that outperform their sector are 30% more likely to identify ‘Openness’ as a key factor in their success with particular benefits for collaboration and innovation. Companies are 50% more likely to outperform their rivals and grow sustainable profit following this approach, according to McKinsey.

Businesses unwilling to respond face increasing disruption and competition.

Businesses starting today build on the 10 Principles from the word go. They do so because the principles are self-evident to those growing up in our networked world. They know they are the most effective way of taking greatest advantage of the world as it is today. This places them at significant competitive advantage.

1. Purpose:

Definition: Purpose is the why, it is the belief which all your stakeholders share and to which all your organisation’s actions are aligned. Your products / services are proof of that shared purpose.

Goal State: (Scores 5/5): You have a clear ‘Why’ of the organisation – why it exists (what is it about the world you are trying to put right/fix etc). Everyone who knows of you knows of your purpose.

100% of your actions are aligned with and express that purpose.

2. Open capital:

Definition: Using crowd-funding platforms or principles to raise capital through micro-investments

Goal State: (Scores 5/5): The organisation is 100% crowd-funded

3. Networked organisation

Definition: The organisation functions as a platform connecting internal networks to the external for a common purpose

Goal State: (Scores 5/5): No more than 1 in 10 in your organisation’s ecosystem are employees – the rest partner with you from outside the organisation. Your staff act as an enabling platform for participation from outside the org.

4. Sharability:

Definition: Packaging knowledge for easy and open sharing both internally and externally

Goal State: (Score 5/5) Knowledge/thought leadership in all formats is created in such a way that it can be easily and readily published openly, and shared. Share functions are built into each document/asset. Creative commons is the default.

5. Connectedness:

Definition: Connecting all employees internally to one another and externally through open social media

Goal State: (Scores 5/5) All employees are using open social media daily for external connection and applying it to make best use of the synchronous/asynchrynous opportunities of the global web. Internal/external comms are rarely distinguished.

6. Open Innovation:

Definition: Innovating with partners by sharing risk and reward in the development of products, services and marketing

Goal State: (Scores 5/5) 100% of developments in service, product or comms design are made in collaboration with people outside the org in an organisationally-appropriate co-creation process.

7. Open data:

Definition: Making your data freely available to those outside your organisation who can make best use of it

Goal State: (Scores 5/5) Any data generated or collected by the organisation is made publicly available where there is a possibility that sharing this data can create additional public good. Eg apis. All data is searchable internally and externally.

8. Transparency:

Definition: Decisions, and the criteria on which they are based, are shared openly

Goal State: (Scores 5/5) Decision making is done openly, with the process exposed to all employees, stakeholders and anyone wishing to hold the org to account. Board meetings (within legal constraints) are open to all and offered as a webcast/webinar.

9. Member led:

Definition: Your organisation is structured around the formal co-operation of employees, customers and partners for their mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit

Goal State: (Scores 5/5) 100% of all key decisions (within legal constraints) are made by and with those charged with implementing them in collaboration with partner-customers (members) and/or wider supporters of the organisation.

10. Trust:

Definition: Mutually assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of the partnership

Goal State: (Scores 5/5). Stakeholders, partner-customers (members), employees have 100% trust in your organisation’s mission and motives as measured in 360-degree surveys. 90% of new business is generated by peer recommendation.

90:10 Group was setup 4 years ago with just a handful of a team and a 6 month contract from Honda Europe to help them adapt to social media. From there we organically grew to a company with over 50+ employees in 8 countries spanning from UK, Spain, France, Italy Germany & The Netherlands through to the Middle East and turned over £3.5 million in consulting fees for a diverse group of clients.

We were often creating totally new products and services to meet new challenges all during the worst recession ever recorded. For many years we did so without even an overdraft facility or outside investment.

During this time we were selling change. Change in response to the disruption large and complex organisations were facing resulting from a more networked world and the increased opportunity for, still often unproven, collaborative innovation… no easy gig.

Despite a recent and encouraging post by IBM’s Luis Suarez we have seen the financial pressures faced by most blue-chips today turn the Social Business movement into a fairly limited technology and IT Systems play. One where all your problems seem to be able to be solved with a solution like Salesforce. Whilst understandable this was often a frustration for us because we saw its potential to be much more world shattering than just connecting up the dots of social layering. We continued to push our clients towards our vision of the future company, post-connection, which we called The Open Business and many were brave enough to come… at least some of the way.

In doing so we developed an Open Business Framework for the cultural, operational and strategic adoption of its 10 Principles which has become more fully formed in recent months complete with detailed work-streams. But 2012 was a tough year for us financially as our clients suffered in the recession and after much deep thought and with great support from our investors and board members; Jeremy Hicks and Sarah Du Heaume we decided to pivot away from helping established blue-chips adapt and towards making start-ups that disrupt.

So what’s next?

From our experience over the last few years we think it is easier for a fresh company without the legacy issues and political barriers faced in ‘turning the tankers’ to become truly Open. It is our firm belief that in every sector it will be the Open Business that will win. At least it will take a more established and better financed company seasoned in selling the consultancy business model than us to help them deliver upon the mission.

As a result we will change shape and structure whereby our Board will work to develop, fund and build new teams around our disruptive start-ups – the first to be announced in the early part of this year which will be led by me personally. As a result we wave goodbye to co-founder David Cushman who will continue the good change work he has become so adept in at WPP’s The Social Partners.

The investment criteria for our start-ups are the following;

Non-media digital businesses that have the potential to disrupt existing markets within a Lean and Open Business Framework. Against the Dot.com trend they must come with a clear monetisation / commercial strategy from day 1 and be focused on long-term and sustainable growth not just a quick exit.

David and I will be co-authoring a book for Palgrave Macmillan, the business publishing part of Macmillans, on our experiences and learnings from doing Open Business. I would like to make a shout out to Steffen Huck now at Trommsdorff + Druner who contributed significantly to our thinking in this space.

And what of Open Business?

However before we say goodbye to the consulting world we would like to offer up a gift and walk-the-talk of Open Business by openly sharing our IP built up over the years through Twitter, blog posts and Slideshare. This will not be as concise and well developed as the book (which you will have to wait for later in the year) literally a file dump here and there, serving as an API full of code for you to play with.

Why the hell would we do that you might be thinking? Well I point you to Principle 7 of Open Business; Open Data (Slide 10)

and my continued belief that;

More Open and Sustainable digital business models can lead to healthier economic growth, driven by more ethical and responsive companies, that work to improve society not just extract its wealth.

Until then…

Until then sayonara, see you online, and watch out for our new digital disruptor in March / April which will be a living breathing example of Open Business in practice.

On a personal note I will be continuing to focus on a putting my energy behind a more #openweb from a societal perspective around The Open Economy which you can follow here .

Thanks to all those who have helped make 9010 Group great.

Jamie Burke – CEO