What this post is about
- Collected information and new knowledge on the way to the goal are the real added value
- Working together on the big picture is faster
- Providing decisive insights instead of being a completely transparent company
- Say goodbye to the idea of competition in an open world
More freedom, more transparency! When it comes to a more open world, many voices are raised in vehement support of border-free coexistence. A positive development, but one that poses a problem: The desire for an open approach to data and information becomes a double standard when transparency is also demanded of one's own person or company.
It is not the goal of the Open movement to show yourself completely naked and disclose all internal information. Rather, it is about the intermediate path between openness and protection, which the following four principles are intended to help us tread.
1. Build networks
Together you can simply achieve more! If you struggle through projects as a lone wolf and want to achieve success on your own, you need staying power. Especially in the digital world of work, going it alone is almost impossible, since different trades, departments or partner companies have to share their knowledge.
Only collaboration makes it possible to achieve greater goals, which in turn makes it easier to create value more holistically. Master challenges as a team and benefit from faster and optimal approaches to solutions that can emerge anywhere in the organization.
A more open world that realizes collaborations and joint projects generate unique market advantages in the long run. Therefore, maximize your growth (as well as your partners and project stakeholders) through a healthy network where equality is lived.
2. Provide insights
Show who you are! In an open world, working and doing business behind closed doors is a sign of secrecy. If you hide, you may have something to hide. Customers must be involved in processes so that they have the opportunity to gain insights into structures and procedures. Authenticity is a sales driver here that also generates trust.
Communicate your intentions, plans, or successes and get your customers or partners on board. By openly presenting your values and projects, you gain more understanding and generate interest from your recipients. What will happen next? How are new ideas evolving? Tease from the heart of your business via press releases, social media, or newsletters and secure a loyal customer following that can spark real buzz.
3. Share information and knowledge externally
Sharing is caring! There's no doubt that the saying is now a bit worn out and has lost some of its precision. But we still see it as an urgent warning: Defending knowledge, information, or projects with all your might is simply inappropriate in a transparent and open society.
Instead, learn to combine your internal expertise with external input. Other perspectives, new impulses for thought, and areas of application that are brought to you by customers, other subject matter experts, or people in the know can create the greatest possible added value. And open up the opportunity for something new.
In an open world, knowledge does not equal power, but proximity to and involvement with the outside world. A position of denial of this openness to information will most certainly only lead to distance and isolation, as the fourth principle will show.
4. Sharing power
Monopolies are considered an outdated construct in an open world. While the market continues to be driven by sales, subscriptions, or user numbers, which is undoubtedly legitimate as a means of evaluating success, the path to success should be shared.
Network with your industry to share knowledge once gained from campaigns or studies to work in a more sustainable and success-oriented way. In such a world, everyone involved wins!
The car manufacturer Tesla, for example, is releasing basic patents for electric drives, batteries, and production processes to strengthen the market as a whole. This enables individual competitors to follow suit - but in the direction and on the terms that best fit Tesla's strategic goals.
Superficial competitive thoughts are out of place in an open world. Because no one is helped by copying each other or jumping on other people's waves of success. But broadly distributed power relationships through knowledge that is accessible to all participants of the market can make the pie bigger for everyone.
Summary
Let's move to an open world with sincere intentions and transparency! Set out with customers and partners to shape a new togetherness. By working out ideas together, comparing similar structures, or integrating external experience, problem-solving is only a matter of time instead of an insurmountable hurdle. The prerequisite, however, is that all participants comply with the code of values of an open world: Those who desire open interaction must be willing to open their own doors.