Which contacts to choose?

A strategy that starts by simply acquiring contacts and then waiting expectantly for an opportunity to come out of the blue would seem to be hopelessly naive. But, this is not taking into account object oriented design philosophy. In essence, this philosophy says that your skill sets, knowledge and experience are not limited to your own abilities and knowledge – they are the sum total of your own plus those of all the friends and acquaintances you can call upon for information, help or guidance. Even in the world of bricks and mortar this philosophy has credence, but, in a massively connected world this is a powerful way of thinking.

Compare the strategies of seventeen hypothetical graduates who decide to spend the two years following their graduation predominantly in one of the following ways:

1) Learning about the creation and distribution of music in the digital world

2) Learning how to create multimedia presentations

3) Leaning how to create video productions

4) Learning to be an expert computer programmer

5) Learning about networks, servers and communication protocols

6) Learning how to be a graphic designer

7) Learning how to create front end Web site designs

8) Learning about databases and back-end Web site technologies

9) Learning about Web specific sales and marketing techniques

10) Developing a product that would be sellable from a Web site

11) Learning about e-business investment valuations

12) Learning about logistics and order fulfillment techniques

13) Learning about e-money and payment systems

14) Learning about legal matters relating to Web sites and e-commerce

15) Learning about taxation aspects over a universal domain

16) Learning a small amount of each of the above fifteen topics

17) Establishing close relationships with the other sixteen graduates

Which of these seventeen graduates would be best placed to create an e-business at the end of the two years? Wouldn't it be number seventeen?

In the world of bricks and mortar it would be nigh on impossible for anyone to establish relationships with such a wide range of contacts. In the world of the Internet it may take a little time but it is not impossible. This would see graduate number seventeen as being strategically best placed to take advantage of any opportunity that came along – even if it meant being reliant on many of the others to be able to take effective action.

I came to this realisation after being in the position of firstly number four, learning to become an expert programmer. Then in the position of number two when I learned how to create multimedia presentations and finally number ten when I developed a product. That took six years of my life, but even so, I wasn't in a position to create a viable e-business because I hadn't sufficient knowledge or expertise in any of the other categories.

At first, I made an attempt to get up to speed with all the other knowledge I would need to be able to create an e-business. I learned enough HTML to create a Web site. I learned some Javascript to add a few clever tricks. I dabbled in graphics and tried to pick up information on as much as I could in the various other categories. The more I learned, the more I discovered I needed to know. Instead of getting more confident as I progressed, I got less confident.

I had been aware of the well known metaphor that likened obtaining information from the Internet to drinking from a fire hose (i. e., however much time is spent acquiring information it is possible to taste only an infinitesimally small fraction of it). What I hadn't been prepared for though was the over abundance of 'luck' I had in finding vitally important snippets of information. It seemed as if every discussion forum I joined, I arrived at a fortuitous time when a discussion thread was focused on a topic that was essential to me. Time and again I thanked my lucky stars that I had joined in at just the right moment in time.

The same thing happened when I looked at Web site articles that were mentioned in discussion forums. The few I had time to read more often than not contained invaluable information. It was the same with e-newsletters, it was uncanny how often they contained some point of view that gave me a radically new insight into e-business.

Having at one time owned a gaming club and also spent some time as a professional poker player, I was more than familiar with the phenomenon of lucky runs. They never last indefinitely and, if they ever did, it was usually the result of some anomaly, which involved factors other than chance. Checking with friends, I found they were also experiencing amazing runs of luck in discovering new and exciting information that seemed to apply specifically to them and their problems.

The startling inference was that these discoveries of new and exciting information were not down to lucky dips into the fire hose. It became apparent that there was so much vital and interesting information available that it would be almost impossible to miss important information wherever you choose to look. This has a downside: if everywhere you seek information you usually made exciting discoveries, what were you missing in the other 99.99% of the places – those that you haven't the time to visit?

It then became obvious that learning and seeking new knowledge and information is like trying to explore a bottomless pit. It could go on forever and never reach any definitive conclusions. Surely, there had to be a more efficient way to become successful in creating an e-business opportunity? The only answer was to rise above the detail and concentrate upon fundamental principles. This is what I aimed for in the previous two books: looking for broad concepts that could get me out of the syndrome of trying to absorb more and more information from an infinite sea of "need to know" knowledge.

Once you come to realise how much vital "need to know' information there is and to appreciate that you cannot hope to learn it all, it becomes obvious that a special strategy is needed. This strategy would need to be such that it would allow you to compete successfully in an environment when you are severely handicapped with huge knowledge gaps. It would obviously have to involve collaborating with others, who will have specific areas of knowledge that can fill the gaps.

The problem then is to find some way you can get people to share their knowledge with you. You don't want them to teach you what they know. You just need to be able to call upon their knowledge and expertise on demand: whenever it is needed. But, why should people want to do this?

The clue to the solution is that everyone else is in the same boat. Everyone has vast knowledge gaps. Wouldn't they be willing to give you help and knowledge on demand if they could get a reciprocal similar benefit. The trick then is establish a number of relationships where such an understanding can be established. The solution I came up with was the virtual cafe. This was a conceptual device that everyone can use as an efficient mechanism to facilitate the exchange of vital information on a "need to know" basis.