Working in a Micro-National world

I’ve been mulling the idea of this blog over for a while now, and decided to finally get on with it, pop something simple together and see how this goes?

My idea is simple, although the concept gets pretty broad very quickly;

There is a ‘new type’ of organisation in existence today that relies on small teams – made up of individuals working together – yet geographically far apart.

Quite often we see this type of working structure in projects involved with software development, websites or marketing – those creative operations seem to have been the early adopters of this work ethic.

But they can also be companies that deal in export, import, offshore design, consultancy or have regional offices across the world. The latter is the case for my company.

When I first got involved in my current project, a ‘startup+” with Taiwan investors, a existing US HQ and soon after a new European office, I found that we struggled to understand how we would work together.

It wasn’t like having one office, where you can have meetings, or collar someone over at the water cooler. The principles of working together on a project remain/ed the same – but the methodology was completely different.

This site has been fermenting in my fetid mind for quite some while, although the first words were only laid out in rough (but never published) in September 2008.

Over the last few weeks I’ve made a conscious decision that this blog is something I really want to invest some of my personal time into, to fill a gap of information which seems to be missing (at least I can’t find).

There are a million blogs out there about “web 2.0” and how this affects marketing, Social Media or retail trends. They can be found elsewhere on the web, and the commentators are far better than I. There are also an infinite number of websites (many of them trying to sell you their latest book) that talk about business in the traditional sense.

What interests me however are the ‘how’ of tomorrow’s business, what will stitch these themes and trends together? After all, a business is only a business if it manages to sell it’s products?

Add into that the power that can be leveraged from running a more flexible type of company; loosen the shackles of employment law, distribution platforms, or any part of your business model. Combine it with a dose of Web 2.0 social media, collaboration and ‘garage start-up” inspiration. What you now have doesn’t look much like like a ‘normal’ business does it?

So, in no particular order I’ll be exploring a bit about:
Networks, collaboration, communities, trends, practices, inspiration, e-commerce, branding, consumer awareness, eco-awareness, social media, distribution methods, pricing strategies, and other things I discover along the way.

Essentially, what I’m asking myself is “what does this business model look like in real life, what are the trends and the must-do’s that will be applicable in a company five years from now”?

Two years into my bread-winning work project, I certainly won’t say that we’re past masters at this game, in fact far from it. I’ve been inspired by what I’ve discovered, and people I’ve ‘met’ along the (information super high) way.

But I was continually disappointed that I couldn’t find more relevant references and role-models, and that’s why I’m starting to record my thoughts here – on a private not professional basis – and I hope that in time I can find other contributors to raise their voices too?