Power of Pull

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davidson attempts to define a new business practice. The problem is that a) it is not new and b) the companies that he accuses of not using it do so. For years this book has been on my shelf- unread. Not so sure reading the entire thing was worth my time.

The authors delineate two opposite views of how business takes place- push and pull. The chart below articulates some of the key differences. Any good company uses the pull concept around innovation and once the key is determined, moves into a more push concept.

PUSH	PULL
·         Top-down ·         Knowledge stocks ·         Core business ·         Maintain status quo ·         Control social media ·         Defined roles and silos of responsibility ·         Goal of scalable efficiency ·         Training programs determined by bosses	·         Bottom-up ·         Knowledge flows ·         Edge of the technology plane ·         Innovation through connections ·         Open access to social media ·         Flexible roles ·         Innovation and passion ·         Use connections and challenge to develop  and make progress ·         Establish standards to facilitate working together

When you reshape the universe by innovation- you use pull: the agricultural revolution of the paleolithic age, the iron plow, the age of exploration, the cotton gin, the telephone, the car, and so on all were characterized by pull. They were revolutionizing the world. To think that this is a new function is outlandish. The fuzziness is seen in an analogy the authors make in the epilogue:

"we do this with a very different mindset from the engineer or technocrat who thinks in terms of detailed blueprints and a carefully designed path to realization of these  blueprint. Rather, we adopt the perspective of a gardener who seeds, feeds, and weeds his garden, carefully shaping the vegetation in ways that will create a more fulfilling experience for us." (p. 236)

If being married to a design engineer has taught me anything, it is that taking a concept and converting it into a thing is every bit like gardening. As a person with a garden, to think that the shaping of a garden is any different from designing a new thing is ridiculous. Business flows from pull to push and back again.

The  last chapter talks about the dominance of pull techniques. It appears that the authors are in favor of the business model of monopoly. It is the ultimately most productive organizational concept of business. Unfortunately, this end product is often not the best for the people it purports to serve and benefit.