Hagel & Brown, Pull models, Part l
John Seely Brown and John Hagel lll have written another excellent paper entitled "From Push to Pull, Emerging Models for Mobilizing Resources." (October 2005) These two researchers continue to impress me with their leadership capability in this new technology frontier. As I have stated here before, they have been pushing these themes now for over 5 years that I am aware of and continue to be the leading edge thinkers.
The final paragraph of the introduction captures much of what I believe and write about in this blog.
"By mastering the techniques required to make this new model work, companies will be well positioned to create substantial value. Those who adhere rigidly to the old model will likely destroy significant value." Hagel & Brown p.4Contrasting the efforts of Petro Canada in this blog is designed to provide a real life example of what this blog is attempting to solve. If the "pull" model of innovation and creativity were operational in the oil and gas industry, this commentary would have achieved its objective. However, there is ample resistance to these changes. Many vested interests have aligned against these ideas and Petro Canada to me provides the greatest contrast to what this blog is not proposing. If by reviewing this Hagel and Brown document, we can gain additional insight from these two top notch researchers it will be well worth the effort.
Forces that are driving the search for alternative mobilization models, Hagel and Brown identify 5 forces that undermine the push model.
- Increasing uncertainty.
- Growing abundance.
- Intensifying competition.
- Growing power of customers.
- Greater emphasis on learning and improvisation.
Pull Platforms.
I believe it is a testament to both Sun Microsystems and Dr. James Gosling that so much effort and time has gone into providing Java with superior exception handling capabilities. It is not by accident that pull platforms are identified by Hagel and Brown as heavily relying on exceptions to the standards.
"Pull platforms are designed from the outset to handle exceptions, while push programs treat exceptions as indications of failure." p. 22and then go on to say;
"Because of loose coupling of modular design, pull platforms can accommodate a much larger number of diverse participants. The more participants, the more valuable the platform becomes."Although this may currently run against the more secretive culture of the oil and gas industry. The demands for energy are now insatiable and remove the competitive nature of the industry. This competitiveness is, I think, going to be replaced by coopetition.
Pull platforms have the following characteristics which work to encourage creation and use.
- Find
- Connect
- Innovation
- Reflection
I will cut the conversation at this point and pick up the rest of this document in another post starting with "Exploring the layers of pull platforms."
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