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This book excited me when I first heard about it – and it is exciting. But you need coffee (or something!) when you read it – it’s not a relaxing read.

Collaborative Communities begins with something we don’t often get – a history lesson on the last century, particularly the last 5 years. Often we’re so close to events within our own lifetime we don’t realize their significance.

Why the history lesson? Because the way we do business has changed so much in just a few years. We’ve gone from a mass-produced mindset where the business dictated what the customer got, to an increasingly personalised world where the consumer dictates what they want.

What’s in it for us? This book shows you, step-by-step, how you can make your business part of the new economy – the “networked economy”.

As I read this, I recognised many of the ideas from other smart, small businesses long before the internet. But the way the authors apply the principles here makes it very easy to follow.

At the heart of Collaborative Communities is this: it’s the consumer’s world. Business is a dance, and the customer is leading.

Instead of thinking of your business in the ‘industry’ it’s in, think of what your customers need. They give plenty of examples of this – a footwear manufacturer, for instance, should not confine themselves to the footwear industry. Instead, they provide experiences in sport, outdoor activity or fashion.

The next step is to find out what else your customers want. For instance, someone who wants hiking boots also wants tents, freeze-dried food and 4 wheel drive accessories. If you can profitably provide these things, good. But more likely you’ll find another business that does that much better than you can – so partner with them.

And there’s where the title comes from – this whole process is Collaborative, resulting in a community of shared interest. And the collaboration is not just with other businesses, it’s with your customers too. Remember, they have much more power now than they did in the 20th century. Ignore them at your peril.

As I said, this idea is not new. Marketing guru Jay Abraham calls it the ‘Host-Beneficiary Relationship’ and others simply refer to it as ‘Strategic Partnerships’. But Collaborative Communities gives a very thorough blueprint for actually carrying it out.

Another point it makes repeatedly is that building a Collaborative Community is an iterative process – it doesn’t happen right first time. I quote from the book: “We’ve seen that you will never get your business model right the first time. Never. Thinking you can is simply wrong. Successful businesses are built from instant feedback and adjustment cycles. The message is clear: Don’t bet your company’s future on a specific business model, no matter how well that model has done or is currently working.”

Enough said.

There are a couple of other great features about Collaborative Communities.

Firstly, it’s a genuine 21st century book. In certain sections there are what looks like barcodes. These are actually hotlinks to URLs, so you can access up-to-date information about the subject matter. You can get a free :CueCat Reader to scan these codes into your browser (just find out at http://www.rhythmofbusiness.com) or just manually type in the URL.

The second great thing is the ‘To Reiterate’ at the end of each chapter. If you’re in a hurry or just lazy like me, you can check these out first and then go back to clarify anything that doesn’t make sense at first.

There are also lots of diagrams, some of which are helpful, others which just look pretty spectacular but defy comprehension. Or maybe I need coffee.

To sum up, Collaborative Communities is a guided tour to the ‘networked economy’ and gives some good practical advice on how to do business in this day and age. It’s worth the cover price of US$22.00 in my opinion, particularly with the continually updating information available on the web (however the :CueCat reader is not free if you’re outside of the USA).

For more information, see http://www.collaborativecommunities.com .

Buy Collaborative Communities from Amazon.com.