In WWGD? Jeff Jarvis tries to reverse-engineer the success of the fastest growing company in the history of the world, the one company that truly understands how to succeed in the internet age, and then takes those lessons and applies them to a number of industries, companies, and institutions, from carmakers to restaurants to universities to governments. Below is a breakdown of some of the most important points in the book, it will help give you an idea of the important of openness.
1 ) Rethink your Customer Relationships – Give the people control, we will use it. (Dell Hell) – Your worst customer is your best friend. – Your best customer is your partner.
2 ) Rethink your Website Architecture – The link changes everything – Do what you do best and link to the rest. – Join a Network / Be a platform – Think distributed
3 ) Rethink your Public Persona – If you’re not search-able, you won’t be found – Everybody needs a little SEO – Life is public, so is business – Your customers are your ad agency.
4 ) Rethink your View of Society – Elegant Organization (Mark Zuckerberg)
5 ) Rethink the Economy of your Business – Small is the new big – Manage abundance (don’t control scarcity) – Join the open-source, gift economy – The mass market is dead – long live the mass of niches – Google com-modifies everything – Welcome to the Google economy
6 ) Rethink the Reality of your Products or Services – Atoms are a drag – Middlemen are doomed – Free is a business model – Decide what business you’re in
7 ) Rethink your Attitude towards customers and competition – There is an inverse relationship between control and trust (David Weinberg-er) – Trust the people, they are smarter than you think – Listen and never stop
8 ) Rethink your Business and Personal Ethics – Make mistakes well – Life is a beta – Be honest – Be transparent – Collaborate – Don’t be evil
9 ) Rethink the Speed in which you run your Business – Answers are instantaneous – Life is live – Mobs form in a flash
10 ) Rethink your Imperatives and be willing to Cannibalize yourself – Beware the cash cow in the coalmine – Encourage, enable and protect innovation – Simplify, Simplify – Get out of the way (Craig New-mark)
The rest of the book is spent covering what happens when you take these principles and apply them to other industries such as a Google Energy Company, Google Airways and Google Automobile Manufacturer. Jarvis also goes over the ideas of recreating entire industries such as Insurance using a system of openness and innovation.