I hate to shop but I love ebay

Patti Waldmeir wrote in the FT magazine last week

Having looked at our blog recently, I felt that we had covered a lot of ground but perhaps had got hung up on the ‘digital thing’, however Waldmeir’s article was great. Referencing the whole notion of ebay’s staggering success based upon; trading on trust, customer feedback, communities (virtual and physical), connecting the many people to the many people, uncynical, idealistic, libertarian.

At a time when the internet was endlessly compared to the Wild West, Omidyar wanted his corner of cyberspace to be a place where people made real connections with eachother, and where a social contract prevailed. He wanted it to operate according to the moral values he subscribed to in his own life: that ppeople are basicallly good, and given the chance to do the right thing, they generally will.

Adam Cohen, The Perfect Store. A history of ebay

And if you think that all this wishy washy idealism doesn’t wash commercially. It does. Second quarter revenues up 52% to $773m. Ebay handles more daily trading volume than the NASDAQ. 430,000 people make their living from ebay.

So what are the lessons for other companies? For any company struggling with a 19th Century mindset. Struggling to maintain their corporate continuity of the last 20 years say, in a world which is shapeshifting before their eyes?

Understand, that ebay and companies like them, which understand the softer issues of social networks/ ethnography/ culture etc. and who apply that uncynically but commercially represent the future.

ebay is also opening stores in the UK. ebay broadly exemplifies the right way to do business. You can make money and a lot of it, without having to resort to cynical exploitative commercial tactics. Engage your customers honestly and they will reward you.

As Gary Hamel says

Thousands of look-alike products are launched each year, distinguished only by their advertising. From the 1950’s to the 1990’s, consumer marketing was innovations high ground. The best and brightest no longer wanted to be scientists, they wanted to be brand managers.

The new industrial order is the product of a very different type of innovation?one built on neither the slow accretion of scientific knowledge nor the breathless hype of Madison avenue, but instead on leaps of human imagination.

The goal is no longer a patent or a new ad campaign, but a radical concepts, and ideas.

Gary Hamel Leading the Revolution

For CEO’s and boards out there feeling the fear, I would say you need to heed Hamel’s advice. Think holistically, open platform, commercially and the answer maybe that the costs of adapting your business model and marketing strategies may not be as expensive as you think.

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