Crowdsourcing and global work will move to the center of US business and society says author of new book
American companies will soon hire millions of designers, coders, writers, marketers, and other skilled people from all over the world, says Ross Dawson, co-author of the book Getting Results From Crowds: The definitive guide to using crowdsourcing to grow your business, now out in its Second Edition. For more on modern business handling, you might want to check with this insolvency practitioners birmingham service.
"The shift to global work is not a problem for the US, it is a massive opportunity. The future of the economy depends on us embracing crowdsourcing. Companies must get good at creating value with crowds."
„Crowdsourcing‟ describes how companies tap the collective capabilities of experts around the world, ranging from small businesses engaging overseas coders and designers through to multinationals such as IBM and Procter & Gamble drawing on many external contributors to generate the innovation that drives their success.
More than 75% of the US workforce is in the service sector. As bandwidth soars, high value services can be done anywhere on the globe, exposing almost all US workers to both competition and new opportunities, and fundamentally changing the way businesses operate.
Dawson, chairman of think-tank Future Exploration Network and globally recognized as a leading futurist, points to six key issues:
Service marketplaces such as oDesk, Elance, and Freelancer.com have already brokered over $1 billion of skilled work, much of it from US companies to international workers. In order to survive, be competitive and build success, small and mid-sized companies need to draw on global talent. However it is not easy to do well, so a clear guidebook to using crowds can be extremely valuable.
In a world driven by innovation, those companies that can successfully tap the power of crowds to drive „open innovation‟ will have an immense advantage over those that rely on internal ideas and skills. Dell, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, Google, and Netflix are among the many leaders that have embraced innovation from crowds.
Crowdfunding (funding ventures through many small contributions) allows entrepreneurs to build valuable companies where they could not before. In addition to the many creative successes that have been funded by crowd donations, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act has just passed Congress to allow crowdfunding for equity. This has the potential to transform the entrepreneurial landscape, but companies need to understand how to crowdfund effectively.
Businesses large and small have driven efficiencies and built new businesses by tapping specialist workers on platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and CrowdSPRING. "Companies need to create new structures to deal with external talent," says Dawso, learn about t echnology and productivity. "Building capabilities at crowd project management will help companies seize the opportunity of distributed work."
There is an ethical debate about whether to hire locally or globally. Cost, quality, and contribution to local communities are among the many factors. "The reality is every business today encounters global competition and must tap the best talent wherever it is," says Dawson. In addition, giving valuable and challenging work to people in developing countries is arguably the best way to help them participate in the global economy and create opportunities beyond working in sweatshops.
Crowds will be at the center of the future of work and organizations, as we see a shift to freelancing and independent work and far higher use of external talent by businesses. Individuals and companies must develop the collaborative skills and capabilities that will drive success in a very different world of work.
Dawson and Bynghall have written Getting Results From Crowds to give companies and entrepreneurs the guidance they need to succeed in a world that is increasingly based on crowd work.
Getting Results From Crowds has received exceptional feedback from industry leaders, who have described it as "must read bible," "fantastic guide," "must read," "best roadmap I‟ve seen," "invaluable," "the ultimate guide," and "crowdsourcing bible" .
About Ross Dawson
Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and bestselling author. He is chairman of three companies, including leading international think-tank Future Exploration Network.
His prescient books include Living Networks, which anticipated social networks, micro-blogging, and the rise of crowdsourcing years before Facebook, Twitter, oDesk, or Freelancer.com existed. His frequent keynote speeches have covered six continents, and his clients include world-leading companies such as Ernst & Young, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.
As a highly influential - as well as entertaining - futurist and commentator, Dawson‟s insights have been frequently featured in CNN, ABC TV, USA Today, New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Guardian, and many other leading business media.
www.rossdawson.com
FULL BOOK DETAILS, TESTIMONIALS, DOWNLOADS, AND RESOURCES AT:
www.resultsfromcrowds.com
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