I’ve been noticing the resurgence of the idea of sharing in the real world. Just this morning I came across this story on Springwise about Dim Dom, a toy rental service in France.
Now this is driven in part by the still unfolding economic crisis, as sharing is, from the perspective of a consumer, a far more economic use of their resources. Why buy when you can share? But it is also driven by the increasing awareness that we have exceeded the boundaries of the earth. After all each item shared is an item not created, and that is the greenest item of all.
This is a long term trend, and one that is not going anywhere. All the systemic pressures driving it are only going to increase. We are on the cusp of shifting into a post consumption economy. From the perspective of a consumer it makes a lot of sense, however from the perspective of a business it spells trouble, as profits are generally driven by increasing consumption. Sharing in the virtual world has been disrupting business models for several years and now this ethos is moving into the physical realm. How can you re-imagine your business to align with this current rather than trying to swim against it? What are the new opportunities that are emerging? This is a classic case of the Innovators Dilemma at a very deep level.
From the perspective of those economists who view growth in GDP as the measure of success, then this will look like tragedy. But for those who measure success in other ways then the story may be told quite differently, as my colleague Nancy talks about here.
To stay ahead of the pack keep your eyes on Shareable, a website, recently launched by friends of ours, trying to document this emerging trend. And to get more of a flavor take a look at this video about car sharing programs in Canada.
Related posts:
Pingback: Should a country measure happiness?