THE RECIPROCITY ADVANTAGE
A NEW WAY TO PARTNER FOR INNOVATION AND GROWTH
How Do I Create My Reciprocity Advantage?
Reciprocity and advantage—long thought of separately—are increasingly synergistic. Building on the future forces that are shaping the next decade, the next competitive advantage will be reciprocity advantage. This book shows you how to create a reciprocity advantage for your business using a 4-step model.
STEP 1: Uncover your right-of-way
Right-of-way is an existing platform where you already have permission to innovate with authenticity. Creating new businesses is risky. Using your existing but under-utilized right-of-way to create a new business dramatically lowers your risk. You already own the assets you are sharing. When these assets can be unleashed to create new growth and capitalize on the disruptions that will occur in the near future, you can create a reciprocity advantage. Which of your assets have value for others and could also help you create complementary business growth? Essentially, what underutilized assets could you give away now that would yield greater value later.
STEP 2: Find the best partners
With an understanding of the right-of-way you can share to create growth, you will need to find the best partners. These are new partners who will allow you to accomplish what you could not do alone. Which partners will lower your risk, increase your innovation potential?
STEP 3: Experimenting to learn
Give away assets intelligently in order to learn how to create value in new ways. The goal is experiment to learn in an open, low-cost, and iterative way that allows for time to discover which questions to ask. How can you and your partners learn how to make money in new ways within your right-of-way?
STEP 4: Creating scale
Creating your reciprocity advantage will allow you to make a big difference for a long time. Reciprocity is good, but massively scalable reciprocity is growth that reshapes industries. This requires designing for scale from the beginning. You will know your reciprocity advantage is ready to scale when your service or product meets three criteria—it’s desirable, viable, and ownable.