There is no doubt that business models have shifted in the last few years.  Consumer expectations are changing every day.  Generational theory addresses the mindset shift of each new generation: Silent, Boomer, Gen-Xer, and Millennial.  Retailers are constantly attempting to understand how to cater to generations of the past and the future.  Employers are changing their strategies on hiring and retention.  Education systems are attempting new approaches to learning.  But there is more to the current shift in society than can be attributed to the changing generations.  Our economy has changed from the industrial age to the information age, and more recently the term Connection Economy has been used to describe our current state. 

I don’t know about you, but there is something almost hopeful in coining this new era as the Connection Economy.  It is hopeful because it not only comprises the advantages of a digital age, but it also marries relationship to resource.  This term was first introduced by Seth Godin in his book The Icarus Deception.  This concept can also be found peppered throughout his blog. 

Excerpts from one of Seth Godin’s blogs describing the Connection Economy are listed below.  The complete blog post can be read here.

[T]he connection economy, our economy, the economy of the foreseeable future, embraces abundance. No, we don’t have an endless supply of the resources we used to trade and covet. No, we certainly don’t have a surplus of time, either. But we do have an abundance of choice, an abundance of connection, and an abundance of access to knowledge.

The connection economy continues to gain traction because connections scale, information begets more information, and influence accrues to those who create this abundance. As connections scale, these connections paradoxically make it easier for others to connect as well, because anyone with talent or passion can leverage the networks created by connection to increase her impact. The connection economy doesn’t create jobs where we get picked and then get paid; the connection economy builds opportunities for us to connect, and then demands that we pick ourselves.

Just as the phone network becomes more valuable when more phones are connected (scarcity is the enemy of value in a network), the connection economy becomes more valuable as we scale it.

Friends bring us more friends. A reputation brings us a chance to build a better reputation. Access to information encourages us to seek ever more information. The connections in our life multiply and increase in value.

In an era where relationships are rewarded with abundance and access is a privilege shared without discrimination, Intevacon is excited to participate in this new Connection Economy.  And we couldn’t be happier than to share in the abundance with our marketers.