Intro 5
Damned hard work 5
Hurricane 6
The summary 7
Preface 8
1. Reality 17
San Francisco, March 2020 19
Dendermonde, December 2020 20
San Francisco, March 2020 20
San Francisco, March 2020 25
Dendermonde, December 2020 27
As a new chapter opens, another closes 27
Has the automotive chapter of history come to a close? 29
COVID-19 didn’t break the system; it exposed the broken system 31
The automotive industry is a dinosaur 32
Society is the foundation of business 33
The future of mobility is ACES 35
Responding to what the customer wants 36
If you want to be customer-centric, don’t ask the customer 37
Reimagining mobility through the lens of customer-centricity 38
Reinvent the business model to stay relevant 39
Existing industries will be devastated 41
Will you throw in the towel? 43
2. Undoing 47
Chaos – unwanted but necessary 49
1. Communication – from analogue
to digital and back (or not?) 53
2. The internet was stolen 61
3. Our planet does not have an infinite supply of resources 71
COVID-19 has presented us with a rare opportunity 72
3. Survival 75
Surf’s up 77
To be or not to be 78
A surfer’s mindset 79
The Great Wave 80
The Great Wave and You 80
Surfing is fun 81
The wake-up call 82
Why companies didn’t really develop their Day After Tomorrow 82
The old economy 84
Time – the new currency 85
Human behaviour is unpredictable 86
The disruptors 88
Let’s turn the tide 90
Different, yet the same 92
New, scaled, impersonal 93
A red ocean of frustrated customers 95
Bridging the gap 96
CUSTOMER-centricity 96
Are you really customer-centric? 101
Empowered people give and receive 102
Boosting the power of connection 102
By users for users 103
Tap into that potential 105
From superficial data to real data 106
Return on investment 107
Don’t just create an illusion, create the digital dimension 109
Business with HEART 112
4. Storm 115
The Twilight Twenties 123
Climate change 125
Social climate 128
Migration 130
Social migration (aka. Social mobility) 132
Urban living 134
Urban community 135
Pandemic 136
A crystal ball 137
Hope and a new toolkit 138
5. Resilience 141
Chernobyl 143
The mistakes of Chernobyl 143
What happened to Nokia? 145
The Chernobyl Syndrome 147
Culture eats strategy for breakfast 148
Rephrasing the question 150
In the beginning, there was the VOC 151
First fragile, then robust 152
The legend of the antifragile 156
Reductionism brings order – until reality sets in 159
Analysing antifragile DNA 161
Antifragile DNA 165
Ecosystems are the answer 165
Adapting to change 166
Humans vs computers 168
A dynamic balance 169
Building your future 170
6. Understand 173
Sporting magic 176
The circular economy and ecosystems are not made equal 178
ReGen Villages – an example of an ecosystem
that combines nature, society and technology 180
The political framework is replaced by an algorithm 181
It’s not all blue skies, still waters and plain sailing 182
Looking to nature for inspiration 184
Inspired ecosystems 185
The structure of an ecosystem 186
The building blocks 190
7. Learn 193
Why you should measure your organisation’s
Net Curiosity Score (NCS) 195
Back to the beginning 196
The act of learning 197
The importance of learning 198
Business learning 200
Handling a large number of variables 201
Optimisation is complex 205
Complex problem solving 206
The small is the same as the whole 207
I’m late, I’m late for a very important date 209
Smart ecosystems 210
8. Participate 213
Meeting Tony Hsieh from Zappos 215
Building a platform designed to serve people 218
Traditional companies laid the groundwork
for platform companies to step in 219
The ice age of customer engagement 222
What is a double flywheel? How do we create one? 223
Utilising the idle capacity 227
Don’t look at the appearance, delve into the structure 227
The TREE formula 228
Creating an algorithm that works for your customers 231
Buy/hire an algorithm 232
Build the algorithm yourself 232
Be clear about the reward structure 236
Rather than create your own, you can participate
in one to get off the starting line 237
Patience is a necessary virtue 238
9. Build 241
No magic recipe, but a set of ingredients mixed with one basic principle 243
Connect with the outside world 245
Start with what you have 245
Build an army of data collecting machines 249
Utilise any idle capacity 250
Data is like the gift of sight 250
Think about your goal 253
What sensors do you already have? 253
Using data to connect the dots 255
Two-way communication 255
Engage and use (but don’t abuse) your customers 256
What do you get out of your application? 256
Not all data will be relevant all the time 257
Managing your networks 257
The platform serves a dual purpose 259
The platform in the eyes of the consumer 259
The platform in the eyes of the participant 260
One platform – two functions 260
Ensuring a delicate balance 261
The platform isn’t the money making central machine you might have expected 262
It’s not about the spider, it’s about the web 264
10. Guide 267
Idle capacity is there, if only you see it 269
Making mobility work for people 269
Aligning goals across the board 271
Solve problems before you start 272
Protect data while making it available to all participants 273
Establish the infrastructure needed to fulfil your goals 274
Don’t sit still, grow with the changes 275
The three dogmas for the ecosystem to live by 276
Potential problems you need to be aware of 277
Lay the groundwork for a healthy and sustainable ecosystem 279
Understand the components that make up the ecosystem 280
A well-governed ecosystem maintains the balance between autonomy and collaboration 284
The ground rules of autonomy 285
The ground rules of collaboration 286
Rules aren’t enough, you must share a set of values 287
Working together for the survival of the ecosystem 289
11. Exemplify 291
But I’m just a one-person business, I don’t want to grow 293
Whatever your size, you have the advantage (and disadvantage) 294
Let the data guide you 296
Bol.com – from retailer to platform 296
Using a digital twin to enhance market research 298
If there’s one thing you mustn’t forget, it’s to put the customer first 299
Don’t step back and make the same old mistakes 301
There is idle capacity everywhere we look 303
Think differently. Engage, don’t oblige 304
Managers The Day After Tomorrow, the shift in communications 306
A journey with no beginning or end 309
Where will we be in five years’ time? 310
11.5. Work 315
Day 1 – Setting the scene 324
Day 2 – Becoming an ecosystem 331
Day 3 – Next Steps 335
Endnotes 339
