Word: kropotkin
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...might seem very odd to look to a long-dead Russian anarchist for business advice. But Peter Kropotkin's big idea--that there are important human motivations beyond what he called "reckless individualism"--is very relevant these days. That's because one of the most interesting questions in business has become how much work people will do for free...
...Kropotkin was an aristocrat who, after being imprisoned for his insurrectionist activities, escaped and fled to England in 1876. He also drew the first good topographic maps of Siberia and wrote a memoir of his revolutionary days that has become a minor classic. More to the point, he proposed in his 1902 book, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, that the survival of animal species and much of human progress depended on the tendency to help others...
That I even know of Kropotkin comes courtesy of the Wikipedia entry for the "gift economy," the current term of art for this altruistic approach. Wikipedia is, of course, a prime example of the gift economy at work. Argue about its inaccuracies all you want, but the volunteer-authored online encyclopedia is on its way to becoming (if it isn't already) the world's dominant reference resource...
...past decade was, Is this real?" says Yale law professor Yochai Benkler. "The question for the next half-decade is, How do you make this damned thing work?" Benkler is a leading prophet of today's gift economy, and he fits the part: his bounteous beard resembles Kropotkin's. He was treasurer of a kibbutz, a cooperative farm, in his native Israel. He doesn't mind being called utopian. But neither does Benkler dream of a world without capitalism. Instead, he has become an unlikely business guru, with a shop at the intersection of Commerce and Cooperation. "It's very...
...replaced by volunteers. But then, this magazine couldn't be produced without the volunteers, such as Yochai Benkler, who allow us journalists to interview them. Cable TV news channels are pageants of volunteerism, with much airtime filled by unpaid guests. The majority of these people aren't motivated by Kropotkin's spirit of mutual aid--they seek fame, an audience for their ideas, higher fees on the speaking circuit. But for those minutes on air, they are working for free...