If ideas are like water, money is like molasses.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ideas not only move more easily and quickly than money, they are infinitely more collaborative.\u00a0 Sharing ideas is exciting. Sharing money is anxiety inducing. And nothing can slow an idea down faster than the dependence on money for its survival. Money can limit the creative boundaries of an idea and in some cases even kill it. \u00a0This is particularly true at the front end of a project, where concepts may be sketchy and payoffs unclear. This is where money moves the slowest.<\/p>\n

A myopic focus on R.O.I may produce a sufficient<\/em> product but will rarely result in the coolest<\/em> product.<\/p>\n

So in both examples above,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and Starbucks, by unshackling the ideas from the money, \u00a0the \u00a0focus can shift from delivering short-term R.O.I to creating a superlative product or experience that people simply love.<\/p>\n

From Transactions to Transformations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Had Facebook opted early on to look for revenue from advertisers, it\u2019s impossible to say what those transactions may have amounted to.\u00a0 What is clear is that by resisting the pressure of R.O.I., Zuckerberg created something transformational and in the process forever changed the way society shares experiences.<\/p>\n

Half a billion users later, Facebook is every marketers dream and every investors pipe dream.<\/p>\n

The New Business Model<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Conventional business wisdom says we should look for a reasonable and quick return on investment when we enter into a project.\u00a0 But the new business model defies that thinking.\u00a0 In the new business model, the return on investment may far exceed all expectations or reasonable scale, provided we don\u2019t <\/em>look for it too quickly. Put differently, if we look for a fast ten percent on our investment, we\u2019ll likely never develop the idea that produces a ten thousand percent return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens If you saw the movie The Social Network, then you may remember the scene where Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s character, says to his business partner, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,67,89,90,46,27,91,23],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-innovation","tag-investment","tag-marketing","tag-social-media-2","tag-starbucks","tag-trends"],"yoast_head":"\n