Category: our knowledge

Since the beginning of the 1600, World saw the fledging of the Globalised economy from Slavery to consolidation of native lands to grow alien crops to massacre of local culture, knowledge, arts, artisans, faith, languages. This saw the evolution of weapons of mass destructions from one to many simultaneously to the destructions of cities or communities triggered by an action form thousands of miles away. Humanity, controlled by few individuals in the name of faith to Godmen to Kings to elected representatives – that kept majority away from any knowledge which was an entitlement of the few in the power earlier – found voice in Digital devices from what they can know, to read to publish to sharing anything with anyone.

Since then, visible Power structures have changed. Nation – States administration have changed. Politics has changed. Many currencies have come and many disappeared too. Borders have changed, expanded or merged and redrawn to create new Nations. World faced Wars, Famines, Tsunamis, Financial Meltdowns and even global Power centres changed in these four and half centuries. Modern world saw the highest migrations and perhaps it’s understandable considering the population has grown over 15 times since 1600 to now. While Less than 1% of the world Own and control 43% of the World’s wealth, bottom 50% of the population owns 1.4 % of the World’s wealth. We have learnt to segregate the world as full & flawed democracies & hybrid and authoritarian regimes. 

World recognised 86 individuals for their contribution to economics with Nobel since its inception. 40% of fortune 500 companies don’t exist beyond 10 years. Among these companies except those coming from China and some of the Middle Eastern Countries, where in the government can take away all the wealth from the Individuals and companies in a flash, have so much wealth that can still dwarf some of the most developed countries’ (not just the developing countries) economies. Despite all the changes the world has undergone and population explosion and strain on the planet and so much of Technology advancements in every possible sector, wealth and value remains with far few companies and individuals across the globe. What is sustaining the inequality of this magnitude despite all the changes?

Much of the World population has been governed in Socialism and this has contributed to more poverty in those countries. One third of the world population for major part of last century was under communism and sustained arm race and millions of people being killed in the process and much of the killing was of their own Nationalities. China did manage to pull good population above poverty but at what cost? Last decade across the globe world saw a revival of Nationalism. Some major countries have leaned towards becoming Authoritarian or semi authoritarian and the majority of their population have accepted them and have even encouraged in large numbers. All these political changes have impacted in demonstrating Nationalising of large enterprises or corporations, or their wealth in these authoritarian countries, but the value has not really reflected in the wealth creation of its citizens.

Last few years of talking about Distributed Economy had only amounted to education of many but adoption still had to wait for the pandemic. It was 2020, which set the world to stop and rethink. All the negatives of demonetisation in India seemed to have setup a foundation for the explosion of Digital economy. While, all the Pyramid economy models were the first to start taking the advantage of Digital economy, they obviously kept away from the ‘Distributed Economy’. So, What is Distributed Economy?

There are a few definitions, if one chooses to Google, and here is how we would like to define it : An economy where in every individual and or Enterprise who contributes to wealth creation (Sustainably), not only get a share of the wealth created through their contribution but also gets to enjoy the collective value generated out of that effort.

Many confuse it to be same as a co-operative model. Perhaps, it is being human, we tend to relate anything to our past experience or knowledge. This perhaps is the closest but again, this has sustained livelihood of the contributing individuals and entities but not really in getting them to enjoy the collective value of the effort entirely. Some even assume it to be Circular economy. While, Circular economy is an evolution of Industrial economy driven by the concept of Productivity, which invokes the innovative abilities of the individuals measured on productivity to minimalism, reuse and reduce waste. This is essential for the large corporations and people from developed nations, who approach the world and its resources with a sense of abundance and entitlement. But, this can be a great start for large corporations to get started in their journey towards Distributed economy.

Various Business models have been in practice particularly since the dawn of the Digital economy. Digital economy began with the first phase of Digital Computer application in late 1930’s it took almost 4 decades for them to start getting into homes in the second phase. In the third phase came the Internet era that almost got much of the world connected. It is the fourth phase that saw the transactions in multitudes happening on phones and smart devices, which is now. While this opens up a huge opportunity for Businesses to engage in various Business models, Ventures did come up with inspiring models and so much so that much of the new wealthy and powerful in the world owe it to their unique models working with in the fourth phase of the Digital economy era. But, so much for the models the Businesses have managed to create incredible wealth while all of the value has been realised by the few founders and the investors only.

Uber had reached a high of $82 billion in valuation and the highest a Uber driver ever made is little less $24 an hour, which will not cross $60K in a year without considering the extra hours. The platform based business models delivering convenience to consumers, and customer access to Businesses, on an asset light model sustained livelihood for many but all the value has been exclusively for the founders and Investors. Businesses like Amazon, Google, Facebook have gone on to capture the consumers data while facilitating the Brands to use those data for a fee to sell their products and services. The value they have created out of the users data and influence they have been able to generate based on that is far greater than the most powerful armies across the world. Even, when Businesses who have taken all the risk and investments such as Hotel owners, have been able to create huge value for Businesses like OYO at around $9 billion.

Many of the Technology ventures started Employee Stock Options and obviously its effective on going IPO. But this was a big step and at least it did provide an opportunity for the Founders to share the value with its employees though not all of the stake holders. This largely remains a practice among the Technology companies only so far. But this demands going Public and then, much of the value is realised by the investor community rather than all the stake holders responsible in creating the Value. Going Public has lot more complexities, and even though there are SME exchanges, fundamentally the decision to go Public is not really about sharing the collective value with all the stake holders but just about getting more access capital and also about realising value for many of the early investors and share holders.

Here is our opportunity to change this all. Create opportunity for individuals and businesses to work to sustain their livelihood, create wealth and generate value, huge value and also get the share of the collective value each one has contributed to in building. A truly distributed economy, not just in theory but in practice. Not just in goodwill but also in deed. This is to invite every Individual and Enterprise who wants to be part of the Distribute economy model, which is about creating wealth for each of us and sharing the collective value among all of us. Every good effort starts with good intent, every collective effort ensures wealth creation and every wealth creates better value and every value is better realised collectively.