The Mesh

The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing by Lisa Gansky, 242 pages

Netflix, Airbnb, Zipcar... all of these businesses are based on the idea of people sharing or renting resources instead of purchasing them. And that's what The Mesh is all about. Gansky discusses the many ways in which our world is changing to be more suited to rentals and sharing rather than purchasing: the economy in the recent years, the collapse of big businesses, the continuing strain on the environment... according to Gansky, these have all primed us for Mesh businesses, which are transparent, feature goods that are built to last (or be upgraded), and are shareable.

Gansky does a great job of presenting her arguments, using real-life examples to back up her claims. Are some of her ideas a little dubious? Yes. (Especially the one that suggests that Walmart create a share club that will let people turn in their used goods for a discount on an upgrade; the used goods would then be sold to others. Somehow I don't see the Walton family going for that.) But that doesn't mean the overlying theory isn't solid. I mean, look at the library. This is the original Mesh business, albeit one that's not based on making money. So really, this book could be summed up as taking a library mentality and applying it to money-making businesses. A pretty cool concept if you ask me.

Note: the last 60 pages or so of this book are a Mesh directory, with sections on different types of industries, and information about Mesh businesses that fit into those categories. It's really cool, and I definitely plan on investigating some of these businesses in the future.