"Collaborative Business Models: The Time Has Come to Talk About Them in an Introductory Way"

(Area: Business, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Collaboration, Technology)

(Reading Material "Collaboration Advanced Course: Collaborative Business Models and Strategy in the New Age", Hugo Céspedes A.)

"Entering right land", as we say in my country, the time has come to talk about "COLLABORATIVE Business Models". Why do I give so much importance to this phenomenon / business modality / way of Creating Value / ....? Generating ideas for novel and sustainable business models is a challenging task of Crucial Innovation. The development of new Business Models presents a critical and demanding task for effective divergent and convergent group organizations. Collaborative Business Models will often be equated with disruptive business efforts, epitomized by a handful of large global exchange platforms. They represent a certain archetype of business model, extracting profits from market-mediated peer-to-peer exchanges. A narrow focus on for-profit models obstructs understanding of the full scope of the Sharing Economy phenomenon, driven by purposes and actors beyond business market domains. However, there are alternative Value Creation mechanisms (Collaborative Value Creation ) and archetypes of emerging business models that are giving a lot of talk.

But what do we understand by Collaborative Business Models?

Nowadays, organizations can open open and flexible calls for an indeterminate group of people to carry out a task, always intermediated by a platform that allows them to use, share, exchange or invest their own resources.

Therefore, Business Models are understood as an abstract representation of organizations, of all related concepts, financial agreements and the core portfolio of products or services that the organization offers and will offer based on the actions necessary to achieve the goals and strategic goals. This definition indicates that the Value Proposition, value architecture (organizational and technological infrastructure), financial value and network value are the primary dimensions of business models. The term, business model, is used for a wide set of descriptions that represent central aspects of a business, among them the Purpose, Business Process, Target Market, Offers, Strategies, Infrastructure, Organizational Structures, Business Practices, Processes Operations and Policies. Business Models are used to describe and classify businesses, especially in an entrepreneurial context, but they are also used within companies by managers to explore future development possibilities. Business Models can be like recipes for managers.

That said, we can add that for some, the Collaborative Economy is an Economic Model, within which emerging business models called Collaborative Business Models arise, which are based on the exchange of goods and services between producer-consumer in exchange compensation agreed between both subjects. Within some examples of Collaborative Business Models, there are the following "types/modalities of Collaborative Business Models" characterized so far: Collaborative Consumption, Open Knowledge, Collaborative Production, Collaborative Finance.

a) Type/Mode Collaborative Consumption: Refers to platforms in which users exchange products or services, such as Wallapop. The classification/modalities of Collaborative Consumption of Accommodation Services (Refers to sharing a room in your house or the entire apartment when it is not inhabited) and Transportation (sharing car trips) could also enter here.

b) Type/Modality Collaborative Production: Platforms that promote the manufacture of products or services in a collaborative manner. Perhaps one of the examples is the Linux operating system.

c) Collaborative Finance Type/Modality: Platforms that put lenders in contact with borrowers, facilitating financing for others, such as: a) "Crowdfunding" (which allows financing entrepreneurial projects from small contributions from several people), b ) "Crowdlending" (which are loans between individuals that allow financing projects or facilitating consumption and investment at lower interest rates than banks).

d) Type/Modality of Currency Exchange between Companies: Its name says it all. This is the mode of currency exchange between companies (eg Kantox ).

e) Type/Modality of Collaborative Commerce: Refers to second-hand buying and selling (eg Ebay , Wallapop or Chicfy -today Vinted -).

f) Type/Modality of Collaborative Open Knowledge: Platforms that promote the dissemination of knowledge by reducing legal or administrative barriers. It refers to sharing knowledge in an altruistic way (for example, Wikipedia , doing MOOCs on Coursera / Udemy / .. or exchanging and learning languages on HelloTalk ).

g) Type/Modality of Collaborative Spaces: Refers to the collaborative modality in various aspects such as sharing a storage room with LetMeSpace or sharing a workspace and experiences in Coworking .

h) Other Types/ Modalities of Collaborative Consumption: In these cases, we have examples such as Comprea (Lolamarket) -make the purchase and receive it at home, the shopper earns extra money and the buyer comfort- or Compartoplato, at the time, -share your food-.

Collaborative Business Models are considered not only as connected consumption, but also as an activity in which both the contribution and the use of resources are intertwined through peer-to-peer networks. They are also considered as socio-economic ecosystems around the distribution of human and physical resources, where the creation, production, distribution, trade, consumption of goods and services by different people and organizations are shared. Collaborative Business Models are also defined as technological phenomena that are based on access through ownership, use of online services, as well as monetary and non-monetary transactions, such as sharing, exchange, trade and rental. They are also considered as part of the sharing economy, which is an emerging economic-technological phenomenon that is fueled by the evolution of information and communications technology (ICT), the proliferation of collaborative web communities, as well as the social commerce/exchange. Finally, they are also defined as those modalities where consumers try to obtain a monetary value from a good that they have underutilized.

The Collaborative Circular Economy as a Model.

A special chapter within the Collaborative Business Models is dedicated to the Circular Economy. Why? Because I have seen how this collaborative business model has a unique impact that is worth highlighting as such.

We live on a finite planet with limited resources, in which the growth of its population is infinite. This is our current economic model, already expired, and of course unsustainable. Is there an alternative? Jeremy Rifkin puts it this way in "The Third Industrial Revolution", where he states that there is an alternative economic model, and it is the Circular and Collaborative Economy, in which the same technology that uses the Internet as a means of distributed communication, can also be used for distribute power. This theory is based on four basic pillars: a) The use of Renewable Energies, b) The possibility that buildings generate their own energy taking advantage of said renewable energies, c) The ability to store clean energy that is not consumed, d ) The use -convergence- of internet technology to distribute and share the energy that is not consumed immediately, with the rest of the consumers.

The Alternative Productive and Economic Model (The Circular Economy): The alternative model must be such that its operation is cyclical -circular and not linear-, that is, that the process has no end, but rather returns to its origin -cradle to cradle-; collection, manufacturing, distribution, installation, operation, end of life and recycling. An unlimited use of resources generates an unlimited amount of waste, while a limited use of resources generates limited amounts of garbage. It has been proven that you can even "generate energy from garbage". Therefore, the little waste that is generated in an alternative cyclical model can be used to generate clean energy. Sweden is an example of this.

This model is transposed to many scales: From the manufacture of clothing, footwear, and even furniture and decoration elements, to vehicles and buildings. Intervening in its manufacturing, distribution and transportation, operation and end-of-life processes can be effective if the objective is to reduce the consumption of resources -water, energy, raw materials, etc.- and limit waste and emissions.

A Change of Mentality: The alternative model also requires a change of mentality in society: Another way of living, another scale of values, other customs in daily life (taking the bicycle for short trips, or public transport, or sharing vehicle; use clean energy responsibly; reduce, reuse or recycle waste generated, consume water rationally; respect the natural environment, and respect public space by generating cleaner cities; control noise pollution levels, etc.

Urbanism and Mobility go hand in hand: A model of rational urbanism, such as the generation of mixed-use neighborhoods, has as a consequence a low need for transport on the one hand, since journeys are shorter, and greater interaction Social throughout the day. Thus, a mixed-use neighborhood is one that includes well-distributed basic services, and at a reasonable distance from residential buildings: supermarkets, pharmacies, nurseries, parks, cafeterias, gyms, health centers, schools, institutes, etc. An example of this is "the concentric city". This type of city responds to a model of sustainable urbanism. There is a main nucleus from which the city grows concentrically, and is organized through "high-density nodes", connected through "public transport". For example, Copenhagen is a concentric city, whose growth resembles the structure of a hand, in which the palm is the central core of the city, and the fingers are the high-density nodes, through which one has access to green areas, for recreation, and cultivation areas, for agricultural production.

The hand shape also responds to the need to "reduce the heat island effect in the city", allowing a greater degree of ventilation between buildings.

The New Challenges of Sustainability: "The world as we know it now is going to disappear". An economic system that does not take sustainability into account is no longer understood. This sentence is taken literally from an article published in July 2014, and expressly shows the words spoken by Jeremy Rifkin, president of The Foundation on Economic Trends, and author of "The Third Industrial Revolution" (as he had mentioned previously). According to Rifkin, "the third industrial revolution is the consequence of the meeting point between industry and new technologies today. The result is a Collaborative Economy, with practically zero cost. He himself conducts conferences by video conference and not face-to-face, since in this way it uses technology, reducing CO2 emissions.

As stated in his article, "it has gone from the environment to sustainability; from the Green Economy to the Circular Economy".

Origin of Collaborative Business Models.

During the last decade there has been an extraordinary boom in the implementation of Collaborative Business Models in new businesses. The available digital platforms have encouraged organizations to bet on "open mechanisms" where service providers, users and intermediaries interact at the same level. In this way, the basis of this system is "connect, share and Create Value".

Some argue that Collaborative Business Models have their origin in the Collaborative Economy, which arises as a result of the economic crisis where many countries were left with weak economies and high unemployment rates. For this reason, society began to develop innovative solutions to influence through intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth that would result in the creation of jobs, the improvement of productivity and social cohesion. It was thus that the doors to the Collaborative Economy were opened, an economic model structured on technological platforms and citizen participation, which has generated business and exchanges based on reputation, with the aim of optimizing underutilized assets and offering a disruptive, open response. and dynamics for inequity and inefficiency in the world.

Others maintain that although these collaborative business models emerged around 2007 (after an article by Ray Algar, consultant for Leisure Report called "Collaborative Consumption"), and their popularization through the books "What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption", by Rachel Botsman & Roo Rogers; or "The Zero marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons and the Eclipse of Capitalism" by Jeremy Rifkin; the truth is that the phenomenon is much older.

Already in ancient times, the human being carried out, while living in small communities, bartering services or products, which occasionally extended to nearby communities. These exchange mechanisms have remained in force in small communities (neighborhoods with a strong identity or rural), more accentuated in those with problems of economic crisis or lack of money.

Also the impulse of communitarian and ecological philosophies from the 60s of the last century, began to popularize some of these economic relations based on the paradigm of sharing goods and exchanging them for others that are necessary. Most of these markets were based in small communities and were complementary and/or marginal, and practically never a substitute for the economy based on the exchange of goods and services for legal tender and formal trade mechanisms.

However, the oil crisis that occurred in the 70s of the 20th century gave rise to the first experiences of business models of the Collaborative Economy, especially in the American continent. Thus, in 1975, the Useful Service Exchange appeared in Reston, Virginia (United States), created by a young local citizen, Henry Ware. This experience consisted of a market for the exchange of goods and services between individuals where legal tender was replaced by a payment unit based on time.

In 1976, in the city of Vancouver, Canada, the experience was repeated, with the name of Community Exchange, which would be extended to Vancouver Island in 1979.

That same year, an exchange system was launched in British Columbia, a province of Canada, which has been more successful throughout the world and can be considered the first example of a Collaborative Economy Business Model, almost an act of birth. I am referring to the LETS Exchange Systems (Local Exchange Trading System). The main characteristics of these systems are: that they launch a currency (the Green Dollar, with parity with the Canadian dollar), and that they begin to make an incipient use of information technologies, with a desire for universal extension. In this case, this first initiative develops a computer program that allows LETS systems to be implemented anywhere in the world. Additionally, a company, Landman Ltd., was created with the aim of extending this system outside the community of origin.

It does not take long for this model to spread through different Anglo-Saxon countries, with different LETS systems being implemented in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

In continental Europe, these systems are also replicated, with their various peculiarities. In France they are called SEL (Systémes déchange Local), the first of which was founded in 1994 and some 300 survive to the present day. Then it expands to Spain. Although it expanded throughout Europe, it is still in the United Kingdom where its main presence is located.

In the mid-90s of the 21st century, commercial initiatives began to appear (Ebay, Crag'slist) that, forgetting barter, and based on technology, tried to put different consumers in contact so that they could offer their services or their idle goods to available to other people through a buying-selling mechanism. These companies were born in the state of California, in the United States, in order to expand the services they saw in their community (classified ads, markets) through the use of technological telecommunication tools.

As these models are triumphing, all of them with an important technological base, companies appear that replicate social initiatives and disseminate them through their communities, making the universe of their broader reach. In 2000, Zipcar is founded, a company whose purpose is "to share the use of vehicles without an associated driver." This is one of the sectors, transport, which has created the most controversies during this stage of growth of the Collaborative Economy models.

In 2004, Couchsurfing appears, initially as a non-profit company and later as a commercial company. This company begins to offer, in social network format, accommodation in the home of third parties (sleeping on the sofa) and the organization of activities, with a list of references and ratings.

In a similar area, that of accommodation, although more oriented towards an "informal hotel" type of service, AirBnB appears in 2008, on the same business basis (accommodation for third parties in private homes, with the collection of a commission by the intermediary and a fee by the owner of the accommodation). Currently, it is cited as one of the most successful models within the companies associated with the Collaborative Economy (pre-Covid-19 pandemic).

In Eastern Europe, companies have also appeared that take advantage of the idle resources of third parties to launch exchange and opinion platforms, such as social networks. Perhaps the best known is BlaBlaCar , a French carsharing company, which allows its users to get in touch to share expenses on the same journey, with the prohibition that the driver of the vehicle obtains any benefit from said transaction.

This historical list of actors in the Collaborative Economy would not be complete without one of its most relevant and controversial actors, Uber , which was founded in 2009 as a car sharing company with a driver.

In that same year, Kickstarter was founded, a company oriented towards micro patronage or "Crowfunding ", especially linked to projects from culture, being the origin of this financial mechanism associated with the Collaborative Economy. Currently, unlike Couchsurfing, it has set itself the goal of becoming a non-profit entity, directing its activities towards the generation of shared knowledge.

In the area of Shared Knowledge and Knowledge Generation, generating its income through micro-patronage, and oriented to non-profit service, it could also be framed as the most famous initiative of the 21st century and which has become practically the global synonym of knowledge, such as Wikipedia , which was launched in 2001.

Business initiatives linked to this phenomenon are constantly appearing. But at the same time, as soon as they have a certain success, important social controversies take place, leading to legal proceedings. Currently, the paradigmatic companies of this economy are under analysis of their activities in different parts of the world, either by courts (Uber, Blablacar), or subject to administrative decisions (AirBnB). Likewise, in different OECD countries, different analyzes and legislation proposals are being proposed to try to know what it is and how it affects collaborative business models and its Collaborative Economy to the rest of the economic relations and therefore, to the administrations, being This is the historical point in which the phenomenon is found.

According to data from PwC, they indicate that only in its first seven years, this sector was valued at US$15,000 million, expecting that by 2025 it will reach its greatest potential with estimated revenues of more than US$335,000 million. Figures from JWT Intelligence project that the region most likely to use the services derived from the Collaborative Economy is Asia, with a consumption share of 78%, followed by Latin America and the Middle East with 70%, leaving Europe and Latin America in third place. North (United States and Canada) with 52%.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2014, calculated the potential of Collaborative Consumption (a part of the Collaborative Economy) at US$110,000 million, its current size being around US$26,000, while the benefit produced in a worth $3.5 billion (according to Forbes). According to another study, the impact of Collaborative Consumption could reach more than US$335 billion in 2025, according to PwC in its study collected from the OBS business school in 2016.

Others agree that Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation is a booming sector throughout the world, and that we are also facing a "paradigm shift in consumption". Today, organizations can open open and flexible calls for an indeterminate group of people to "carry out a task", always mediated by a platform that allows them to use/share/exchange/invest their own resources. The premise is: "if you win, I win too".

But the Collaborative Economy encompasses more than Collaborative Consumption, but is also Collaborative Production (Do-It-Yourself movement, with the development of shared creative spaces such as FabLabs), P2P finance and Crowdfunding movements, and Open Knowledge (MOOC ′s -Massive Online Open Course or Massive Open Online Courses-, New Models of Organization in research or in the elaboration of legislation), for which the economic and social impact will be greater than the figure estimated by MIT.

Therefore, we can say that we are facing a phenomenon that affects all productive relations, both from a technical and organizational point of view. But, are we facing an alternative system or alternative tools of the same system? This differentiation is important, since an alternative system implies an alternative re-definition of the relationships linked to said system (labour relations, taxes, legislation, etc.), insofar as the use of alternative tools implies new structures internal organizational and particularizations in the general system implemented, but not a general re-elaboration of the relationship framework.

In this way, opening up to Collaborative Business Models is entering into the dynamic that is trending in the world today and in the coming years, where the main thing will be to "build supplier communities" based on relationships between peers. These new provisions make it possible for stores to opt for multiple alternatives to "increase their potential" and "optimize their productivity", especially with regard to their sales and dealings with buyers.

Moving from Hyperconsumption to the Collaborative Economy.

There is an evolution of the Consumer Society distinguishing three stages.

First Stage: From about 1880 to World War II. Trade is boosted thanks to the development of machinery and transportation, which allowed companies to increase their production volumes. Consumers were limited to buying brands, preferably prestigious ones.

Second Stage: From the end of World War II until 1970. This stage is characterized by mass consumption, where some goods such as cars or appliances became accessible to everyone. This allowed to increase the quality of life of the society. The number of products and market segmentation are taken into account, creating fashion and causing consumption to be maximized without thinking about quality.

Third Stage: From 1980 to 1990. It is a Hyperconsumption phase. This stage focuses on the emotional and bodily satisfaction of people. What sells is no longer the brand, but the lifestyle that consuming products of that brand can offer you.

Thus, starting in the 1990s, the Collaborative Economy movement began to gain importance with the development of new technologies and the Internet (Varma, 2000). This phenomenon has an extremely powerful dynamic that has enormous commercial and cultural impact, reinventing not only what we consume, but how we consume it. Consumers stop being passive consumers to become Creators (de Maeyera & Bonne, 2015).

The economy of the 20th century can be summed up as an economy that was focused on Hyperconsumption based on credit, advertising, and individual property. The Economy of the 21st century is focused on Collaborative Consumption using reputation, community and shared access as the main tools. Thus, Collaborative Consumption has become one of the main trends of the 21st century. It bursts in at the beginning of the new millennium, with more force in the United States, but the economic crisis of 2008 made it popular in Europe. Young people find Collaborative Consumption attractive, as well as consumers with higher income levels (Olson, 2013). The following table shows the basic differences between Hyperconsumption and the Collaborative Economy.

Characteristics of Collaborative Business Models.

Collaborative Business Models (generally classified within the so-called Collaborative Economy), have characteristics such as:

a) Exchange of goods and services between producer-consumer in exchange for compensation agreed between both subjects.

b) Based on the Collaborative Economy: That is to say, they are based on networks of interconnected individuals and communities, as opposed to centralized institutions, which are transforming the way of producing, consuming, financing and lending.

c) Collaborative Consumption: These are business models inserted in an economic model, which in turn is based on sharing, exchanging, selling or renting products and services, allowing access to goods through the owner, so that what changes is not what is consumed, but "how it is consumed".

d) Sharing Economy: They consist of models inserted in an economic model that is based on sharing underutilized goods by their owners (such as spaces, tools or objects, to obtain monetary or non-monetary benefits).

e) Economy of Equals: Business Models inserted in applications to markets from individual to individual, based on trust between them, which facilitate both the sharing and the direct sale of products and services.

Similarly, "Four Fundamental Principles on which these business models are based are identified: i) Critical Mass:, ii) Excess Capacity:, iii) Belief in Goods and Consumption:, iv) Trust among Strangers.

Benefits of Collaborative Business Models.

1) Immediacy of Information: Technological facilities allow information to be available just a click away, and without going through a series of intermediaries. If we add to that that there is an entire community working and in contact to achieve a goal, that time translates further.

2) Knowledge of Improvements: By being in direct contact with their points of sale and customers, organizations can monitor the operation of their businesses whenever they want: customer service, product availability, prices, cleanliness, etc. The important thing is that through Collaboration and raising early alerts, you can take care that quality and productivity do not decline.

3) Technology Lowers Costs: The intermediation of digital platforms and mobile applications that encourage Collaborative Models, manage to drastically reduce transaction and personnel costs of organizations. Thus, both small and medium-sized companies can save resources and optimize them in other areas of interest.

4) Customer Feedback: Collaborative Business Models break down the traditional barriers that exist between the company and its customers. By being in direct contact and in a constant dialogue with them, it is easier to be aware of the needs, tastes and opinions that consumers have regarding the services and products offered. This knowledge allows you to improve the link and create a reliable market that increases the chances of sale.

5) Loyalty and Community Creation: From the previous point, we can also extract that the principle of Collaboration and teamwork of the Collaborative Business Models, create a sense of belonging in the clients, with whom they can be in constant connection, even thinking of a long-term alliance. This in turn allows the fulfillment of tasks to be easy and agile, and to build a "community" around the project. In addition, due to the diffusion of the calls and the central role that the participation of the audience has, this system allows two additional aspects: a) Engagement with the Users, b) Promotion of the organization/company.

6) Sustainable Development: Collaborative business models promote the second life of products that have already been used by their current owners, thus contributing to moderate consumption along with environmental benefits.

7) Resource Management: Collaborative business models help to take better advantage of the products offered in the market, for example, when sharing the expenses of a trip when sharing a car.

8) Greater Offer: Collaborative business models allow the existing offer to be increased by including second-use products on the market, the offer catalog is expanded along with new products. In this way, it initially contributes to shifting the equilibrium point of the ideal market supply-demand price downwards.

Collaborative business models, inserted in the Collaborative Economy, allow people the opportunity to obtain products at a more accessible price and of good quality. Similarly, they allow products to be sold or exchanged with other consumers to give products a longer life, thinking about sustainability and applying new information and communication technologies.

Similarly, collaborative business models allow consumption by moving economic activities between the product and the consumer, opening the way to sharing goods in a more economical way for the consumer and giving the product an extra income to its economy.

In addition, from an ecological point of view, the sharing of goods that collaborative business models allow, help reduce pollution to the environment. This means that more people share, sell or exchange products with others, giving a better and longer use to products that for some people are useless and sharing goods to generate money.

From the point of social relations, collaborative business models through connected consumption help open doors to meet more people who in the future can collaborate in some economic activity, just as it helps to extend the contact list.

How to Generate Collaborative Emerging Business Models?

Well, that is already a matter of strategic advice on entrepreneurship / Innovation / Strategy / Collaboration / Technology / .. which has a different price, ha-ha-ha. :) However, I'll be posting Tips, Guides and other tools on my social media, so stay tuned.

However, an advance in this regard is related to the fact that organizations usually deliver services depending on their model, usually offering the necessary technical infrastructure, such as an app or an online platform.

P2P Model: With this type of peer-to-peer business model, organizations provide technical infrastructure that they share or rent.

B2C Model: In the business to consumer model, companies use the new technical possibilities so that customers can use their own products.

B2B Model: In the business-to-business model, companies lend, for example, production machines or services to other companies. In this way, companies save themselves the costly purchase of equipment or the hiring of experts.

B2C and B2B models have been around for quite some time and thanks to technical innovations, they work faster and more simplified. For its part, the B2P model is the most interesting for understanding the new possibilities and dimensions of this Shared Economy model.

Facundo Díaz (entrepreneur in Silicon Valley), in a conference published on ecommerceTV (part of a series of international conferences that were part of the "International Internet Leaders Latam Congress" organized by the Peruvian Chamber of Electronic Commerce), maintains that "the new models of collaborative, remote and digital businesses" are key concepts. The first thing is to "offer solutions". If you do not offer solutions, you will not have Value Creation in your collaborative business model. Second, it must be a collaborative platform. Third must be digital.

It must be clear, "where we are", "where we are going" and "what we can do". It is what I have done in the companies in which I am involved, and that are working, says Díaz.

a) "Where are We": These questions help us understand the current context (local, regional and global) in which we find ourselves. It helps us to understand the current problems and needs that are happening, in order to be able to glimpse "pains" and "opportunities". It helps us glimpse the impact of situations (which can be segmented or transversal to different segments of people/groups of people/locations/regions/...). It helps to understand key issues that are changing, or are happening right now. Specifically, Díaz refers to the situation of the global pandemic that we are currently experiencing. It refers to situations that have an impact on any business and on the life of any human being (for example, border closures, school closures, isolation, stronger and more present states, military support, flowering of greater solidarity -for which we are understanding each other better-, greater concern and more needs and potential conflicts -due to the limitation of products that can lead to critical situations and greater challenges-). The good news is that, being an entrepreneur, we understand these problems and look for solutions (so we change problems into effective solutions, transforming this situation into a unique moment). Today's great technology companies were born from critical moments, for example the 2008 crisis. Therefore, it is at this time that disruptive business models are born, so it is advisable to take action on these occasions.

"Where are we going": Here the important thing is to try to see some trends in terms of business models, simply by observing what is happening. Currently (referring to the never-before-lived experience of the pandemic), with "a short-term view, an idea trigger is what can be observed (today) such as:

i) "Aspirational versus Practical/Healthy Trends". The important thing today is no longer aspirational, but on the contrary, what will prevail is Pragmatism and Healthy Topics (due to the issue of the pandemic we are experiencing). Resources are going to tend to be scarce and company communications are no longer going to try to convince us with "aspirational issues." They will be more related to the core of what a brand is and the value of a product, especially healthy. For example, Coca Cola suspended its advertising globally, to allocate resources to the subject of research associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Bimbo in Mexico says goodbye to the little bear, since he does not want to associate sugary products with pets. Today, communication is wanted to be clearer. This creates opportunities for fitness app companies and their home services boom. Online Fitness apps are currently closing considerable funding rounds, in this crazy and chaotic global pandemic context. "When some road or door closes, many others open".

ii) Trend of "Value-Based versus Cashflow-Based": It refers to business models based on Value Creation (regardless of what the company loses -for example, Spotify just a few months ago reached the Break-even, where it is just beginning to make money, after losing money for a long time; Uber is still losing money). Today, investor capital is extremely limited, so the business models of current companies and startups cannot afford to think about losing money in the coming years (for the purpose of gaining users, taking positions in markets, for extracting innovative models). Today it is a certainty that we are living, the core is in the Chasflow, since today it is limited, so we are forced to review our business models in that sense (prioritizing resources, with a very great responsibility). Today it is more valuable "a dollar invested in maintaining a payroll of our employees, since this will generate a unique position for us in the long term, than allocating it to marketing to try to win one more client". Here it is recommended to "review our entire Value Chain, and understand all the actors that are involved". Not only considering our suppliers and clients, but also "understanding how my client makes money", "who is my client's client". It is key to "understand where the Cash is, how it is going to come and why the decisions that are going to be made", "how my client is going to have funds" and "what is he going to use them for" (my value proposition is key for him?). Clearly there is a limitation of resources that has cut the payment chains, so we must understand those Value Chains in which we are (both backwards and forwards). In the same way, "know who my suppliers are" and "who are the suppliers of my suppliers", "what do they need" (because, otherwise, my business could fall). If that Value Chain is cut, not only does the business drop for me, but for everyone. For this reason, I recommend this extensive look at the Supply Chain and the Value Chain, in order to better understand and, thus, be able to better prepare ourselves for what comes, in our objective of "being able to help those who need it" (whether they are clients, suppliers, or whoever), but it will also help us "understand where our business model stands - and the risks it is facing".

iii) The "Competition versus Collaboration" Trend: Here, the clearly competitive business models are analyzed versus the Collaborative business models. Today no one doubts that the only thing that will get us "up and on our feet" are Collaborative Business Models. The market is showing us that, not only on a personal level, "no one is saved alone", but also "it is forcing us to work in Collaborative Models". This implies "having to forget how to face our competition". Many smart companies with financial backs are betting on getting together and working together with competing companies and seeing how they produce and solve proposals together, but also "seeing how they complement each other". It is key to know that today is the best time to start talking to our competition (it has nothing to do with how smart we are to take advantage of positioning ourselves in the market). All industries are impacted to a greater extent, so it is key to talk to our competitors, and see how together we unite to "create Collaborative Value", "defend the industry and those who are our customers and our suppliers". This "helps you see doors opening after others have closed". For example, Facundo Díaz says that "in the last three weeks, one of his companies has generated all the revenue they had planned for a whole year." This shows that, although we are in crisis, in a difficult moment, "this is going to happen and we are going to get out of here with flying colours". But this also shows that "in times of crisis, there are also opportunities". These opportunities today are seen in these "Collaborative Models". If we work with a global network, it is much more likely to be successful than if we were working with a network of only 5 people (who are in the same place, all living the same, without different visions of events). The latter can lead to a great risk in the operating model of organizations (whether they are companies or startups). This is also possible, "if businesses today are one hundred percent digital (even working from home)". As we can see, the business opportunities are there. That is why these "Collaborative and Distributed Business Models are the ones that are beginning to succeed and gain ground, versus Competitive and Individualistic Business Models".

iv) "Fees-Based versus Free Data-Based" Trend: That is to say, a key issue with this limitation of resources is related to "Business Models based on Direct Sales Fees, versus Business Models that Bring Free Solutions based on Data -Data in English-" (or in value that can be generated through platforms where free services are offered, but value is generated from the users who transact on them). This is not new. We know platforms like Google, which is totally free, Facebook which is free, Instagram which is free. They have billion-dollar businesses taking advantage of user data (the data or the operations carried out by users). Obviously there are many challenges in this regard (being organized, protecting information, thinking of service offers for users with fewer resources,...). We are obliged to see business models that allow us to continue offering services, use that data to offer new services, respecting the privacy of user information. We have this challenge of finding new business models for users (since it will be difficult for users to pay for monthly services or have free availability of Cashflow to pay).

v) "Trend of the Human versus Robot and Artificial Intelligence": It is something essential. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence come with great force. In a world where businesses are tending to be one hundred percent digital, where if one could previously think of a blended business (mixed or hybrid between physical and digital) or some work that we could do physically, this may be happening, but if we're not seeing robotics and artificial intelligence issues in our business models, we're going to be out of business. For example, today all the big e-commerce companies like Amazon are using algorithms, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, as there are a lot of opportunities that are opening up. Companies like Nuro are using this technology and robotics so that there is no human interaction in the process.

It is recommended "not to be afraid of Artificial Intelligence", says Facundo. There are many free open source solutions, which have codes, widgets,... where you simply have to get into the subject, see what is there, and generate new free solutions. Let's take the time to understand this, because the competition is going to be great. Those who have digital businesses and are not, at least, doing research on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotization, to know how they can add these technologies to their business to generate new opportunities, in the short term they will be left behind, or they will difficult to compete with those who are doing it. Is not difficult!

vi) "The tendency of the Linear versus the Inter-Relational": It refers, for example, to the fact that "traditional e-commerce is going to change". Mercado Libre , Amazon , .... any Marketplace is "linear", that is, there is an offer of products and there is a consumer who enters a site and buys them. This modality is going down in history.

This new platform scheme is based on "inter-relational schemes", that is, they work with inter-relational models where "the purchase is made social". What it allows is to "build a pool of buyers", "generate social purchases" where I can browse product offers and invite my friends to buy some things together, a situation for which "we will receive discounts". In the same way, it is "totally open" for those who offer products in those same markets (allowing them to manage their stock, project them and also allow them to offer discounts). In recent times, with the issue of isolation, what is seen in China is that this business model works. We are social beings, but also the fact that the Client-Supplier relationship is more dynamic, simpler, and where I have the possibility of going shopping virtually with my friends, makes this type of business model set the trend. Thus, these platforms with Machine Learning that allow me to better understand my clients, will allow the creation of collaborative business models for the marketplaces of the near future. This is just one example of how platforms are evolving. This is the case with Pinduoduo , a technology platform focused on agriculture, the largest in China.

It has created a platform that connects farmers and distributors with consumers directly through their interactive shopping experience. Pinduoduo burst onto the e-commerce scene in China and has already overtaken giants like Alibaba on some metrics in the country. Its next goal is to become the largest platform for agricultural products in the world. In 2020, Pinduoduo put its number of annual active users - those who place at least one order - at 788.4 million, ahead of Alibaba's 779 million. Though still far from Alibaba's $635 billion valuation, Pinduoduo staged a $1.7 billion New York IPO in 2018, and already has a market capitalization of about $170 billion. How has a company founded in 2015 managed to grow so much in such a short time? Putting into practice the right idea in the right place and at the right time", says Andre Zhu, vice president of Pinduoduo, where in the middle of the last decade "a perfect opportunity" to promote a platform like Pinduoduo, accessible only by mobile application. At that time, China was in full transition to the mobile internet, to which was added the popularization of the now ubiquitous smartphone payments and the development of logistics systems.Pinduoduo was born with a "different approach, focused on agricultural products, A sector in which Xhu sees great potential, in part because it is one of the least digitized, even today, with the popularization of this type of platform, the internet penetration rate in this industry is around 7%.

One of the services that has attracted the most attention from consumers and the media in recent times is "Duoduo Grocery", a kind of virtual supermarket for local fresh products that emerged in response to the trend of shopping online due to the pandemic of the coronavirus, and which is already present in more than 300 Chinese cities. "More than 12 million farmers already sell directly to consumers" through Pinduoduo, Zhu reveals. One of the keys to its success is its ability to offer lower prices by leaving the products at a collection point instead of taking them to the customer's house, since the well-known "last mile" of delivery accounts for up to 30% of the logistics cost. He Shuang, one of the farmers who cultivates the popular pomegranates in Huli County (Sichuan, central), explains that working through Pinduoduo guarantees "strong and predictable demand" for his products, something that did not happen when he worked with the traditional distribution channels.

Beyond finding products and purchasing them, users also find mini-games and live broadcasts on Pinduoduo. The Duoduo Grocery model, which already has major rivals such as Meituan Select , could be an example for similar services in other countries, says Natalie Wu, an analyst at Haitong International Securities, citing the increase in online food purchases both in the United States of America as in Europe in the context of the pandemic.

Another issue where the emergence of Pinduoduo could set an example for e-commerce platforms in other countries is the focus on "interaction". "No consumer would say no to getting better value for money and having an entertaining experience while shopping", says Wu. And it is that, beyond finding products and purchasing them, users also find in Pinduoduo mini-games and live broadcasts (livestreaming), in addition to facilitating purchases between groups of friends, something that also helps to concentrate demand and allows sellers offer more competitive prices. The interaction also reaches companies: Zhu gives the example of a Chinese company that sold its robot vacuum cleaners for about 1,000 yuan (US$154, 127 euros) and after seeing what its customers thought of its products, it eliminated little-used functions and managed to reduce the price to about 300 yuan (US$4.38) and thus increase their sales.

Pinduoduo assures that it is precisely this connection between customers and vendors that allows the prices of the products to be low and describes as wrong ideas the information that attributes them to aggressive subsidies offered by the company.

"What Can We Do": With all of the above, what can we do? Here a little to finish, in summary we clearly have an enormous opportunity to create, to undertake new projects, new companies, new solutions. Today the world needs us more than ever. If you are an entrepreneur, it is the moment, it is our moment.

We must be clear that these solutions are not going to come from large corporations, no matter how many millions of dollars they have in the bank. They will come from entrepreneurs and innovators who are quick to implement these types of solutions (not the biggest will beat the smallest, in terms of size). So, it's time to find those solutions. If we already have a company running, we are obliged to see these trends, understand them and rethink them, in order to analyze our business models from end to end and rethink them with some of these trends that we are seeing.

These are just some trends in collaborative business models that are being observed globally.

We have the opportunity to generate a lot of value for many people, generating very valuable growth opportunities and new businesses today. Let's open our heads, let's think differently, let's see how large companies generated business models based on data, taking into consideration the trends of collaborative business models recently exposed, for example. Remember the privacy of the user's data, and respect for the user, which today is stronger than ever. In addition, we must consider that the way we are living now and in the short term, is also changing.

What happens in the world from now on, only depends on us. "We have the opportunity and responsibility to make this world a better world." Hopefully it's better than what we've done so far.

Conclusions.

As we can see, it is no longer possible to stop this revolution. It is worth asking ourselves: Will we be able to face the challenges and find effective solutions to coexist and reconcile with these new models characterized by being Innovative, Disruptive, Economic, Ecological, among others, at the same time?

Collaborative Business Models are a reality, as well as all its variations. That is why in future posts of "Capsules of Knowledge and More", I will begin to analyze and explain these "variations of Collaborative Business Models" that have occurred over time, and will occur in the near future, as for example, to name a few: "Open Innovation Collaborative Business Models", "Cooperative Collaborative Business Models", "Open Source Collaborative Business Models", "Distributed Autonomous Enterprise Collaborative Business Models", "Distributed Autonomous Enterprise Collaborative Business Models", Distributed Quantum Collaboration", "Open Network Collaboration Collaborative Business Models", "Cryptoscom Collaborative Business Models", "Distributed Production Collaborative Business Models", "Additive Distributed Production Collaborative Business Models", "Collaborative Business Models of Crowdfunding", "Crowdsourcing Collaborative Business Models", "Inter-relational Collaborative Business Models or Interactive", to name a few that I will analyze in future posts.

(Note: For those students of the course, go back to the course and follow the instructions to assimilate the knowledge delivered).

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