Part One: The Intention Economy

The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge by Doc Searls, the senior editor of Linux Journal and coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto, is not a quick or easy read but it is the sort of book that makes you challenge your assumptions. If you're in business or interested in business relationships, you'll probably find yourself jotting down a lot of notes: "What if the relationship with our customers was much more fluid?" "What if we declared that we are open to considering their terms rather than trying to shape our terms in a manner that we hope will meet their desires?"  "What if we let our customers tell us in advance how much they believe our products/services should cost?" "What if customers had much more contractual freedom?" "What if we stressed vendor relationship management instead of customer relationship management?"

I'm still processing this extraordinary book and will be writing about it in several segments.