Marketplace 3.0
Rewriting the Rules of Borderless Business
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The CEO behind Rakuten and Kobo reveals how his unique approach to empowerment and collaboration defies conventional wisdom, and isthe future of growth and globalization strategy.
If Web 2.0 described the shift from static to interactive life on the Web, then 3.0 is the next sea change — driven by personalization, intelligent search, and user behavior. And that evolution has huge implications for everything we see, buy and do online. Rejecting the zero-sum, vending-machine model of ecommerce practiced by other leading internet retailers, who view the Internet purely as a facilitator of speed and profit, Hiroshi Mikitani argues for an alternate model that benefits merchants, consumers, and communities alike by empowering players at every step in the process. He envisions retail "ecosystems," where small and mid-sized brick-and-mortar businesses around the world partner with online marketplaces to maximize their customer bases and service capabilities, and he shows why emphasizing collaboration over competition, customization over top-down control, and long-term growth over short-term revenue is by far the best use of the Internet's power, and will define the 3.0 era.
Rakuten has already pioneered this new model, and Marketplace 3.0 offers colorful examples of its success in Japan and around the world. Mikitani reveals how the company enforces a global mindset (including the requirement that all its employees speak English, even in Tokyo); how it incorporates new acquisitions rather than seeking to completely remake or sell them for a quick profit; and how it competes with other retailers on speed and quality, without sacrificing the public good. Marketplace 3.0 is an exciting new vision for global commerce, from a company that's challenging all the accepted wisdom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By his own admission, the leader of the world's third largest e-commerce company is a rule breaker. In his first book, Mikitani, founder and chief executive of Rakuten, an international firm headquartered in Japan that owns Kobo and Buy.com, offers his philosophy of how to break rules and think differently to compete in the global marketplace. Called an "Internet evangelist," Mikitani shares the secrets, beliefs, and drive that fueled Rakuten's meteoric rise to success. Starting with the story of how he defied Japanese business tradition by making English mandatory for all workers at his company, Mikitani discusses how true empowerment of employees, vendors, and customers is key to building a healthy corporate culture; the mindset necessary to creating and sustaining a place in the global market, and how the element of joy is imperative in rewriting the rules of the Internet. While the book may seem self-congratulatory at times, and at others repetitive and in need of editing, overall Mikitani weaves an inspiring entrepreneurial story and presents a thought-provoking case for breaking rules.
