We have discovered the ideas behind the networked economy are a collection of bad mathematics, bad science and bad economic theory. But what about business practice? How do the New Rules for the New Economy stack up as new way of doing business?

As any young entrepreneur soon discovers when you are hot everybody wants to know you. Your phone runs hot and your network expands rapidly to reflect your new found status in the market place.

And yet if you talk to any successful business person now down on their luck they will tell you that everybody loves you when you are a winner but when things turn sour... well you soon discover who your really friends are. Their address books are over flowing with high value contacts. None of which they can utilise to their advantage because as they have now discovered the value of their network is actually a reflection of their personal Brand. Not visa versa.

You see the problem with the network economy is it presumes that business is a function of the network. When in reality the network is a function of busy-ness.

When you are busy your network reflects the value of your busy-ness. When you are struggling then your network's value will reflect your situation. This is because your are the strange attractor that stimulates the network. Not visa versa. It is another way of saying if your brand is worthless then chances are your network is also worthless.

Thanks to 20 years of op:ed pieces like the New Rules of the New Economy and books like Net Ready our concepts about the value of the network have been hyper inflated beyond recognition.

So much so that we now confuse the scale of the Network with Brand Equity.

That's why today, rather than invest in our Brand, we collected virtual fans, contacts and friends like an old hobbyist once collected stamps or trading cards.

The problem of course is simply expanding your network isn't going to change your situation. You just end up with a bigger list of low value contacts. A collection of meaningless names. However invest in your Brand Equity and improve your Brand and strange things begin to happen. People become excited about who you are and what you are doing and your network grows simply because people want to do business with you.

We may well say that it isn't what you know but who you know but the reality is in business your network is a reflection of your success. Not the key to your success.

I'll close off this cycle of reflection on the New Rules for the New Economy with this observation.

The Internet. The Web. The eBusiness. The Social Network. The Networked Economy. Is really he story of how Silicon Valley leveraged bad mathematics, bad science and bad economic theory to help it rebirth a forgotten technology and repackage it as the future of everything.

It is arguable the most successful advertising and marketing campaign in the history of Madison Avenue.

The network as Brand. A Brand that owns all the ideas we have about the future of business.

The key then to unlocking the potential of the Network Economy isn't the network. It is to understand the power of the Brand hasn't been diminished by the New Rules for the New Economy. It has become primary to your success in the New, New Networked Economy.

Till next time...

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