The Inversion Factor: How to Thrive in the IoT Economy (The MIT Press)

In The Past, Companies Found Success With A Product-first Orientation; They Made A Thing That Did A Thing. Theinversion Factor Explains Why The Companies Of Today And Tomorrow Will Have To Abandon The Product-first Orientation. Rather Than Asking How Do The Products We Make Meet Customer Needs? Companies Should Ask How Can Technology Help Us Reimagine And Fill A Need? Zipcar, For Example, Instead Of Developing Another Vehicle For Moving People From Point A To Point B, Reimagined How People Interacted With Vehicles. Zipcar Inverted The Traditional Car Company Mission. The Authors Explain How The Introduction Of Smart Objects Connected By The Internet Of Things Signals Fundamental Changes For Business. The Iot, Where Real And Digital Coexist, Is Powering New Ways To Meet Human Needs. Companies That Know This Include Giants Like Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Google, Tesla, And Apple, As Well As Less Famous Companies Like Tile, Visenti, And Augury. The Inversion Factor Offers A Roadmap For Businesses That Want To Follow In Their Footsteps. The Authors Chart The Evolution Of Three Iots -- The Internet Of Things (devices Connected To The Internet), The Intelligence Of Things (devices That Host Software Applications), And The Innovation Of Things (devices That Become Experiences). Finally, They Offer A Blueprint For Businesses Making The Transition To Inversion And Interviews With Leaders Of Major Companies And Game-changing Startups. -- Provided By Publisher. Introduction: Things Aren't What They Used To Be -- From Products To Needs To Experiences -- Inversion -- An Inversion Vocabulary -- The Internet Of Things : How Things Became Connected -- The Intelligence Of Things : How Things Became Smart -- The Immersion Of Things : How Things Are Becoming Experiences -- Inversion In Practice : Reinventing Your Market And Your Business -- Conversations With Inversion Players -- A Culture Of Inversion. Linda Bernardi, Sanjay Sarma, And Kenneth Traub. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.