John Hagel III Quote

Pull approaches differ significantly from push approaches in terms of how they organize and manage resources. Push approaches are typified by "programs" - tightly scripted specifications of activities designed to be invoked by known parties in pre-determined contexts. Of course, we don't mean that all push approaches are software programs - we are using this as a broader metaphor to describe one way of organizing activities and resources. Think of thick process manuals in most enterprises or standardized curricula in most primary and secondary educational institutions, not to mention the programming of network television, and you will see that institutions heavily rely on programs of many types to deliver resources in pre-determined contexts.Pull approaches, in contrast, tend to be implemented on "platforms" designed to flexibly accommodate diverse providers and consumers of resources. These platforms are much more open-ended and designed to evolve based on the learning and changing needs of the participants. Once again, we do not mean to use platforms in the literal sense of a tangible foundation, but in a broader, metaphorical sense to describe frameworks for orchestrating a set of resources that can be configured quickly and easily to serve a broad range of needs. Think of Expedia's travel service or the emergency ward of a hospital and you will see the contrast with the hard-wired push programs.

John Hagel III

Pull approaches differ significantly from push approaches in terms of how they organize and manage resources. Push approaches are typified by "programs" - tightly scripted specifications of activities designed to be invoked by known parties in pre-determined contexts. Of course, we don't mean that all push approaches are software programs - we are using this as a broader metaphor to describe one way of organizing activities and resources. Think of thick process manuals in most enterprises or standardized curricula in most primary and secondary educational institutions, not to mention the programming of network television, and you will see that institutions heavily rely on programs of many types to deliver resources in pre-determined contexts.Pull approaches, in contrast, tend to be implemented on "platforms" designed to flexibly accommodate diverse providers and consumers of resources. These platforms are much more open-ended and designed to evolve based on the learning and changing needs of the participants. Once again, we do not mean to use platforms in the literal sense of a tangible foundation, but in a broader, metaphorical sense to describe frameworks for orchestrating a set of resources that can be configured quickly and easily to serve a broad range of needs. Think of Expedia's travel service or the emergency ward of a hospital and you will see the contrast with the hard-wired push programs.

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About John Hagel III

John Hagel (or John Hagel III) is a management consultant and author.
Hagel has spent over 40 years in Silicon Valley. He is the founder of two technology startups and served as the Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning at Atari, Inc. He spent 16 years at McKinsey & Company, where he helped open their Silicon Valley office. Served as a leader of their strategy practice also he founded their e-commerce practice in 1993. Hagel has also been a consultant at Boston Consulting Group.In 2007, Hagel founded the Deloitte Center for the Edge, a Silicon Valley-based research center. The Center for the Edge now has offices in Amsterdam and Melbourne.Hagel is also involved with several other organizations, including the World Economic Forum, where he currently serves as co-chair of the Global Future Council on the Future of Platforms and Systems. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, an organization that conducts research on complex adaptive systems, and Independent Institute. Additionally, he hosts executive roundtables at the Aspen Institute.He is credited with inventing the term "infomediary" in his book, NetWorth, co-authored with Marc Singer, and published by the Harvard Business School Press in 1999.
Hagel has been published in business publications including The Economist, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal as well as in mainstream media such as the New York Times, NBC and BBC.He has also been awarded two prizes by the Harvard Business Review for Best Article and has been called an industry thought leader by the World Economic Forum and Business Week. Hagel also blogs at Edge Perspectives, the Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Techonomy.