Dr. CJ Meadows, director of an innovation center at a top business school, argues that real value comes from deep relationships, not just a big network. She calls this social capital: the relevance you have to others, built by giving first. In the fourth industrial revolution, she says, social capital matters more than money or information.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Cj Meadows, Director of an Innovation Center at a Forbes Top 20 Global Business School. I have a Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. I'm an old dot-commer and entrepreneur, former Accenture IT and Strategy, and much more. Over the past few years, a lot of people have focused on broadening their networks. It's necessary, but not sufficient. You need the depth of contacts as well, so you can create together. It's not just who you know or what you know, but how well you know each other, how well you create together, and how relevant you are to them. That relevance of yourself to others is your social capital. So how do you build that relevance? One way is the Karma Methodology, in which you give and then it comes back, but you give first. You build your own relevance by building someone else's relevance, and they will in turn build others. The whole network rises because you started it. I believe that social capital is the next key capital. During the agricultural age, the key capital was land. During the first and second Industrial Revolutions, the key capital was financial capital. During the Third Industrial Revolution, the key capital was information, knowledge, the ability to process that. During the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a blend of everything gone before and a blend of technology, business, the arts, biology, the key capital is social. I study high-impact innovators, and it stunned me to what degree they don't just innovate with ideas, they don't just bridge ideas and industries and more, or technologies. Ideas and people go together. The next stage is the creative age, and you create with what's at hand. So you need to have at a hand knowledge, ways to use it, and people to use it with. Three cheers to the Social Capital Institute. I am very excited to be part of what I believe is building the future.
