The Power of Pull

How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion

by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison

Copyright © 2010 by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison
Published by Basic Books, a subsidiary of Perseus Books LLC
288 pages

Focus Take-Aways
Leadership & Management • The “push” business philosophy, wherein an elite minority attempts to anticipate the
Strategy majority’s needs, is outdated and no longer serves businesses well.
Sales & Marketing
• “The Big Shift,” a widespread social change, will see firms change their modus
Finance
operandi three ways:
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics • First, liberalization and improved technology will remove barriers to entry and
Career Development facilitate the movement of people, products and information across borders.
Small Business • Second, knowledge “flows” will become more important than knowledge “stocks.”
Economics & Politics
• Third, as push’s influence wanes, the “pull” business philosophy will come to the fore.
Industries
Global Business • Pull is the capability to corral valuable people and resources, when needed, to solve
Concepts & Trends problems and handle opportunities. It has three levels: “access, attract and achieve.
• Access data, resources and people by connecting with others who share your passions.
• Attract like-minded individuals by increasing your opportunities to meet them by
chance – for instance, at conferences or on social networks.
• Achieve your potential by learning to improve your performance via working with others.
• Pull can change the world by affecting markets and societies on a major scale.

Rating (10 is best)

Overall Applicability Innovation Style

7 7 8 6

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 Relevance

What You Will Learn

In this Abstract, you will learn: 1) What the theory of “pull” is, 2) How the three levels
of pull work and 3) How to use pull to your advantage.

Recommendation
“Pull” is the latest business dynamic that soon will be sweeping through an institution near
you. At least, that’s what business consultants John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang
Davison predict. The authors, all members of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, make a solid,
well-researched case for their strategic analysis, using detailed, candid accounts from
active participants in a world where people use connections, knowledge and resources to
solve problems. This is where the book sings: Its numerous colorful examples illuminate
the benefits of pull. While this scholarly work provides some useful suggestions, the
authors are more successful at defining and breaking down their theoretical information
than at offering a how-to guide for using pull at your next business meeting. getAbstract
recommends this volume to executives who want to move their companies ahead in the
digital age and to unite young technology rats and traditional workers.

Abstract

The End of an Era

“Push” has been a dominant business strategy since the start of the industrial revolution.
Push relies on the belief that people and institutions can predict their constituents’
demands and design effective systems to fulfill them. Examples include school curricula
planners who attempt to foresee what skills students will require later in life, church
“Push is seductive.
It creates the
leaders who try to prophesy their disciples’ paths to “salvation” and even weight-loss plan
illusion of great gurus who promise a trim body to anyone who follows their directions explicitly. Push is
power in an a restrictive, zero-sum model that treats “people as passive consumers” and assumes that
era when power “centralized decision makers” can anticipate and shape their needs. Company leaders
is shifting.” who use a push strategy believe that the more they sow, the more they reap. This small
“elite” minority makes decisions on behalf of the majority, and watches as managers try
to shape people’s tastes and desires.
However, the very systems and routines that the push tactic cherishes actually restrain
companies’ flexibility and adaptability – two values that are becoming increasingly
indispensable. Push can’t survive much longer in the face of the “Big Shift,” a deep,
ongoing transformation in society featuring three waves of change that will give
individuals power over institutions:
• “Infrastructural shift” – This wave is already underway. Technological advances
are altering the “business and social landscape,” removing barriers to entry. This
“There’s a new
paradigm in change began with the invention of the microprocessor and shows no signs of yielding.
town, and it’s Societal liberalization and policy changes encourage the flow of “people, products,
called pull.” money and ideas across national boundaries,” so competition is increasing, giving
consumers more choice.
• “Knowledge flows” – As data, people and resources move quickly across the globe,
“flows” of information will become more valuable than “stocks” of information.

The Power of Pull © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 2 of 5

 Exchanging knowledge, rather than storing it, fuels business success and upends the
value of proprietary information. As access to knowledge proliferates, data from “the
“The Big Shift: edge,” or “the fringe,” will contribute to corporate growth. Such inputs often have a
A world in which “transformative effect” on “the core” of business – the nerve center of operations that
citizens gain absorbs the majority of resources, but that is firmly tied to old ideas. The Internet has
political power accelerated this change. Edges naturally spark the flow of knowledge as people try to
relative to political
solve new problems creatively.
institutions. A
world in which • “Institutional innovations” – As push strategies shrink in importance, “pull-based
talented employees companies” that make businesses look and work differently, and ultimately function
capture economic more effectively, will begin to transform society.
value relative
to the firm. A The three waves of the Big Shift won’t roll in consecutively or quickly. The entire
world in which
consumers have
paradigm change could take five decades. But each wave will play a significant role
increased market as the world moves from push to pull. A universal dynamic already found in many
power relative to modern business success stories, pull is the ability to corral useful, valuable people and
vendors. A world resources, when necessary, to solve problems and handle opportunities. Pull has three
in which corporate levels: “access, attract and achieve.”
performance
is in decline.”
Access
Networking is the age-old conduit through which “introductions, information, knowledge,
capital, influence, opportunities, cooperation and collaboration” spread. The ability to
find people, knowledge and resources when needed forms the basic level of networking,
but access – the first level of pull – extends beyond calling in a favor from a friend.
Access relies on connecting people who share similar interests and passions, and who can
work together to solve problems deftly with the help of digital technology. The bigger the
“The core…is the
place where most
network, the bigger the pull. For example, in June 2009, political unrest swept through
of the resources Iran following its controversial elections. Protests erupted. The government cracked
are concentrated down on social media sites to gag the public. Joichi Ito, a computer scientist with an
and where the interest in human rights, pulled together an online community consisting of techies and
old thinking and
human rights activists. This group worked to ensure that Iranian citizens retained access
behavior still
hold sway.” to Twitter, thus preserving some freedom of speech during that tumultuous time.
Unlike push business models, pull networks do not try to predict demand. They simply
connect consumers with the products and services they require. This is where human
connections can provide invaluable solutions. Some industries use pull by giving
consumers access to whatever they need. Consider SAP, the world’s fourth largest
software firm. Because of its sheer bulk, it inadvertently built barriers into its operations,
making it difficult for customers to reach the right person quickly to solve a problem.
“Edges are places SAP conquered this barricade by developing NetWeaver, an innovative tool that allows
that become vendors who are at the edge to teach each other about SAP’s newest software. NetWeaver
fertile ground
now is a lively interactive community of contributors – independent customers and
for innovation
because they participants who engage in conversations about SAP’s products. This helps customers,
spawn significant particularly those with basic questions, while giving SAP engineers, the company’s core,
new unmet needs time to focus on more complex matters.
and unexploited
capabilities and The SAP example illustrates an important difference between push and pull strategies:
attract people who While push “platforms” facilitate the service provider, pull platforms prioritize the needs
are risk takers.”
of the customer or end user. Consider “open university” programs, which give students
maximum flexibility to complete their courses, or Apple’s iTunes store, which creates
“highly personalized music experiences” to match each individual customer’s needs.
The Power of Pull © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 3 of 5
 Attract
“Access will Attraction, the second level of pull, means drawing previously unknown – but appropriate
become
increasingly
and useful – resources and people toward you. Generally, when this happens, you call
necessary as it luck. But it isn’t truly random and it probably is due to something you’ve done. Call
competition it “serendipity” – accidentally stumbling across a solution you didn’t know you were
intensifies and seeking. In the Big Shift, serendipity in the form of chance encounters proves invaluable.
disruptions become Learn to manage the “funnel” of serendipity by staging more frequent scenarios where
more frequent.”
chance encounters are likely to occur. Serendipity can help connect people and their
“tacit knowledge” – that is, the things they know but can’t explain by writing them down,
such as how to ride a bicycle. But it’s hard to know that you’re looking for someone’s tacit
knowledge until similar interests draw you together and you start talking. Conferences
unite people with compatible concerns, giving them access to each another and creating
environments for deeper connections. This is serendipity, but it is managed or “shaped.”
“It’s quickly Individuals choose to attend conferences with like-minded people, thus setting up the
dawning on us potential for “chance” encounters.
that our education
was at best a Yossi Vardi, a multimillionaire and technology entrepreneur, maximizes his attraction
thin foundation and serendipity. His success, kind personality and status as a pivotal figure in the tech
that needs to industry draw like-minded people to him like magnets. He values every connection in
be continually
refreshed in order his network. Emulate Vardi. Mold your serendipity to fit your needs by uniting three
for us to stay essential ingredients:
competitive.”
• Settings – “Serendipitous environments” refer to real and virtual locations for
like-minded people, including conferences, online social networks, “connection
platforms” like SAP’s NetWeaver, and even old-fashioned “push-based institutions”
that are willing to become platforms for networking.
• Systems – “Serendipitous practices” are actions people do in online networks to
garner and prolong the attention they get from others, such as increasing “findability,”
“Serendipity learning new things and working from a “beginner’s mind,” a Zen concept for being
doesn’t just happen open-minded.
in a serendipitous
way…You have • Attention – “Serendipitous preparedness” refers to the ability to jump at new
to work for it.” opportunities. That requires a temperament that embraces the unexpected, an ability
(Yossi Vardi, to listen and consider ideas fully, and the skills to build valuable connections and
entrepreneur) associations over time.

Achieve
Achieve, the third and highest level of pull, means using access and attraction to reach
your potential. It focuses on learning ways to advance and speed up your performance
by working with others. The “diminishing returns” of “performance improvement”
associated with the Big Shift era means you must work harder and harder just to stay
“For the first
time in history even, getting more and more stressed along the way. Find a way to work better and turn
we may have that worry into enthusiasm – for instance, by turning your passions into your profession
the opportunity so you’re earning money and pursuing your dream at the same time. This kind of
to transform excitement, ideally, will spur you to work even harder.
diminishing-
returns Think of professional surfers: Their lives might sound glamorous, but they work in
performance dangerous conditions and few of them make much money. However, they are zealous
curves into
increasing-returns
about surfing. They spend hours in the water each day, and afterward spend more time
performance studying film and connecting online. Your challenge is to find something that excites
curves.” you, too. It doesn’t require major life changes; it just needs to be the right venue for your
skills and passions. Pull will eventually “redefine all jobs,” even the most mundane
The Power of Pull © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 4 of 5
 ones, in ways that concentrate on problem solving. This will accentuate performance
improvement and instill employees with passion. Institutions must motivate their
“We need to marry
our passions with employees to remain competitive.
our professions in Real or virtual places, or “creation spaces,” can provide environments that let contributors
order to reach
our potential.”
work together to develop relationships for their mutual gain. Existing creation spaces
began and developed on the edges of society, although some are now universally known.
For example, surfing has mutated from an individual sport where participants pursued
10-foot waves to a team sport where passionate surfers ride 60-foot waves. Surfing
communities developed and joined forces in remote locations – at surfing competitions
around the world and online through videos, movies and conversations. In another
example, online gamers collaborate to develop the computer game World of Warcraft.
The game has 12 million players around the globe. Each player’s participation extends
“Something quite the virtual world depicted in the game.
remarkable is
happening. As The originators of successful creation spaces must carefully organize, design and plan
large institutions their arenas before participants begin “self-organizing” and changing it to fit their needs.
hold on to what
they have, the
All spaces need room to evolve, but the founders of a creation space can’t plan that
locus of power evolution. Successful spaces share some other commonalities, such as diligent attention
and change is to three parts of the space. First, members must be able to join easily and receive “real-
inexorably shifting time feedback” so they can move ahead in the community. Second, the space must allow
to individuals.” two forms of interaction: team communications and free-flowing communications. Third,
the space itself must provide room for growth.

Putting Pull into Practice

Pull won’t happen overnight. It will take decades to transform society, but your individual
journey can begin today. Start by uniting your passion and your profession, which will
make it easier for you to work harder. This new focus will provide you with “trajectory,”
“The power of pull a goal around which everything else can coalesce. Businesses and governments also
is not an option – it need new trajectories so they can look ahead. Talent development provides an excellent
is an imperative starting point for them, although it might sound like recycled rhetoric. In fact, leaders
that we ignore
must put finding and developing top employees – the right kind of employees – at the
at our peril.”
center of their vision.
Improve your “pace” of learning so you can keep up-to-date while everything else
changes. Rely on your networks and your use of serendipity to attract important people
and benefit from their attention. Move to the edges where you can develop “leverage” by
drawing passionate people into action, and connecting them to each other and to leaders
who will support them.
“Fortune favors the Pull can mold markets, business and society at large. It starts with “shaping strategies”
prepared mind” – plans to change working relationships across wide swaths of independent organizations.
(Louis Pasteur) These strategies (where pull has its greatest impact) access resources, use positive
motivators to attract large groups of people and businesses, and emphasize long-term
goals and strategies.

About the Authors

John Hagel III is co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. He wrote Out of the
Box and The Only Sustainable Edge, among other bestsellers. John Seely Brown is the
co-author of The Social Life of Information. He is the independent co-chairman of the
Deloitte Center, where Lang Davison is executive director.
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