GlobalWonks' "2019 Global Outlook"

Worth getting for a nice, non-hyperbolic overview of the world and its presently most-pertinent power dynamics.

From the intro:

GlobalWonks is a technology-enabled platform with on-call access to a growing network of over 1600 global business and policy experts (wonks) located in more than 100 countries. They include consultants, academics, journalists, lawyers, and medical professionals with rich knowledge of their countries’ governance and regions, as well as the industries and issues that shape their economies.

To harness their insights, we invented Network PulseTM, a patent-pending technology that takes each client question, identifies the best set of Wonks to answer it, and gets those answers to the client within minutes or hours.

With 2019 fast approaching, we used a series of Network Pulses to probe our wonk community about issues they will be watching in the coming year. We asked them for:

1. Top global issues to watch.

2. Top issues in their region or country.

3. Developments underemphasized on business leaders’ and investors’ radars.

While political and business risks are front-of-mind as 2018 comes to a close, we were particularly interested in the opportunities and upside risks the Wonks foresee.

The report then goes on to explore three system-impacting dynamics: US-China trade struggle, a growth slowdown whose center of gravity lies in Beijing, and what is described as "interlocking domestic risks" - a rather benign euphemism for the West experiencing a political nervous breakdown in the forms of nationalism, nativism, protectionism, and xenophobia.  The rest of the report examine regional dynamics in the fashion of a survey.

For an early-stage start-up rapidly approaching mid-stage, it's a fine document.  But I'll expect far better next year as analytic processes and products continue to emerge and mature.  As I have noted before, GlobalWonks seems like the most practical iteration yet of a model that I myself have worked on - over the past three decades - in a variety of public and private-sector ventures. Instead of trying to boil the ocean every day, GlobalWonks allows clients to drill down - through its network - to ground-floor expertise.

In many ways, GlobalWonks is the analytic version of the Globally Integrated Enterprise that progressively replaces the old MultiNational Corporation model.  The MNC concentrated its creativity in the home nation, mostly producing there and distributing globally. But that eventually came off to locals as predatory (think back to America's defensive reaction to the Japanese car invasion of the 1970s and 1980s). Toyota and Honda fixed that by transforming themselves into GIEs that locally sourced, R&D'd, manufactured, and sold - but on a global scale. They made themselves corporate citizens of both the world and every major market they targeted.

GlobalWonks approximates that transformation in the domain of consulting. Has it mastered it yet? No, but it's moving with real speed and ambition. And let's remember, Honda and Toyota didn't complete that journey overnight.

So while GlobalWonks is its own experiment, by my measure, it moves in the right direction with the correct ambitions: deep global networking harnessed for very granular analytic products delivered at high speed and low cost. It's not only WYSIWYG in the company's make-up, you also get what you pay for in the most immediate and transactional sense.  In short, you - as a client - aren't left wondering what exactly did we just get for our money?

To download your own copy of the report, click here.

Feedback naturally welcomed, and feel free to funnel it through me.

Global Wonks' "Network Pulse™" Offering Rapidly Matures (Meaning It is a Great Time to Join the Network)

Per a recent report-out by CEO Cenk Sidar ...

The news on Global Wonks keeps getting better and better.

The community is presently more than 1,500 experts strong, while clients now number in the dozens.

Much of this is due to the gateway engagement offering called the Network Pulse™. The pulse function allows clients to seek rapid-fire answers to whatever question is triggered within their enterprise by ongoing market/global developments. The network is pulsed and a swarm of experts respond, typically in a matter of minutes.

For the benefit of the members, the pulse is also simultaneously an interview of sorts, showcasing experts to clients for the purposes of follow-on calls and the generation of analytic reports.

And it's not just traditional consulting clients who are exploring what the pulse function can do for them. Global Wonks also has consultancies themselves utilizing the service as a force-multiplier. Hedge funds like it for its intense speed capacity, while media organizations value its provision of competing perspectives.

But where things get really interesting for me, as an advisor, is Global Wonks' commitment to technologizing this intellectual transaction to the most optimized extent possible - or what Cenk is calling GW's "Centaur Model" of blending cognitive computing capacity with the inherent knowledge capacity of the expert network.

I had the privilege of providing some input on Cenk's paper, and it is worth perusing as a roadmap for the future of consulting.

For now the focus is on building up the network and maximizing the clients' use of Network Pulse. The numbers cited recently by Cenk are impressive: 

• "Our experts provided over 600 responses to the first 45 questions asked. 
• Initial responses have come within four hours on average. 
• Within 24 hours, we're averaging 15 answers per question.
• Our fastest 'Top Answer' was submitted two minutes after the question was asked.
• We reviewed responses and found 83% exhibited a detailed understanding of the subject matter, a clear grasp of the issues, and included relevant, timely evidence and big picture reasoning."

I had offered two online tutorial-style training sessions to the network in the fall, so that last bit about balancing "timely evidence" with "big picture reasoning" is most gratifying. That's exactly what we were hoping to project to clients.

The stats on the expert network are likewise solid: 1,500-plus wonks spread over 80-plus countries with expertise encompassing over one-hundred additional nations. 

And these aren't newbies to the industries. Almost 9-out-of-10 possess an advanced degree and they collectively average over a decade's worth of work experience.

Cenk himself will conduct a virtual town hall meeting this week, chatting with all of GW's regional and country managers on the subject of lessons learned to date and where recruitment should go next.

Again, all this suggests that, if you have found yourself intrigued by Global Wonks and what it's accomplishing, now is the time to get in on a ground floor that's rapidly elevating.

Go directly to the GW site to register as a wonk. 

Recruitment Drive at GlobalWonks!

GlobalWonks is pursuing a recruitment drive on the eve of a product-offering launch later this month. The offering will allow clients to tap analysts with rapid-fire queries, for which those same analysts can receive rapid-fire compensation. So, if you're interested, it's time to get in on the ground floor. No big time commitment, and you have nothing to lose in giving it a try.

As noted previously, GlobalWonks’ intent is to offer an alternative to the traditional consulting model and allow those with expertise to be compensated for it, without having to become a full-time consultant. Our clients input the details of the project and our platform uses a matching algorithm to identify relevant experts based on the expertise tagged in their profile. Essentially, it's an opportunity to pick up independent consulting work when your schedule allows it.

If you would like to signup (it's free to join), you can do so by registering here: https://www.globalwonks.com/app/signup. Once your profile is approved and we launch later this summer, you’ll be automatically notified of relevant projects which you can accept at your convenience. 

If you have any nuts-and-bolts questions, please reach out to the action officer on recruitment, True Rains, at true.rains@globalwonks.com. 

Joining the Global Advisory Board of Global Wonks

Starting 1 June, I officially join the Global Advisory Board for Global Wonks, a network-of-experts start-up that targets small and medium enterprises with affordable and rapid access to subject matter experts at very low engagement thresholds, with the entire process occurring via the proprietary online platform. In terms of experts, the focus is on "soldiers, not generals," and likewise on global and domain spread versus sheer numbers. Not easy to join, but once in, you're able to "bid on projects, and complete them entirely through the GlobalWonks platform."

The basic idea here is compellingly simple: around the world stand thousands upon thousands of small-and-medium enterprises, the vast majority of which can't afford access to the traditional management consulting giants. It simply takes too long and too much money. On the other side stand a similarly large number of local/domain subject matter experts trying to get by in the (frankly) brutal gig economy.

Now, yes, there already are established players in this place, like GLG, Catalant, and Lynk, but they tend to be huge networks chasing large clients and, once in, your odds of actually making any money are depressingly low (this I know personally). Global Wonks right-sizes or symmetricizes that engagement space, keeping it all on its platform for ease of use in both directions.

For a sense of how it all works, see the embedded introductory video here.

And if you're interested in joining the network or investing, please reach out to me via the Contact Tom link above.

Rest assured that Global Wonks is not led by a bunch of first-timers seeking to revolutionize an industry they barely understand (been there, suffered that). We're talking about a team with over 75 years of cumulative experience in the global affairs consulting industry. The Global Advisory Board I'm joining is likewise populated by individuals of serious stature in the field and - just as importantly - who aren't just middle-aged white guys hailing from the U.S. national security realm (leave that token status to me, thank you very much!).

All in all, a very cool and exciting new venture for me.