Posts

Showing posts from December, 2015

Speeches and Presentations by Jeff Bell

The Gig Economy

There is more and more conversation around three big trends -- the sharing economy, the gig economy and disruptive business models. I have previously written here about the first trend ( http://www.jeff-bell.net/2013/08/the-sharing-economy.html?m=1 ), and now wish to turn my attention to the 2nd. As I previously argued, the sharing economy is based upon underutilized assets.  EBay, Craigslist and Amazon created markets to sell "old stuff you don't want anymore." Uber and AirBnB extended this trend by adding the abiltiy to rent underutilized assets; namely cars and apartments.  So what is the "gig economy" and how does it relate? I had an epiphany this week, but now it seems self-evident.  The "gig economy" is the "sharing economy" where underutilized physical assets or capital are replaced in the model with underutilized human capital. When you think about fiverr.com, you see a bunch of creative people earning money moonlighting outside