Facebook’s value short-term can be realized locally. People sign-on to connect with one another. This builds and sustains relationships, empowers local citizens, builds and strengthens community-based organizations, local businesses, educational ventures, healthcare facilities and the like. Brian Solis’ notion of leveraging interpersonal relationships and continuing to “explore the intersection of technology and liberal arts to build and ship in ways that continue to define or redefine how people discover, connect, and share” connects the dots to global markets by potentially sharing local preferences amongst global actors.

Solis’s nod to liberal arts is intriguing because, like the blues, it recognizes people as key actors. Mark Zuckerberg’s mission to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” reveals the power of Facebook; its value is in giving people a voice and when realized collectively, their power is compounded, they can even topple dictatorships. Likewise, and remembering the blues is not the music of despair but of its transformation, the blues empowers people. When used as the foundation for jazz, the blues represents human agency amidst various complexities. The blues is disruptive; people are fickle and the uncertainty they wield is difficult to manage.

Privacy and Transparency

These are serious issues for Facebook. Through openness, transparency, or the honest expression of emotion vis-à-vis the blues, individual agency and collective power are realized. No wonder Zuckerberg is having such a difficult time getting Facebook into China. No wonder Twitter is on again/off again in Pakistan. No wonder Communist nations tried to block the infiltration of jazz during the Cold War. Jazz is the music of collaboration and, like Facebook, represents collective strength. The blues or “people power” is the highly individualistic fulcrum upon which sonic equilibrium hinges in jazz and upon which the power of authoritarian governments rests. Diplomatic efforts to build and/or strengthen democracies also open markets. Facebook is a key facilitator in this effort. Where Facebook goes – where jazz has gone and goes – so, too, do products and services. Facebook has solid long-term value.

The Market Value of Jazz

Patrick Jarenwattananon wants to increase the audience for jazz. He wonders why the immense increase in spending on jazz education failed to produce an increase in the audience for jazz and laments, “Why isn’t there a correlation?” Jason Moran is concerned about the, “functionality of the music” and asserts, “Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context”; indeed, we do. Like Patrick, I’d like to increase the audience for jazz but I’m not so sure it hasn’t grown steadily over the decades. My understanding of audience extends beyond ticket sales and performance venues, a finite number. I am swayed, however, by Jason’s idea and want to give it some more thought.

Pivot

Let’s change the questions, perspective and metrics. Let’s begin with what we know:

Assumptions:

1. Jazz originated in the US in the early 1900s

2. Jazz is an open platform

3. Jazz is embedded in US culture

4. Jazz has been effective as a soft power tool in diplomatic endeavors promoting democracy since the Cold War

Now, let’s identify key concepts in jazz – such as collaboration, improvisation/innovation, and resilience – and measure the extent to which and the ways in which these are employed within and across key sectors (let’s try business and education) locally and globally. So, the question is not “Why did the investment in jazz education fail to increase audience size?” because the investment may have actually succeeded in achieving this finite goal. Instead, we’d evaluate the trajectory of collaboration, innovation and resilience in key sectors annually and over time by monitoring the correlation with business cycles in these areas. Has the “audience” grown over time? If so, to what degree and what are the projections? What happens when we correlate the spread of democracy with jazz and measure the openness of societies, the openness of their markets, and the revenues generated?

Follow the Money

My thought is this: “new money” lies in emerging market areas and these are also areas where democracy has yet to take a firm hold. Facebook’s ability to grant individuals the opportunity to connect and its commitment to openness facilitates collaboration and is akin to the blues and the collaborative elements of jazz. These features of individuality and collaboration are also hallmarks of the current US diplomatic effort. As nations support emerging democracies, in part by investing in open platforms like Facebook and jazz, they will also facilitate the opening of markets. That said – companies and organizations that move towards a more open and collaborative style or structure would be best poised to capitalize on new market areas as they emerge and would also increase their brand value locally.

“I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket”

1. Invest in R&D. Get some polymaths on your team, quickly.

2. Increase efforts in corporate social responsibility because these engage local communities horizontally and encourage collaboration. Tie these efforts to key areas such as: education, healthcare and serious humanitarian issues, locally and globally. Staff these teams with local educators, healthcare workers, and civil/women’s rights activists and the like who work with their counterparts on teams in-house with those steeped in corporate culture. This increases the value of your brand locally and works to balance public disaffection with big business.

3. Grow these efforts through social media.

4. Train your middle mangers and senior-level executives to effectively communicate and collaborate across and through perceived/real organizational and community barriers