Here's the formula: The new age of innovation is about both personalized co-created experience for individual customers (N=1) and global resource leverage (R= G).

We believe that as digitization permeates both products and business processes, firms across industries will discover new approaches to connect with customers and collaborate with suppliers and partners of all sizes and from all parts of the world from South Dakota to Shanghai. Our engagements with several firms and our research over the past several years led us to this view of the evolution of the emerging business model.

The dominant thinking within firms about outsourcing lately has weighed heavily on operational efficiency and cost benefits. We make the case for a new approach to personalized globalization where firms will assess their capability needs to co-create personalized experience for each customer and then selectively leverage resources both globally and locally. This approach is about seeking new capabilities and talent -- and not about simply outsourcing and cost. We present examples from various industries ranging from insurance and education to tire and cement.

We believe that every industry is moving in this direction. The only difference is in the speed and momentum. This change is very obvious in the business models of Apple or Google but is more subtle in other industries. For example, some of the popular radio channels are now enabling customers to access news and content over their cell phones. This can lead to a perfect N=1 model, where a customer can request an update on traffic/sports/business news when she needs it and not the regular hourly update. This translates to "interactive" radio for specific content while, for example, the consumer is driving or has a few minutes. The technology to deliver this already exists. This change will obviously alter the business models for advertising, content access or ownership. It is clear that firms need to fundamentally re-evaluate their capabilities for this emerging business model.

In this book we have presented a framework that captures the essence of this emerging business model innovation that rests on the two core concepts of N=1 and R=G. We argue that managers ignore this trend only at their own peril. Firms need to reexamine their core capabilities in business processes and talent management, as well as their use of business analytics, and their IT architectures. We believe that success in this new business model (N=1; R=G) brings out the centrality of business processes enabled by information technology and social architectures in the creation of value.

Some obvious questions arise about the readiness of firms to make this change: What will be the role of CIOs and IT organizations? Are the CIO and IT leadership inside large firms equipped with capabilities and awareness about business challenges to make this change? Can HR become more integrated co-creators in the execution of business strategy? Are business strategists within firms ready to embrace this change? Does this create new issues in security and privacy ?

We invite you to join this discussion and tell us about where this is likely to work faster and why? What are the impediments to this change? What are the new questions that managers need to ask? We will continue to present our reactions and reflections in this neutral and objective forum for debate.