The Reciprocity Advantage

CHAPTER 4Amplifying to Create Scale

In which the emphasis shifts from innovation to propagation.

The problem is not the pace of innovation. The problem is the pace of propagation.

DANIEL BEN-HORIN,Founder of TechSoup Global

Daniel Ben-Horin wrote an article provocatively entitled “Innovation Obsession Disorder.” He argues, “We need a new consensus that propagation is as important as innovation.”²³

In some sense, innovation is the easy part. Humans innovate quite naturally, but propagation is really hard and can be quite unnatural. Ben-Horin, quite an innovator himself, has become a prophet for propagation, a prophet for scaling.

Reciprocity advantage, thanks to digital technology, will become much more practical over the next decade. While traditional ...