The Sharing Concept:
Optimisation over
Multiplication
Gbemisola Adesanya
As children, we all had a common
desire to own as many toys as we could.
Although the number of toys we played
with each day ranged from 10-20, this
never stopped us from asking our parents
to get us more. As reported by a team of
British researchers, an average 10-year
old in the UK owns 238 toys and plays
with only 12. But can we really blame
the child we once were for this insatiable
need to own things? After all, we grew
up in a world that teaches ownership as
the way to meet a need. Even though
this ownership mentality has been
instrumental in meeting basic human
needs such as shelter, food and clothing. It
may not be out-of-place to opine that this
same ideology has led to the acquisition
of non-essential goods (goods that we
do not need). Is there a better way of
meeting needs by taking advantage of
underutilized resources?
These are the underlying questions the
proponents of companies such as Lyft
and Airbnb pondered on and answered
through business models that leverage
available structures, resources, sharing
technology to achieve global success in
their respective industries in what has
come to be known as the sharing concept.
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The Corvus | September 2019