really faking real fake authenticity

How do you sell authenticity when there’s no such thing? In Joseph Pine’s ‘experience economy,’ business is no longer about controlling costs or improving quality of services; it’s about rendering authenticity – i.e., about creating the perception of authenticity.

Have a look at this 15-minute talk to see how you can be (un)true to yourself and (not) say what you are. Or, how you can produce fake fake, real real, real fake, or fake real.

Interesting, especially for those working on sustainable entrepreneurship, because Pine’s two-by-two can help you re-evaluate who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish (a process The Necessary Revolution also talks about).

And for us Dutch, he’s as entertaining as he is painful. If we think we’re authentic in comparison to ‘you Americans’, have a look in the mirrow: every square meter of The Netherlands is manufactured – most of it made look as if it had always been like that.

To summarize, for successful entrepreneurship in the experience economy, you have to stick to 3 simple rules:
- Don’t say you’re authentic unless you really are;
- It’s easier to be authentic if you don’t say you are;
- And if you do say you’re authentic, you better walk the walk.

(photo Carol Channing Certificate of Authenticity by zoomar)