Tiers of Enterprise

Tiers of Enterprise refer to classifying the market segmentation of an enterprise based on their tendency to distribute vs. concentrate wealth.

• Tier A: The super-concentrator business-as-usual enterprise. Refers to extreme-performing generators and concentrators of wealth, such as typical outcomes of leading accelerators like Y Combinator. A good example of a Tier A enterprise is Apple or Google. Such enterprises are:

• Closed source at most or all levels, as far as Open Design of their products is concerned in the broad sense
• Focus on market monopolization as one of their key competitiveness strategies
• Lead to extreme concentration of wealth, and as a result tend to buy innovation more than to develop innovation
• Tend to violate human rights of factory workers, and of privacy and choice through the use of their products
• IP protection is critical to their success. Favor patent protectionism, trade secrets, secrecy, etc in their culture and operations
• Profit motive drives decision-making
• Zero regard for natural capital
• 50% waste within processes
• Does not contribute fundamentally Regenerative Development

• Tier B: The non-distributors. Business-as-usual enterprise with capital-concentrative tendencies, similar to Tier A but at the million-dollar rather than billion dollar scale.

• Tier C: The social enterprise.

• May or may not be open source (see Open Design)
• Focus on serving people as one of their key competitiveness strategies
• Do not tend to extreme concentration of wealth, as social benefit pre-empts such drive
• Tend to protect human rights
• IP protection is not critical to success
• Social benefit drives decision-making
• Natural capital is considered
• 50% waste within processes
• May contribute to Regenerative Development