Defining a Hub

When one hears the word ‘hub’, different definitions come to mind. If you’re more technologically inclined, a hub would mean a networking device that connects multiple computers or other network devices together. But what is a hub to us?

Essentially, a hub is any organization that can provide facilities to help nurture new ideas and allow communities to come together and develop their creative, inquisitive minds. It could be anything from educational content offered by academic institutions to a vast space equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing tools and facilities that can be utilized by the public. 

By acting as hubs, businesses will have the chance to discover or invent technological solutions deriving from their team members’ novel ideas. This is especially important as it can help the companies in a number of ways, such as competing in the digital market, coming up with new products, or developing new tools that work more efficiently.

To help you understand better whether a business can be deemed a hub, here’s a comprehensive list of key components of hubs:

• a customer base with the potential to be a fast-growing community
• services that are relevant in the 21st century
• resources that can help build the digital and creative economy
• talents that can lend their expertise in providing ideas and solutions
  

If you check any of these boxes, you’re good to go!

Pain Points of Hubs

Too often, businesses work in silos and as a result, they fail to scale and develop their services. Poor community and resource management has proven to affect their productivity, and the abundance of underutilized resources hurts them and often puts them in stasis. 

Without a doubt, the lack of awareness regarding the digital economy and how to navigate it can be especially harmful to businesses that initially set foot in the traditional industry. Many of them still subscribe to the old ways of operating a business such as planning in minute detail and wargaming. 

With lack of awareness comes lack of accessibility. These two inadvertently come hand in hand, as businesses continue their attempts to solve problems in the future by using methods of the past and are unable to ensure accessibility to their resources for their customer base. Without them realizing, these are the things that are hindering their businesses from becoming successful in the 21st century. 

Scaling Your Hub

At Mereka, we recognize that there is a large number of hubs today with underutilized resources. For them to thrive in the 21st century, successful resource and community management is of the utmost importance.

Capitalizing on existing assets, resources, and expertise (that are often in abundant supply but underutilized) would be one of the first steps that a business needs to take in the journey of scaling their hub. 

On top of that, by onboarding on the Mereka platform, lack of accessibility will no longer be an issue as thousands of registered learners will be able to book the experiences, spaces, experts, or machines offered by the business. 

Businesses will also be able to have access to and work with local talent, and sequentially help increase local employment. For many budding entrepreneurs or freelancers, hubs play a big role in contributing to intangibles (like motivation, exposure, and self-efficacy) that can be crucial further down the road.

When you equip your hub with the right features and an endless network of communities—which includes students, universities, businesses, and lifetime learners—scalability is a foregone conclusion. 

The possibilities are endless. At the end of the day, our main goal with this platform is to activate a smart and sustainable economy. 

The Role of Hubs In Today’s World

Evolution is a process that can neither be stopped nor restrained. We’ve witnessed this in nature, thought, and especially in technology. This is why the existence of hubs is important in today’s digital economy, as it helps our society to face challenges in the 21st century. 

Hubs serve as springboards for innovation and ingenuity. Businesses today strive for new innovative playing fields and out-of-the-box thinking. We are currently in an age where there is no shortage of innovation and ideas, and thus said playing fields cannot be achieved using traditional, old-school methods. 

Through the Mereka platform, businesses will be able to fully utilize their resources and assets. Simply put, the platform acts as a booking service that aims to connect local resources and expertise to be booked by the general public across a number of different centers and hubs.

We believe that there is untapped potential in thousands of local hubs and businesses, and by applying tech-driven solutions and upscaling their infrastructure, these organizations will be able to scale their business capacity and more importantly, build a customer base that in turn becomes a thriving community.