Somewhere between the global economy hitting the brakes and the explosion of real-time feedback loops on the Internet, the way we traditionally did business was turned on its head.

The top-down model—where elite brands picked what colors would be hot next season, what news was important and what consumers really wanted—has pretty much been blown to bits. In its place now stands a construction project, being built from the bottom up—and by the way, no one knows what the finished product will look like, much less whether it will ever be complete.