Lead the Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment

Chapter 4The Talent Platforms

The largest employer in the world is Walmart with 2.2 million employees.¹ There are only three companies with more than 700,000 employees (Sinopec and Hon Hai Precision Industry round out the list)…if you only count regular full-time employees. Appirio (the parent company of Topcoder), is a company with 700 employees worldwide, yet it boasts more than 700,000 “community members” working on more than 1,500 projects, through “cloud solutions.” It was lauded in 2014 as a best place to work by ITPRO in the United Kingdom, based on a survey of its 700 employees.² Yet, does “working” at Appirio mean being one of its 700 regular full-time employees, or does it mean participating in Topcoder's cloud-based design projects? ...