//Generosity has become big business. In 2009, Chris Anderson, former editor of 'Wired' magazine, published 'Free: The Future of a Radical Price.' In this rallying cry, Anderson argued that there was not a strong business case for giving products and services away for free, so as to produce a better relationship with a customer. Of course money is not dispensed with altogether in this idyll of gift-giving. Giving things away for free becomes a means of holding an audience captive or building a reputation, which can then be exploited with future sales or advertising, this time commanding a price. Michael O'Leary, boss of Ryanair, Ireland's controversial budget airline, has even suggested that airline tickets might one day be prices zero, with all costs recovered through additional charges for luggage, using the bathroom, skipping queues, and so on.

When it comes to the free market, all corporations dwell in a paradoxical position. They seek all of the freedoms that the market offers for their vested interests, but as few as possible for anybody else. The trick is to maintain maximum autonomy for shareholders and executives while gaining maximum commitment for employees and customers. What Anderson was highlighting was simply the powerful potential of non-monetary relationships in building closer bonds where they are useful in the service of profit making. To put it another way, the last thing a business wants from its customers (or their more valued staff) is for them to remember that they are in market, with freedom of choice. Freebies are useful way of disguising what's really taking place. ~ Page 186