At the end of the Crossroads, companies that have put in place a healthy database to integrate and decode Code Halos make fierce market progress. Code Halos shift mainstream expectations, propelling a rapid market shift. If your company is not prepared for this, it may well be on the path toward an Extinction Event. The transition is radically evident at this point, with brutal shifts in customer allegiance.

When markets flip, the failed businesses find themselves pushed toward market irrelevancy. Code meeting code is the epicenter of winning businesses and encouraging technology–supported customer interactions.

The Crossroads Model works in favor of companies that view customers as a sustainable source of data and not just as a short–term sales prospect. If your company is looking to apply Code Halo thinking, here are some things to consider:

• Enable new organizational models on the principles of SMAC Stack (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) technology. (See our recent white paper, "Don't Get SMACked").

• Keep in mind that people inside and outside of the organization want to engage with you in a dramatically different way. Create a reasonable and feasible plan to embrace this shift.

• As with any trade, there are risks associated with Code Halos. Issues of security, privacy and the ethics of data management surround Code Halo sharing, but they are not impossible to overcome. Look for tangible process metrics — cost per delivery, cost per claim, clinical trial yield. Apply Code Halo thinking to these processes to connect codes and decipher meaning.

• Learn from failed initiatives that were too fast or too slow to let the Crossroads act on them. Begin seeing products, people, sales and communication as code.

Integration of code — customer, product, employee, partner and enterprise — makes for a successful and fail-proof business model. Success stories of Google, Amazon and Facebook that won over their long-established competitors had one thing in common: The companies were diligent in building resources for real-time analytics to make sense of their inbound Code Halos. In a world where data takes prominence over the physical assets of a company, the Code Rush becomes a critical factor not only for success but also for sheer existence.

To learn more about the Crossroads Model and how Code Halos transform companies – and entire industries – read our white paper Code Rules: A Playbook for Managing at the Crossroads, available on our Code Halos website. Once you understand Code Halos and the Crossroads Model, you can begin crafting a strategy for winning the new "code rush."

In addition, check out our new app at the Apple App store and look for our book, "Code Halos ... How the Digital Lives of People,Things and Organizations are Changing the Rules of Business," recently published by John Wiley & Sons.