Comments on: A Vision for Business

By: Michael Hargreaves

Michael Hargreaves — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:47:19 +0000

So how do you explain Apple’s incredible success over the past decade? They are the antithesis of an open, social organisation — and they’re thriving? Similarly, the team at 37signals often say that being completely open and customer-driven leads down a disastrous path.

Some corporations may be far from the reason they’re in business, but certainly not all — not even most, I suspect — and while social media clearly has massive potential for harnessing the creative power of groups, it’s still not clear if or how that power serves organisations with their own (different) values and priorities.

I think the biggest, short-term change will come when organisations embrace social media internally, so employees are communicating openly and effectively with each other.

Unfortunately, most of these employees have no idea about social media, how it works, or the impact it has on the way they approach their work. But their kids do, so I figure it’s a 10-year problem, at most. When the social media generation are firmly settled in the workforce — they’ll have to pay their bills too, eventually — they’ll not only expect a social, collaborative environment to function properly, they’ll require one.

By: Kin Lane

Kin Lane — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:16:30 +0000

It is funny how the World Wide Web can bring us back to our roots in being in business to serve our customers and understand their needs.

Corporations have gotten too far from the reason they are in business.

Social Media is very refreshing and is not a pipe dream.

By: How to Know If You’ve Lost Track of Your Vision - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You are only a stranger once.

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:35:35 +0000

[...] well-thought business wisdom that we need vision for a business or a career. Knowing where we’re going makes our daily [...]

By: Graham Stewart

Graham Stewart — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:08:55 +0000

I think there’s also the chance here for the smaller companies to steal a march on the big boys. It’s almost a repeat of the early rush to the web when visitors couldn’t tell how big a business was from its web site: every site occupied the same real estate. Now, a dynamic and agile company can exploit the potential for engaging in conversation in ways that are beyond the more process-heavy corporations.

Of course, as Seth Godin suggests in Meatball Sundae, it comes down to what your company has to offer the market. Smaller companies have a better chance, I think, to redefine what they offer in the light of the conversation. The bigger companies will find it a lot harder to change, not just their practice of ignoring the customer, but also adapting their products and services to a more demanding market.

There will be many in large corporations who ‘get it’ but who can’t fight their way through the bureaucracy to make it happen.

By: Tony Steward

Tony Steward — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:45:16 +0000

That is what I think is the underlying “pain” and lesson of starting to interact with Social Media - the way it changes not just the tools you use to communication - but how you are communicating across the company as a whole.

As I have been learning and evangelizing Social Media in my circles it has been intriguing to hear myself sound more like a sociologist than a web communications professional.