The Social Business imperative – a time of radical corporate change
Rooven Pakkiri, Head of Social Business at Collaboration Matters has recently had a paper published by the well-respected UKSG organisation. It is entitled ‘The social business imperative – a time of radical corporate change’ and is featured in their ‘Insights: the UKSG journal’ publication for July.
Here’s the excerpt:
‘Social business’ is about the inspired use of collaboration technology platforms inside the company firewall to solve business problems. It has often misleadingly been described as Facebook or LinkedIn for the company, but it has a much more profound objective than social networking sites. It represents a technology-led paradigm shift that will reshape the culture and processes of organizations within five years. This article explores the very heart of social business: the emancipation, distribution and consolidation of knowledge – which aligns neatly with the traditional roles of publishers and libraries to date. It looks at the background, in terms of economic theory: increasing the value of ‘labour’ over ‘capital’, and the promise of social business: to make better use of the knowledge embedded around the organization, looking at examples from the real world and assessing the cultural implications, such as valuing patterns over process or influence over hierarchy. In conclusion, the article presents a final vision for social business: loyalty and gamification, the future of work and the end of the traditional workplace.
Covering topics such as ‘Background economics: the evolving dynamic between labour and capital‘, ‘The promise of social business: optimization of knowledge‘ and ‘Understanding the value of pattern over process‘, Rooven presents an overview of what Social Business is and how Collaboration Matters takes it to our customers. This isn’t about technology for technology’s sake, instead as an enabler for a paradigm shift ‘that will reshape the culture and processes of organizations within five years’.
The Social Business imperative
Rooven Pakkiri, Head of Social Business at Collaboration Matters has recently had a paper published by the well-respected UKSG organisation. It is entitled ‘The social business imperative – a time of radical corporate change’ and is featured in their ‘Insights: the UKSG journal’ publication for July.
Here’s the excerpt:
Covering topics such as ‘Background economics: the evolving dynamic between labour and capital‘, ‘The promise of social business: optimization of knowledge‘ and ‘Understanding the value of pattern over process‘, Rooven presents an overview of what Social Business is and how Collaboration Matters takes it to our customers. This isn’t about technology for technology’s sake, instead as an enabler for a paradigm shift ‘that will reshape the culture and processes of organizations within five years’.
The rise of the Community Manager and the Collaboration Garden: an IBM Social Business Briefing
For our third IBM Social Business Briefing (aka Wicked Wednesdays) on 25th April at Royal Exchange in London, we felt the time was right to move the discourse from thought leadership and education to a more practical footing.
Of course, we still leveraged the superb network of independent thought leaders who we are lucky to have at our events BUT at this latest event we changed / evolved the format.
On this occasion I framed the discussion on the emerging role of the Community Manager (seen by some as the ‘rock star of the Enterprise’) and then actually used a collaboration platform to discuss, collaborate and innovate around the chosen topic.
The objective or rather the output of the debate was not simply to gain a better understanding of this subject (the fastest growing job role in Social Business) but also to create a job description for the role of Community Manager which could then be downloaded and iterated by users.
To help us achieve this we introduced attendees to the Collaboration Garden – a place where the Wicked Wednesday discussion and collaboration goes on in and around the physical events.
Once inside the Garden, users could not only record their opinions and raise questions but they could also examine (through the software) the potential responsibilities and attendant tools on hand to assist a Community Manager with user adoption – e.g. gamification and social media feeds.
The overall sentiment was that this was our best Wicked Wednesday to date and pointed the way forward for future events. Weaving the use of the collaboration platform into the discussion from the start had a number of important effects:
- It forced us all ‘to drink our own champagne’
- Individuals contributed to the Garden on-premise and remotely (including from Spain and Ireland)
- It highlighted how much was lost when we simply spoke and did not record
- Live collaboration in the platform allowed for multi-threaded conversations which themselves were profoundly different to normal conversation
- Those who were not familiar with a social collaboration platform experienced it in a way that was far more refreshing and natural then the traditional demo mode
Wicked Wednesdays are all about sharing and collaborating with those who attend the latest trends, twists and turns in the Social Business journey. We take risks at this event; we have to in order to keep things fresh and real. So it was particularly gratifying to hear that the new format was warmly welcomed by those involved.
We are planning our next Wicked Wednesday/Social Business Briefing to take place in June and in keeping with our need to innovate we are experimenting with moving the venue from the Royal Exchange to a comfortable, friendly, coffee shop in the city which should be fun.
For more information, feel free to contact us directly.
Social Connections III – Registration is open, session abstracts invited!
Social Connections (the IBM Connections user group) is back, returning for its third event.
Scheduled for Friday 22nd June 2012 at the IBM Labs in Dublin, this is the best chance you’ll have this year to hear directly from IBM Connections customers, consultants, partners, advocates and developers. Yes, developers too! By the kind invitation of IBM we are going direct to their European development base in Dublin, home to many members of the IBM Connections coding team. We’ll have sessions from IBMers on topics such as customisation, widget development, installation and management of Connections. Given that Connections 4.0 is imminent, you may get a sneak peak of what’s coming up in the future too!
However, this is a User Group rather than an IBM education event, so it won’t just be IBMers speaking. With two tracks (Business and Technical) we’re after the best of the best from around the community to speak at the event. As we’ve had at SocCnx I and II, the event will have a mix of customer case studies, adoption advice, technical show-and-tells, panel Q&As, and a few sessions we just can’t predict right now!
The call for session abstracts is open now, and closes on 30 April 2012, so if you would like to submit an abstract to be considered (for a 30minute session) please register for the event today and submit your idea. We’re particularly keen to hear from those outside the usual ‘bubble’ so if you’ve never spoken at Lotusphere or any of the other LUGs please don’t let that put you off. The Social Connections crowd are a very friendly bunch and we’d love to hear some new voices! If you have any questions, please contact Sharon or Stuart for more info.
All the details are at SocialConnections.info, so please head over there to register and to submit an abstract.
You can also join the LinkedIn or Facebook groups, or follow all the news on Twitter (@SocCnx). Hope to see you on June 22nd!
The Collaboration Diner – an Introduction
Anyone that follows me on Twitter will have seen that this week has been rather dominated by a single topic, The Collaboration Diner, and was brought to you by the hashtag #cbdiner 
So I hear you cry, what is The Collaboration Diner?
Many of you, especially those in North America, will be aware of a rather famous 1942 painting by Edward Hopper known as ‘Nighthawks‘:
Painted soon after the attack at Pearl Harbour, the painting is thought to detail the alienation felt by those in a strange city, and the interaction, consolation and prospective relationships that could be found within the diners that were scattered on street corners throughout New York and other cities. Diner customers could ‘network’ with the few others in the physical location they inhabited.
In 2003, Wired magazine commissioned comic artist Josh Ellingson to bring the diner situation up to date in the face of the emergence of free wi-fi, ubiquitous mobile devices and laptops:
Once again, the diner or coffee shop had become the place where relaxation and re-connecting could be combined, but this time connections were as likely to be with those hundreds or thousands of miles away. In 2003, it was likely that this would have been via a relatively small group of friends or colleagues that the individual was in regular contact with.
Now bring the situation up to the modern day. Social and Mobile dominate. Almost every individual carries at least a mobile phone, most a smartphone and many more than one device. Multiple social networks are reachable from these devices, personal, professional and organisational sites provide a constant connection to friends, family, colleagues, customers and partners. Business is as likely to be carried out in a diner in a strange city as at one’s own desk.
However, the diner is still a useful metaphor for the meeting place, for the clash of cultures, the possibility of accidents and incidents leading to passionate discourse and idea-sparking conversations.
Thus we have seen the birth of The Collaboration Diner brought to you by Collaboration Matters, with its first outing at the UC Expo show in London this past week.
Look out for future posts detailing what was involved, why it was such an innovative concept, and what discussions took place there. One thing’s for sure, tech trade shows have never seen anything like it!
Learning from competition
Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, writes on the correct way to deal with competition:
Reacting well to competition requires critical analysis of your own product and its shortcomings, and a complete, open-minded understanding of why people might choose your competitors.
They’re not fanboys. They’re not brainwashed by “marketing”. Your competitors’ customers aren’t passing on your product because they’re stupid or irrational.
They’re choosing your competitors for good reasons, and denying the existence of such good reasons will only ensure that your product never overcomes them.
He goes on to discuss why Microsoft’s recent reaction to the threat of iOS is more constructive than Google’s.
It’s a fascinating reflection, and bears great relevance to the way in which we see some Collaboration and Social Business vendors react.
Customers are not irrational, users are not stupid. If you want them to choose to buy your solution, or even more importantly, to desire to use it, you had better go focus your attention and resources on making yours significantly better than the opposition, not on dissing the opposition or those that buy or use their products!
The Collaboration Garden
There are pioneers, visionaries and thought leaders inside companies, who can see where their respective organisations will need to get to in terms of collaboration over the next 3 years
The Collaboration Garden is where you can join focused communities and engage with people facing similar challenges such as – Adoption strategy, Collaborative Decision Making, and Talent Management.
Stay ahead of the curve and learn how to leverage Social Business to deliver a more connected, innovative and engaged workforce.
There are 3 things the Collaborative garden offers you in terms of managing the change that Social Business dictates:
- Follow thought leaders and their discussions on specific areas of Social Business
- Put a question into the Community that relates to a specific problem you are trying to solve e.g. patchy user adoption
- Stay up to date on breaking or emerging trends e.g. the infographic CV
Access to the Collaborative Garden is by invite only. Please contact us for more information.
Social Business Briefings
Judge a man by his questions, not his answers.
(Voltaire)
When you are in the middle of a corporate revolution like this one, it doesn’t always ring true as a Social Business consultancy to claim to have all the answers. The truth is we know some things, our associates know some other things, and our clients also know a bit about what is and is not working with Social Business deployments.
The Collaboration Matters Social Business Briefing sessions (part of our Wicked Wednesday programme of events) are a place where we discuss a number of questions that are at the front of people’s minds in terms of Social Business (see slides below). We frame those questions with a topical business example and then the question is thrown out to the audience to participate in.
It is through this open discourse that people arrive at meaningful insights and a plan on how to deliver this initiative or thought leadership into their business.
Here are the decks used at the last two Social Business Briefing sessions:
Our next event in on Wednesday April 18th at The Royal Exchange. If you would like to join us please let us know.
So Lo Mo
Sandy Carter outlines IBM’s plans for LeWeb ’11 next week:
Social, Local, Mobile.
I like that…
UK IBMers and bloggers share perspectives on Social Business
Good friends Jon Mell, Ofer Guetta and Jon Machtynger join with key UK-based bloggers to discuss Social Business:
Leading UK bloggers Chris Turner (Springwise), David Terrar (Biz Two Zero), Matt Alder (Recruiting Futurology), David Cushman (Faster Future) and Johnnie Moore (The Johnnie Moore Weblog) come together with IBM experts Jon Mell, Jon Machtynger and Alex Bray to give their perspective on the concept of Social Business.
Leading UK bloggers David Terrar (Biz Two Zero) and Kathryn Corrick (KathrynCorrick.co.uk) come together with IBM Social Business experts Alex Bray, Ofer Guetta, Jon Mell and Stuart McRae to discuss the benefits of social tools within the enterprise from an IT perspective
Leading UK bloggers John Ingham (Strategic HCM), Peter Gold (Hire Strategies), Matt Alder (Recruiting Futurology), Mike Morrison (Rapid BI) and Johnnie Moore (The Johnnie Moore Weblog) come together with IBM Social Business experts Jon Mell and Stuart McRae to discuss the potential of social tools within the enterprise to benefit HR and drive employee engagement.
Leading UK bloggers Chris Turner (Springwise), David Cushman (Faster Future), Karl Long (Experience Curve) and Kathryn Corrick (KathrynCorrick.co.uk), come together with IBM Social Business experts Ofer Guetta, Jon Mell, Jon Machtynger and Alex Bray to discuss the potential of social tools within the enterprise to drive innovation.
Interesting views and definitions…