Once again Chris Heuer has inspired another blog post here on the Social Roadmap. This past week Chris & I were back to back speakers at the Social Media Masters conference in Los Angeles, where we spoke about the future of the enterprise. Chris outlined his vision of the enterprise in the post-digital era: the Social Business. Yes, “digital” is so yesterday.
For decades computer networks – and more recently the Internet – have been collecting, connecting and analyzing data about our businesses and our lives. The digital era saw “intelligence” forming as a by-product of that data analysis, which directed businesses’ operations and decision making. But that was the digital era. This is the post-digital era.
Chris’ vision of a Social Business is predicated on the fact that the connections, computing and algorithms are now monitoring and measuring human interactions as well as numerical data, which has added an entirely new dynamic to how businesses operate and make decisions. Technologies such as social networking, combined with GPS-powered mobile devices have propelled digital human engagements beyond talk to actions. These actions, along with their associated conversations are being tracked, data mapped and analyzed. Research firms conclude that nearly the entire world’s population is now “connected” in some capacity and the most recent social media statistics report that 22% of the populations’ time is spent within social networks. This collective-engagement has become a living, breathing decision engine. A StarTrek Borg-like collective (geek-alert!).
The Social Business
According to the IBM Software Group’s Whitepaper on the subject, a Social Business is one that embraces networks of people and their engagements to create business value, which would seem in opposition to traditional or even “traditional digital” businesses who leverage transactional or numerical data to make those same business decisions.
IBM further qualifies this definition with three business attributes, which include:
1. Engaged [A social business is one that directly connects its people (staff, customers and stakeholders) to the enterprise to create a decision & innovation resource.]
2. Transparent [A social business openly welcomes and shares expertise from inside & outside the enterprise for the betterment of the customer, not its brand.]
3. Nimble [A social business gathers and shares information through multiple channels (cloud, mobile, social media, traditional) to exchange data faster than previous digital technologies allowed.]
Social Inevitability?
Is Social Business inevitable however? When you consider the business attributes IBM tags as required for social business, the obstacles seem huge for most corporations. Consider:
1. Focus – Most enterprise businesses listen and are “engaged” with their board of directors and shareholders, not their consumer. Business decisions are made based on the minutia of profit & loss analysis so imagine the difficulty of such a shift in thinking?
2. Corporate Culture – most large enterprise have been built on secrecy and playing their cards “close to the vest”. Being transparent requires the opening of “the vaults”, allowing employees to publicly discuss projects, opinions and corporate culture info. Further, they must be willing to allow the customer in to have their say in the business’ operations. Again, seems too difficult a shift.
3. Cross Silo Collaboration – to effectively become nimble, the enterprise requires the technology and more importantly, the will to allow free data exchange and cooperation between silos. Something I’ve yet to see done consistently – or willingly – across most enterprises.
So while the evolution of the corporation to a Social Business seems popular – logical even – it’s difficult to submit to the concept of its inevitability. Ironically, it’s the humans inside the corporation that may be the biggest obstacle.
This is definitely the debate that will keep enterprise business leaders engaged over the upcoming years. What are your thoughts? Inevitable? Or will human nature naturally conflict with the evolution of the social business?
