Links for this week (weekly)

  • “My premise is that management innovation is available from that world of organizational development, as it’s principles and dynamics are closely aligned to Hamel’s suggestion that “activities will still need to be coordinated, individual efforts aligned, objectives decided upon, knowledge disseminated, and resources allocated, but increasingly this work will be distributed out to the periphery“.”

    tags: management innovation managementinnovtion flows hierarchy socialbusiness enterprise2.0 networkedorganization network

    • These forces and factors are converging in today’s workplaces, wherein a continuous flow of information is the rule rather than the exception.  Thus, it’s essential to cast a critical eye on the fundamental assumptions of work design and how work is managed. The core assumptions embodied in widely-used methodologies today still present work as  â€static sets of tasks and knowledge arranged in specific constellations on an organization chart” (see all major job evaluation methodologies for more detail).
    • So, as stated at the outset, it seems clear that we’re situated in a more interactive, less static environment.  Whether we like it or not, we are  passing from an era in which things were assumed to be controllable (able to be deconstructed and then assembled into a clear, linear, always replicable and thus static form) to an era characterized by a continuous  flow of information.  Because it feeds the conduct of organizations large and small, it is a flow that necessarily demands to be interpreted and shaped into useful inputs and outputs.
    •  

      Hierarchy is not disappearing from the organizational landscape .. nor should it. It’s an useful construct for clarifying decision-making and accountability, and I believe it will come to co-exist with the core dynamics of networked people and information

  • “The social enterprise will be front an center at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce this week. Here’s a reality check.”

    tags: salesforce socialbusiness socialenterprise socialcrm

    • However, there are a few caveats that represent both a challenge and an opportunity for Salesforce.com. These caveats are worth noting before Benioff totally goes into cloud evangelism mode. Here are a few of the key issues before this social enterprise movement.
    • Noise: Appirio, a cloud services firm, implemented Chatter and had to shut it off because it was too noisy. The company put some restrictions on what could be blasted out to its employees and provided tips on what was appropriate and launched a do-over
    • Social sprawl: Every software vendor has some social hook. Let’s say every IT buyer goes whole hog with the social stuff. Well guess what? Now you have HR social features. CRM social. Business execution social. It’s a social fest. Meanwhile, employees are still using Twitter and Facebook. If social sprawl isn’t an issue today, it will be tomorrow.
    • Culture: Salesforce.com talks about a social ecosystem of networks where customer profiles, social networks, product details and employee networks are all interconnected. It’s a coherent vision. How many companies are ready for this social thing?
    • Stack fatigue: The social enterprise—whether it comes from Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com or anyone else—sounds like a “stack” pitch after a while. Salesforce.com sees Chatter, Sales Cloud, Database.com, Service Cloud, Force.com and the rest of its portfolio feeding into a social enterprise cycle. It’s a virtuous subscription model for Salesforce. The model—software as a service—is different from traditional on-premise providers, but the aim to sell you more stuff is the same.
  • “Salesforce’s Marc Benioff continued his now-epic stream of social business thought leadership at this week’s Dreamforce 2011 in San Francisco. The messaging was certainly world class and the slew of announcements this week will address many of the shortcomings or feature gaps in its social software product line. But is a company whose roots are in sales automation and cloud-based SaaS the right firm to take organizations fully into the social world of the 21st century?”

    tags: socialbusiness enterprise2.0 socialenterprise salesforce crm socialcrm data cloud hosting sales

    • However, I’m not quite sure that Salesforce has fully connected their products to it. At least not yet, not in their present form. But they are heading in the right direction faster and more thoroughly than just about anyone else except IBM or perhaps Jive.
    • There is perhaps no one in the industry presently who is conducting both the detailed external research about what large companies are doing with social business while feeding that knowledge into the product development of an increasingly sophisticated and extensive social business platform
    • Before yesterday, I would have said Salesforce has useful social products and very good vision but the gap between vision and execution was still too large for most organizations to commit to. But as of today it’s clear they are squarely in the midst of a major reinvention as a pioneer for 21st century business.
    • It’s about the data. The connection of social media and data is one of the most profound, important, and high value relationships, as the world is just beginning to perceive.
    • It’s a full spectrum social business approach that’s aimed at the flow of work. Now that their vision also integrates customers, business partners, as well as employees, the Salesforce social business vision is now much more complete, end-to-end.
    • One of the most complete and mature social platforms. With employee collaboration, customer engagement, and social analytics, combined with an open platform, 3rd party apps ecosystem, and cloud-based hosting, only Jive comes as close to a turnkey solution
    • Hosting in the cloud. Even with the new data residency option, many organizations are simply going to demand their social business platforms run inside the enterprise, for security, control, or regulatory reasons.
    • Early focus on Sales and CRM. Salesforce seemingly cannot abandon the part of the business that built them up in the first place. Yet the platform still exudes a very strong aura of its sales automation roots and this is a distinct turnoff to many parts of the enterprise
    • Still not enough enterprise sensibility. While many of their partners offer capabilities that large companies need, like LiveOffice’s new compliance capabilities for Chatter, a list of things comes to mind that large organizations will want in their social software:
    • I instinctively find the whole picture to be one in which slightly too much control ends up in the hands of Salesforce and not enough to the customer.
  • “For me and the decision makers I talk to, SCRM is simply taking traditional CRM and adding multichannel social technologies, social analytics and social engagement strategy to help Sales, Marketing and Customer Service be more productive.”

    tags: socialcrm gartner vendors crm social software salesforce jive lifecycle

    • Social CRM is a business philosophy that expands the borders of traditional customer relationship management beyond information, process and technology to people, conversations, and relationships. The focus of sCRM is on people (i.e. customers, partner, suppliers), their relationships with other people, and the ongoing conversations that are occurring about the Company and its products. Finally, sCRM is also about engaging with customers and prospects, not controlling them, and establishing bonds of trust (hopefully love) between the Customers and the Company
    • Jive doesn’t effectively manage information about people, relationships and business opportunities. It’s not built for that purpose.  Jive is a listening and engagement platform that does not manage the people they are listening to; prospects, customers, vendors, and influencers.

       

      But their solution is an incredibly effective social platform for customer and employee engagement.

    • True SCRM starts out the with the customer, her demographics, her realities, her needs, her values. But it does not ignore the management of the customer. It’s not an angry tweet that someone in customer service responds to only to move on the next complaint. It creates a profile of that customer so that the organization can continue to nurture her.
    • As Peter Drucker liked to remind us, the purpose of business is to create a customer.  And Social CRM is furthering this objective by enabling companies to locate and connect with current and  prospective customers while managing them through a relationship lifecycle.
  • “Jive has filed its S1. For those that don’t know, this is a document filed at the SEC which is the precursor to an IPO. The IPO doesn’t have to happen but that’s the general intention.

    I was particularly keen to see this S1 because it provides valuable insights into a a company before it launches on the public markets. In relatively new categories like so-called social business, it also gives us a glimpse about the shape and size that market might become. In this case, Jive is one of the early start up vendors that is attempting to make collaboration a business reality. It’s been around a few years so has the market positioning and experience to tell a credible story.”

    tags: Jive IPO socialbusiness enterprise2.0 workflow integration context

    • There has been so much dismissive bloviating about the claimed benefits, that the harsh realities of execution have almost been swept aside. Until very recently. The almost incessant media racket and the round of self congratulatory conferences on the topic should have created a huge market. But if Jive is the best example we have then it simply doesn’t exist as a global phenomenon
    • Most recently I saw one tender document from a very well known operator in this space. I was truly taken aback at how little demonstrated understanding of basic business operations came out in the recommendations. Long on rhetoric that almost required its own dictionary to decipher and yet painfully short on addressing real world issues. Some organisations will fall for that, many won’t.
    • In short and as I said almost two years ago to the day: content without the context of business process is meaningless. Nothing has changed. And it wont because in all this, we’re talking about dealing with the intersection between software, which slavishly obeys its instructions and humans, who have a tendency to be messy and unpredictable.
    • From what I can tell, those who are charged with actioning social business projects are often poorly equipped to understand just what needs to get done organisationally. Almost none of those I have met have any relevant large business operational experience.
    • the taking of social metaphors that work in our personal lives but do not automatically carry over into our work lives. The divide between the two may be merging on a time allocation basis but not in the way we want to interact or the perceptions we have about those relationships
    • By which stage apologising by saying ‘were early in the adoption cycle’ is going to be wearing mightily thin as the catch all excuse for what scares the heck out of the vendors wedded to this segment: failure.
  • “Et pourtant, Steve Jobs, dont l’hagiographie fait la une de nos journaux cette semaine après l’annonce de son départ, n’a pas cité une seule fois le mot “client” dans sa lettre de démission.

    Le parcours et le comportement de cet homme sont une source d’enseignement pour les professionnels du marketing client. Observons trois idées répandues qui sont autant de paradoxe”

    tags: stevejobs apple casestudies customer management innovation

    • Et pourtant…le premier paradoxe est là. Combien de patrons de grandes entreprises répondent directement aux clients ? La démarche prouve bien que Steve Jobs s’intéresse au client dans ses requêtes les plus simples et les plus concrètes
    • Ce comportement traduit bien sa détermination et sa terrible assurance, qui sont autant de gages de réussites.
    • “il n’y a que 5 niveaux hiérarchiques entre l’employé de base et le PDG. Cela permet de faire remonter tout problème en quelques heures. Apple est constitué en petites unités de quelques dizaines de personnes, et fonctionne donc encore d’une certaine façon comme une start-up”.
    • Steve a surtout montré que les clients ne savent pas formuler ce qu’ils veulent. Le pire serait qu’Apple se concentre désormais sur les demandes des clients, et se mette à faire des études marketing et des “focus groups”.
       Jacques Séguéla connu pour ses formules disait aussi “moins de tests, plus de testicules”, une citation que j’aime assez.
    • Mais le fait de ne pas l’écouter ne signifie pas qu’on ne fait rien pour lui. Apple a une véritable orientation client, une capacité à penser à sa place, imaginer des usages nouveaux, de nouvelles façons de vivre avec des produits électroniques et connectés.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
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