Thoughts Archives - Page 6 of 14

Open Business, there’s light at the end of the tunnel

In the grant scheme of things we are merely pawns.

Most of us try to change the world, only a handful actually do. However, when it comes to social business, or rather society, things are slightly different. Here, numbers count. The more people involved with, lets call it “the movement”, the more chance it has of succeeding. Sounds logical, don’t it?

One of things I wrote about earlier, and I hope is inevitable, is the convergence of two different “movements” with the same name. There is a third, with a slightly different name, but with a very complimentary set of standards.

Open Business

Last week someone mentioned Open Business, I just had to check that out.

The definition according to Wikipedia:

Open business is an approach to enterprise that draws on ideas from openness movements like free software, open source, open content and open tools and standards.

So, yes, there is a difference between Social Business and Open Business, mainly the openness. Hence the term.

I do agree we have a long way to go, for any form of social or open business to establish itself firmly in our society.
Open business makes it a bit less abstract, meaning it might help us in clearing the air a bit around the enigma that is Social Business.

Social Business

Open business is NOT social business. It’s no the same thing. At most, it can be seen as part of the whole.
The way I see, it is neatly placed between the two existing definitions of social business.

The ideal situation would be combining the three into one, a very progressive way of doing business. Although not entirely unobtainable, it seems more routed in a Star Trekian philosophy than in the real world.

Below are the main ideas of concept of Open Business. You be the judge on how ‘real’ this is.

Open learning/sharing — a fundamental tenet is open collaboration at all levels in all locations
Open participation — open invitation to join the organization (similar to SourceForge, Blender community, where individual/team input within the community framework [for special services, consulting, training, adaptions, courses, camps, symposiums, books] can help to build individual income)
Individual rights — each person is supported and encouraged to identify and optimise their personal development, i.e. technical, personal, spiritual, etc.
Community focus — productivity activities are seen as part of a range of normal human activities e.g. family life, community life, religious commitments, etc.
Institution free — the organization is not based on any existing institution – state, religious or otherwise. Members can hold whatever views or affiliations they like.
Open knowledge — the free exchange of knowledge by making use -as much as possible- of open standards, open source and open content principles.
Open member details — including open access to the contact details of all other members in a convenient form (i.e. once the range and depth of those details have been approved for release by that particular member)
Open financials—all accounting information including the compensation of others

Some of these ideas are in tune with social business, others not so much. And some are outright difficult to achieve.

Awerness

In communicating these ideas, these values, combined with The Ten Tenets of Social Business, there is potential for some great implementations. Especially for fledging companies.

If any entrepreneur is starting a new company, it would be relatively easy to base its philosophy on these ideas. Anybody who wants to work for or with the company must abide to this philosophy.
Building it up like that gives you the very best chance of succeeding.

Changing an existing company takes more effort and time (but is not impossible).

Available Information

The good thing about all this is that all the information you need to change your business and have a positive effect on society is right available to you. The almighty and all knowing Internet provides enough reasons to become a social business.., or even an open business.

The choice is always up to you, whatever part you play within a company, anybody can start this. Having the support and involvement of top management makes everything a lot easier, but not having it, doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

However, help can be found. There are more and more professionals turning their attention towards social business. People with different backgrounds, like HR or Change Management, but with a common interest and a joint passion. The first step to a successful change is understanding Why this is important. It’s the first step on your journey towards the future.

Social Business is not about Social, it’s about Business. And that’s not always a good thing.

I need to get this off my chest, then I’ll stop with the rants… it’s just been bugging me for a long time.

You see.., I think we’re missing the point. And not by a little bit either. We all know, or should know by now, that the way we live in a non-sustainable society. Meaning, it will end, probably in a very dramatic way.

Social Business is probably the best opportunity we have to create awareness and generate responsibility. People need to live more consciously, more awake. But, we’re missing the point and with that, a golden opportunity.

Wind Turbines

A metaphor then: You must have noticed these huge, ugly, noisy mastodons, polluting our horizons and beautiful views.

Although their net-energy is positive, I can’t help thinking about the motivation for building these things. In Holland, in the Flevopolder, farmers get paid to put them up, it’s a hideous sight. The landscape is littered with hundreds of turbines. Different in size and strewn all over the place. There is no ecological motivation behind this.., heck, there is no ecological motivation behind the whole Flevopolder, it’s all economical.

Where I live now (the south of Belgium), a councilman was pushing the placement of a wind farm nearby. Although he didn’t have the authority, and no wind study was made for the location, he almost succeeded in starting the project. Anything else than personal gain is difficult to imagine.

Focussing on generating and storing energy locally (in your home or neighbourhood) is much, much more sustainable. But that would mean, giving up grid connected, chargeable control. And that’s not going to happen.

Supermarkets

Talk about a prominent place in society. The biggest supermarket chain in Holland (again Holland? Yes, I’m Dutch, remember?) has replaced it’s “Organic” label for “Pure & Honest”. Very smart, “Organic” is a protected label in The Netherlands. You cannot put it on a label unless it really is 100% organic.

Now that ‘they’ don’t have to worry about the label, they can promote “Pure & Honest” as “with extra care for people, animal, nature or environment produced, grown or bought”. This is, of course, not true.., sadly. All sorts of taste enhancers, E-numbers and animal unfriendly, bio industry elements are found in the products.., and that’s just the things we know about.

They pretend to be social, but they’re really not. Despite their obvious responsibility.

Social Business

By now, I’m sure that many companies implement Social Business to gain an economical advantage. And yes, that’s important. It’s why you run a business, to make money. We have to please the stake- and shareholders.

And companies that sell “Social Business” need to turn a profit too. So, the one is sustaining the other, economically speaking. Both missing the point on real sustainability and societal responsibilities.

I’m generalising here. I’m sure there are those that really do have the individual in mind. That believe changing the every day goings on of employees could make them happy and more engaged in the company, resulting in all sorts of benefits for that company.

And yes, “happy” and “engagement” are quantifiable emotions. I’m sick of people saying these are unrealistic, unmeasurable and non-business terms. They are very real, they are very human, and they also have a very real impact on a business. A happy employee is an engaged employee, an engaged employee is a productive employee. H+E=P

One simple way to quantify this is to just ask.

Talk to them, find out what they think about the company and how it could change for the better.

Labelling

As with the “organic” label in Europe.., the label “Social Business” should be protected. Social Business Consultants should be certified through an open source qualification program. Proven knowledge and motivation.

“Social Business” is hyping at the moment and companies are sticking the label anywhere it can stick. Either, so they can sell it, or so they can claim to be one. But, SocBiz isn’t a hype, it’s a very real evolution. And if you don’t get it right, say you only focus on a piece of technology, you won’t get there.

If becoming a Social Business prevents your business from expiring, than you can’t just focus on the economical gain. Heck, economical gain and a higher ROI are (very beneficial) by-products of a successful change. They’re part of the plan of course, but not the driving force.

People are.

Mea Culpa

I’m a Social Business Consultant. And when I need to advice a company, the bottom line is, of course, the unavoidable issue; the ROI has to be met.

But, I just love the philosophy behind the whole thing. I even consider myself a Corporate Rebel and I truly believe Social Business can have a (very) positive effect on society. But in order to that, we need to focus on the right elements of Social Business.

Call it societal gain over economical gain. I know.., I know. It’s so scary, letting the reigns loosen up a bit, transferring responsibilities, trust employees or citizens to do the right thing, very scary. But, if we keep fooling them, and we keep fooling ourselves, then we’ll simply won’t get there. We’ll simply never be able to create a (truly) sustainable society.

And if we can’t do that, there is only one other possible outcome.., societal collapse. And it wouldn’t be the first time either.., every other society before us has collapsed, no exception, none have survived the Test of Time and the Trials of Men.

We now have the knowledge and the technology to turn it around, to do it right.., just for once.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Is IBM a Social Business, I doubt it

UPDATE (10 oct, ’13): After speaking with several IBM’ers in the real world and in the comments below, I have learned that the story below is not business as usual at IBM. Questions have been asked and people have been approached in order to rectify the faulty process.

It goes to show, that kicking up some dust is a good way of determining a companies intend.
I will leave the story below intact, as a reminder of how not to be a social business. But, by now, IBM has proven that it has every intend of being (or becoming) a social business, in all it’s facets.

**************

When I talk about Social Business, I regularly mention (and praise) IBM for doing it right. For being at the forefront of the “movement”, for providing many a company with SocBiz solutions and actually being a Social Business.

I’m going to stop talking about IBM. I don’t believe they are as social as they think they are.

Let me explain:

My wife and I make decisions which usually result in dramatic course changes. We do this because we like a change of scenery or because we want a change in career.., or whatever. We just leap.

One of the leaps is me finding my way into Social Business on my own, switching my ‘career’ into a higher gear and into a field which I’m passionate about.

There are many ways to earn a buck or two, and I’m not one to dismiss an opportunity. Reading about IBM and its views on, and practices of Social Business, made me keep an my eye on them (it would be a very cool company to work for).

At Bat

The first chance was the best vacancy I ever saw: Senior Social Business Consultant.., yup, that would be me. So, I applied, I even had a recently met on-line friend endorse me. My friend also confirmed that they received my E-book: “Why? Social Business“.

But, I never heard anything from IBM. I figured holidays and the like must get in the way. So I waited a bit.

First Strike

After not even receiving a confirmation I decided to call them, as a follow up on the application. All the way to London. A very friendly (they’re always friendly) person told me that if I applied for a vacancy (which I did), I’d be contacted.., maybe. I could not get anybody else on the phone.

Second Strike

Making a phone call is always a good idea. Getting a personal connection going is one of the better strategies. So, I called again, this in Belgium (closer to home and where the original vacancy was found).

After dealing with a menu, I talked to a person who could not help me with the application, that’s recruitment and no, I could not speak to them. But, I could send an email and she’d make sure, if it was a good email, that recruitment would get it.
By now I read that IBM and Dachis were teaming up to provide more and better social business services. I figured that they would need all the help they could get.

Third Strike

Not a peep after this email, not even a single automated “we’ve received your email” notification.., nothing. So, I called again.

This time the message was that, although they’re sorry, but the email could not be found. Say what? This is IBM, one of the biggest software companies in the world, and they loose email. Nobody looses emails any more.., not since 2009. Not ever, I still have every single email send and received since 2005, not one is “lost”.

Plus, this person said that it’s no use sending emails with an open application, because, you know, that’s like, just weird. Why would I want to offer my services to IBM?
No, you apply to a vacancy but, you only get a response (any response apparently) when they deem you worthy of an interview.

And I don’t know the status of the vacancy because a) it’s no longer on-line and b) nobody will tell me anything and I don’t get past their call centre.

And Your Out!

I don’t know IBM, I never worked for them, but everything I read is positive (I can’t imagine people are getting paid to write positive things about IBM), and the few people whom I know work for IBM are positive too.

It could be just me, but, if my interactions with the company stand for anything, than it’s quite the opposite of “social”. Maybe they can sell it really, really well to their customers and partners, but I’m not buying it.

Really, if you have nearly 3000 open vacancies (world wide) and your business is Social Business, which is, or will be, the hottest thing on the planet the coming decade.., then you want all the help you can get. Then you want to receive emails, phone calls, tweets or homing pigeons from people who have something genuine to offer you.

At the very, very least.., acknowledge an email (don’t “loose” it).