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GuruSpeak > Mr Michael Schrage
michael schrage ON SOCIAL media for businessMr Michael Schrage, MIT
Michael Schrage is a Research Fellow, MIT Center for Digital Business, and Visiting Fellow, Imperial College Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has been a contributor to such prestigious publications as the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, strategy+business, and the Design Management Journal.
Michael writes mainly about innovation, but has many insights to offer into enterprise social, and social media. His recent HBR blog talks about the real power of enterprise social platforms: the power it gives people to "self organize". In this exclusive interview to Younomy's GuruSpeak section, Michael also acknowledges the power of social media to help customers become co-creators. Helping customers to become different is one of his passionate topics. His newest book, Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?, published by Harvard Business Review, has set innovators thinking in a radically new way of designing not new products or features or services but new customers. His who-do-you-want-your-customers-to-be can prove to be a framework as powerful as that of Prof Clayton Christensen's "Jobs to do", (link to Youtube Video) in solving customer's problems and addressing business opportunities. Excerpts from the interview: "we are co-evolving with the new capabilities of social media networks and devices"
Younomy: If the business impact of machines is industrialization (and if that of computers and Internet are automation and digitization respectively), what do you think is the business impact of social media?
Michael: The biggest - and most important - impact of so-called 'social media' will be the ability of talented people to quickly 'organize to improvise' to solve problems, explore opportunities and/or create value. Social media encourage and facilitate 'emergent behaviors' - that is, unanticipated, unplanned and undesigned responses to unexpected or unusual circumstances. In a business world of standardization and routinization, these behaviors are very useful; in a business world of volatility, competitive innovation and chaotic customers, they become essential. Younomy: You observe that one of the potential uses of social media lies in self-organization. How can business benefit from letting its people and business divisions use this potential? (You may cite a few examples, if possible) Michael: I do observe that. But the question leaves out an important word: power. Organizations - especially more traditional organizations based on hierarchies and ranks - have to understand that 'exchanging information' is not the same as 'empowerment.' Does an organization encourage people from different departments to coordinate to respond to a customer request for a new feature or function? Are internal 'experts' allowed to share information to run an experiment without waiting a week for top management approval? Are there 'budgets' or 'permissions' that make it easy for individuals and small teams to take the initiative to explore a new market opportunity? My observation and experience suggests that most organizations have only begun to ask these questions. Traditional leaders seem very ambivalent about using social media to better empower their people rather than simply give them greater 'situational awareness.' For people who still believe that 'information is power,' they're being silly. If you can't take advantage of or actually do meaningful things with that information, you don't have power - you have frustration. Younomy: People now can do their personal, professional jobs through their "self organizations" - fans and friends of their social networks. However, what makes people (or even organizations) successful in creating and using self organizations? Is it factors like reputation, values, or even money…? Michael: I think the question is even simpler than that: Can our willingness and ability to organize in this way really solve a problem or address an opportunity? That is a judgement about capability and risk. To make a vulgar analogy, we know how to get from one part of the world to another. Does it make more sense to get on a plane? Or make a phone call? Or do a videoconference? We need to learn what we need to learn about the economic value of self-organization. This will be a real challenge and some individuals and teams will develop 'best practices' worthy of emulation and imitation. Let's not forget that we are co-evolving with the new capabilities of social media networks and devices. Younomy: By giving the opportunity for external stakeholders (including customers) to have a say - or even participate - in the value creation process, businesses can make customers co-creators. Do you think helping customers feel and become co-creators an ultimate milestone or goal for organizations that are evolving social business strategies? Michael: Yes..yes…yes! And I wrote books on this very issue over 20 years ago. The technologies have more than caught up. But the attitudes of designing 'with' customers instead of 'for' them is sill a cultural and organizational obstacle. That said, it is no longer an 'economic' or 'technical' obstacle. Younomy: Social networks like Facebook give visibility to multiple identities or interests people have. Do you think this visibility can help an organization choose the types of identities customers have and provide them platforms to nurture certain identities that are strategic to its business? Michael: This is an excellent question. My view is that smart organizations will use these technologies not just to better identify and 'segment' their customers but also to empower customers to 'self-segment'. This will make marketing and targeted customization/innovation more agile and cost effective. Anything that transforms the economics of customer identification, selection and segmentation should be good for a business - and industry. |