Yesterday in my research on enterprise mobility and social businesses, I came across two statements that I want to share with you.  They are from the book Social Business By Design.

1. The impact of new social models and enabling tools, combined with the means to employ them effectively (think mobile), are remaking the landscape of business, society, culture and government.
2. Social business is one of the biggest shifts in structure and process of organizations in business history.  It taps into entirely new sources of creative output (everyone on the network...mostly mobile), relinquishes structure that reduces productive outputs, and inverts methods of traditional control and decision making in work processes (as anyone on the network can contribute).

I don't think most businesses are yet aware of how transformational the SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) wave really is.  In my SMAC strategy workshops I compare this wave to a tsunami.  It does not care if social collaboration and enterprise mobility are budgeted in your three year plan, it is happening today, budget or not.

The Arab Spring, sprung without warning.  It was inspired by a shared situational awareness and organized by social networks and collaboration platforms.  We see similar flash responses to Bank of America raising service fees, and Netflix and Instagram changing their policies.  The world is a different place in 2013.  Companies must recognize the impact of real-time news and information flowing 24 hours a day around the world on mobile devices.  They must adapt their methods, operations and communication strategies to meet these new realities.

Companies can no longer control their brand or communications.  The crowds on social networks now control your brand and communications.  If you wish to influence the crowd, you must listen, engage, have a plan and a philosophy on how to participate.

This new reality significantly impacts how companies must address the needs of their employees, customers, prospects and partners.  People no longer look to the manufacturer or to the corporate office for answers, they ask the crowd on the social networks.  The sentiment of the crowd is where truth lies today, whether it is true or not.

Companies that seek to control all information and communications lose credibility in today's world.  Today businesses must be active members of the online community and be willing to participate in conversations about their business, products and services.  They must apologize when they make mistakes, thank the community for constructive feedback and share both good and bad on the networks.  Companies that embrace this social business concept will develop a community of loyal followers.

I am a long time enterprise mobility guy.  I default to thinking about moving data out to mobile apps and collecting data to sync back into an enterprise system.  The efficiencies are important in these scenarios, but today's SMAC developments are far more impactful and transformational.  They aren't just about efficiencies, they are about a revolution in business.
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