The last post on Spinning Mule 2.0 was originally posted last week but I thought it a bit OTT so saved the HTML and deleted it. I’ve now done a repost and made a note to trust my judgement a bit more in future. The reason for that is the arrival of a nice little number from Forrester called: “Innovating Strategic Management Paradigms And Models To Thrive Amid Global Change.”

The report bandies about some dandy terms such as ‘Globalization 2.0? ‘Invisible IT’ and ‘Technology Populism’. By these they refer to the truly global market and the increasing impact, influence and importance of the BRIC economies; the evolution of IT into a ubiquitous business technology; and the fact that rather than the military it’s now the Facebook generation, i.e ordinary tech-savvy punters who are driving change.

To survive in this new world, Forrester recommend something that caught my eye – they recommend that corporations adopt what I’ve always thought as the prime mantra of internal comms, namely align whatever and all you do to the business strategy.

Strategic management paradigms are the über-approaches that: combine several discrete activities under one umbrella; have a direct and complex impact on a company’s strategy setting; and require comprehensive implementation efforts. Examples of strategic management paradigms include the core competency concept or the management by objectives (MBO) approach, which emanated from the academic world.

To back this up and to validate it for good or ill they say a measurement system is needed, such as SWOT, Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma. What follows however takes an increasingly 2.0 twist – old business paradigms need to take the tectonic social media shift.

The focus then should be on a customer-centricity. These they argue becomes part of a Business Transformation model. This transformation is one not only about organizing and behaving to meet customer needs, it’s also about adopting social media technology and practices to foster innovation and to adapt in agile fashion to meet new and evolving customer needs and desires.

Will this happen? Forrester note the huge challenges present. I think this is the rub. Also there’s not a lot of choice. Global market, increased competition, global skills market, next gen 2.0 employees expect at least the very basics of what they use at home and at leisure. This opens up the market – opportunities as much as threat. The game is being completely re-written. We’re in a Crisis phase at present, but as the Chinese note, this is both Danger and Opportunity

While traditional IT service providers can rejoice in the fact that their contributions will gain in importance, they can’t become complacent, as the new game represents an opportunity for entrants that excel in both strategy and technology. As a result, Forrester foresees active consolidation in the consulting and IT industries over the next five years.

The Parallax View: Social Business & Enterprise 2.0 - Social Media Inside the Firewall

CEO beware. It’s official, or at least as official as it gets – Economist Intelligence Unit interviewed 406 top bosses and found they were more attuned to social media benefits than their middle management. Or as the EIU puts it:

“These findings point to a possible disconnect between the corner office and the rest of the organization on how to best incorporate Web 2.0 practices into business.”

Key findings of the report include:

• Customers are helping to develop and support products.
• Ease of acquiring and supporting customers provide the biggest financial benefits.
• Early adopters are to be found in many countries and industries.
• The C-suite is more enthusiastic than lower-level executives.
• CFOs are the most skeptical about the potential of Web 2.0.

To download a copy of the report, visit www.fastsearch.com/EIU

Update: great review from Bill Ives on FastForward: Economist Finds True Believers in Business Value of Social Software

The Parallax View: Social Business & Enterprise 2.0 - Social Media Inside the Firewall

I’m starting to rather like all the extras that LinkedIn are adding to their platform. I’ve just followed Chris MacNeil‘s lead and set up a poll on social media apps for a bit of fun.

Which one is your top app?

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/11170/ddnhy

The Parallax View: Social Business & Enterprise 2.0 - Social Media Inside the Firewall

The BBC World Service featured an item on spam today (they couldn’t resist a song from Monty Python either) and took a tin of it to a London restaurant to be cooked up.  They said it still tasted, well like spam.

Today must be Spamday as there’s a similar discussion on LinkedIn where Yvete Bugarini asks if there’s a “A cure for the diluted importance of email?” post her IT dept not getting trhough to their audience. My advice as ever,  is don’t spam- it’s rubbery and over spiced!

The LinkedIn discussion is here

Monty Python can be found here…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE&hl=en&fs=1]

The Parallax View: Social Business & Enterprise 2.0 - Social Media Inside the Firewall