Tuesday, 23rd June, 2009 at 19:24
This post forms part of a series of guest articles by experts in different fields around business and social media.
Anne McCrossan, founder of Visceral Business, is a branding and change management consultant with a dizzying track record and client list. After reading her recent article on ‘Recalibrating Organizations’, I interviewed her with the goal of drawing out some of her ideas around change and corporate leadership for a SOMESSO guest article.
The resulting hour-long conversation is published here as a 3-part series. Part 1 examined how companies need to move from pushing a message to galvanizing people around an idea; part 2 explored in more detail why companies need real values. This final part looks in more detail at how organizations structured around values and relationships work in practice.
Scaling whole-company community outreach
If an organization’s overriding purpose and values are clear, then you will see people self-selecting as potential community leaders. These individuals will not necessarily be your employees: you must seek out and cultivate those that have the most committed affinity with your brand - these are the most important members of your community. This has implications for your approach to recruitment: as people move closer to your organization, you can start thinking about relationships that should be funded because they’re valuable - employing the people who are already committed. In this way you will build business around affinity as opposed to structure. And, like cell division, this kind of community building is infinitely scalable.
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Keywords: anne mccrossan, brand management, branding, change management, collaboration, recalibrating organizations, social branding, social business, social enterprise, social media, visceral business
Wednesday, 17th June, 2009 at 16:03
This post forms part of a series of guest articles by experts in different fields around business and social media.
Anne McCrossan, founder of Visceral Business, is a branding and change management consultant with a dizzying track record and client list. After reading her recent article on ‘Recalibrating Organizations’ last week, I interviewed her with the goal of drawing out a couple of ideas around change and corporate leadership for a SOMESSO guest article.
The resulting hour-long conversation is published here as a 3-part series looking at how contemporary changes in technology and society are impacting business. Part 1 examined how companies need to move from pushing a message to galvanizing people around an idea; this post looks in more detail at the benefits of this new approach.
The visceral connection between big ideas and action
If societal, environmental and technical evolutions are forcing organizations to adapt to a new social dynamic, the tried and tested business models we’ve been using must also evolve and respond to this. The organizational development of business in the last 100 years has been dominated by an institutionalized and factory-oriented approach that’s no longer appropriate or fit for purpose.
The solution is to recognize and enable the visceral connection between big ideas, inspiration and action. For example, if you have to spend millions to get people to buy your stuff, you’re spending money on an idea that’s probably not big enough. None of us own our brands, they live in the minds of the audience the originating organization is connected with and to cultivate positive brand perceptions organizations need to work out how to create a position and purpose within their marketplace that benefits everyone, aligning investment, operations and audiences in ways that brings commercial and philanthropic elements together coherently.
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Keywords: anne mccrossan, change management, recalibrating organizations, social business, social media, visceral business
Tuesday, 16th June, 2009 at 18:02
This post forms part of a series of guest articles by experts in different fields around business and social media.
Anne McCrossan, founder of Visceral Business, is a branding and change management consultant with a dizzying track record and client list. After reading her recent article on ‘Recalibrating Organizations’ last week, I interviewed her with the goal of drawing out a couple of ideas around change and corporate leadership for a SOMESSO guest article.
In the resulting hour-long conversation, Anne ranged across contemporary challenges in society, culture and the environment, the need for a new approach to business, and the power of social media to contribute to - and help us navigate - this changing landscape. What follows is the first of a 3-part miniseries based on that interview, where Anne looks at how these developments impact businesses, and how in turn businesses can begin to transform themselves to meet these opportunities and challenges.
The social dynamic and the transformation of business
With something of a perfect storm of food, energy and water shortages being forecast by 2030 and the combined forces of social technology, economic recession and environmental change making their mark, the possibility of a new social ethic is emerging with the potential to transform the way we do business. Whilst ensuring we bring the intangible assets and existing equity of established businesses with us into this new commercial domain, new business models are required that involve a recalibration of organizations and businesses as we know them. And this means that marketing and organizational development needs to be reinvented.
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Keywords: anne mccrossan, big ideas, change management, environment, recalibrating organizations, tribalization, visceral business
