All posts in Corporate Culture

What is a social business ecosystem?

The ideal social business ecosystem is all of your people, information and processes connected in such a way as to waste less time finding the right person or the right answer.

The dictionary defines an ecosystem as any system of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business: The success of Apple’s ecosystem depends on hardware/software integration. Manufacturers, retailers, and customers are all part of the automotive industry’s ecosystem.

Social Business Ecosystem

It’s a simple way to look at it and makes sense when it comes to where social networking platforms can help people in a business of any size company. A functioning ecosystem is people sharing information easily and servicing customers efficiently.  The conversation among all stake-holders becomes accessible, making each part of the ecosystem truly connected to the other.

The scientific view, based on today’s technology, offers a more detailed explanation to what can be achieved in a business today.

  • A community of organisms together with their physical environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships and including such processes as the flow of energy through trophic level sand the cycling of chemical elements and compounds through living and nonliving components of the system.

    The American Heritage® Science Dictionary -

Sure, some of that is hard to apply to business as a concept but from a 50,000 foot cultural perspective, we see harmony, order and purpose. Businesses that are growing toward this objective are more fun places to work. They have engaged employees that treat customers better, fostering loyalty. They are not afraid to make mistakes or bring forth bold ideas.

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The New Business As Usual by Euan Semple

This recorded webcast is part of the 2012 C7group Business Thought Leadership Series: Euan Semple leads a presentation about driving business, leveraging social media and the culture and workflow changes that are required. Watch Euan’s presentation below or read more about his background:

Euan Semple is one of the few people in the world who can turn the complex world of social networking into something we can all understand. And, at the same time, learn how to get the most from it. Ten years ago, while working in a senior position at the BBC, Semple was one of the first to introduce what have since become known as social media tools into a large, successful organization. He has subsequently had five years of unparalleled experience working with organizations such as Nokia, The World Bank and NATO He is a one-man digital upgrade option for us all to download. This world is changing fast, but he makes sense of it because he understands that the core basics remain the same: community, learning, interaction. He is a master story-teller who offers a host of practical tales about how this new world can work for real people in the real world. Author of Organizations Don’t Tweet, People Do: A Manager’s Guide to the Social Web.

Euan Semple: The New Business As Usual from C7group on Vimeo.

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Social Learning and Employee Development by Halelly Azulay

Here is the recorded version of a valuable presentation and discussion with Halelly Azulay, CEO of TalentGrow from the 2012 Business Thought Leadership Webcast Series. Halelly Azulay discusses the realities of employee development and leveraging social networking and media for learner-driven, learner-generated employee education.

Halelly brings over 19 years of professional experience in the fields of workplace learning, performance, and communication with regulatory, corporate, government, non-profit, academic, and entrepreneurial clients. She is the author of Employee Development on a Shoestring (ASTD Press, 2012).

 

Social Learning and Employee Development by Halelly Azulay

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Which is more important–culture or strategy?

Our answer is clearly culture! We agree with Leslie Bradshaw at Jess3 (and we’re big fans). Is it really a choice though?  Paying appropriate attention to strategy and planning is part of an adaptive culture. We think that the modern social, digital business has an iterative process for regularly re-examining its own culture. (more…)

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Culture: Your Organization’s DNA and How It Drives Everything Else

Organizations must transform their culture in order to become collaborative social businesses.  It’s no longer a debate that culture and values are the winning components of the business of tomorrow.  Technology is leading us in terms of what we must do with our workflow and behavior but it is not the central component. Technology tool selection happens after a proper strategy and roadmap are formed or the road to change and adoption are difficult or doomed.   Further, public image and brand value are now at the mercy of your organization’s character, responsibility and “humanness.”

Papa John’s Pizza recently experienced the brand damage that can be caused by one single tweet. That tweet of a photographed receipt containing an ethnic slur spread to millions of people in days. The digital social web has connected us. Social media marketing and digital PR efforts pale next to today’s real-time magnification of behavior no matter where or when it takes place.

Marissa Levin, Founder and CEO of Information Experts, Inc., and author of the recently released “My Company ROCKS!” Eight Secrets to a Growth-Driven Culture That Keeps Employees Happy & Engaged,” identified eight cultural strategies that her book expands upon:

  1. Commitment to a Non-Toxic Environment
  2. Commitment to Fun
  3. Safety Outside the Comfort Zone
  4. Employee Input
  5. Join for one position, stay for another
  6. Continuous Learning
  7. Responsible Flexibility and Work-Life Integration
  8. Employee Empowerment & Accountability
Culture is how an organization makes sense of the world, a set of assumptions internalized by all its members. Marissa Levin, with seventeen years of experience growing a successful business, has an outline worth sharing and a valuable conversation that will inspire you.  You are welcome to join her for an online webcast with the same title as this blog post, “Culture: Your Organization’s DNA and How It Drives Everything Else,” on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Register here. It’s part of our 2012 Business Thought Leadership series.
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Why We Love Slow Donnie (David Cross) on “Just Shoot Me”

Work should be fun.  That means a lot of things  – like caring about your work, being more engaged and being more productive. You can accomplish some of this by working on things you love and enjoy (making work less work?). You can accomplish it by communicating in less frustrating ways and making it easier to find information that matters. You can also accomplish it by laughing more and not taking everything so seriously.

My great friend Jim Pelley travels around the globe as a keynote speaker and expert on laughter in the workplace. He talks about using humor to embrace risk, manage change, provide better customer service and more.  You can do great work and be productive without feeling like you want the day to be over so you can move on to something more fun.

So today, if you’re stressed and feeling the pressure of deadlines and commitments. Just say, “Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie!”

Have a laugh today and everyday!

 

Share something that makes you laugh at work!  Do you have permission for work to be fun?  Please share your experience with us!

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C7group Announces Launch of New Offering for Small Business

Since its formation, the C7group has worked to help business owners and executives, from enterprise to SMB, understand that making the move to social is about more than ust using social media platforms for marketing and customer acquisition. A true social business engages customers and employees across the organization, from customer service, to innovation, to employee collaboration.

Small Business Social Business Integration SacramentoToday, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new social business offering designed specifically with small businesses in mind. The Social Integration for Small Business Suite from C7 Group brings cost saving and revenue producing tools that have previously only been available to enterprise level organizations, as well as the expertise to properly implement them, to small and mid size businesses.

C7 Group founder and CEO, Jeff Marmins, says, “We looked around right here in our own backyard, Sacramento, CA, and realized that there was a huge void in the marketplace; no one was talking about how small businesses could, with the right tools and training, compete with much larger organizations by adopting a social model.” Marmins lists the advantages small businesses have over their larger counterparts: speed, agility, centralized decision making, lower overhead. He also acknowledges that many small businesses jump into the social space haphazardly, with no clear idea of how to use the available tools to retain customers and make more money. “We’re a small business. We understand how confusing the digital landscape is today. C7group has taken advantage of cloud based software and social platforms such as Google Docs, the Google Apps Marketplace, Hootsuite, Nimble and others. What combination of the hundreds of offerings are right for you? We can help with the roadmap and tool selection.”

Marmins cites some astounding statistics to make his case (from a study conducted by C7group software partner, Jive): businesses that have adopted a social model have seen a 27% reduction in email sent, a 26% decrease in time needed for meetings, a 30% increase in employee satisfaction, a 42% increase in customer communication and, perhaps most impressive, a 27% increase in sales to new and existing clients. The path to that kind of productivity can be tricky, though, Marmins warns.

“There are a lot of ‘overnight experts’ that have jumped into social media,” Marmins says. “If you don’t know what to look for, you could easily get burned by an amateur looking to make a quick buck or that is looking at marketing in a vacuum. Where can you really create leverage and increase net profit? What should you do first?”

And while other firms have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to assist their small business clients in adopting the use of social media for marketing and PR purposes, C7group is the first consulting firm in Sacramento to offer an end-to-end package that covers employee collaboration and document management to workflow and process improvements and, of course, social media marketing.

“What we’re really taking about is social technology and related practices, not just social media marketing,” Marmins states. “We can show you that the difference is bigger than you might think.”

Get more information about the new Small Business Digital Services Suite, request a consultation with a C7 Group social business expert or call (916) 538-3767.

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The Evolution of Workplace Collaboration: This Is Not Your Father’s Usenet

Last week, C7group CEO, Jeff Marmins shared an infographic demonstrating that the web has always been social.  As social tools move to the forefront of business, though, it’s becoming clear that one of the biggest gains from this progression will be the impact on workplace collaboration.  The ability for employees to work together on projects over great distances and without regard to time zones is becoming a key competitive advantage.

Have a look at this video from our partner, Jive Software:

Did you catch the vision? The business of the future will do more than use the latest social media tools to keep in touch with customers; forward-thinking businesses are already implementing tools like Jive to build internal teams that know no borders.

Think of the the impact that something as simple as sharing internal documents can have on a team. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when team members had to rely on email to share documents, make edits and updates, save new versions, make sure they sent back the *right* version, then start the whole chain over. It was time-consuming and messy, and God forbid you moved the wrong version to your laptop for the big presentation.

Now, documents are living, breathing things with a safe place, probably somewhere in the cloud, to call home. Team members can access, edit, and use the same document from any web browser anywhere in the world and at any time of the day, and they’ll always be using the latest version. That’s just one example of the kind of strides collaboration has taken in the social business model.

Are you engaged or is something holding you back from taking the plunge? Share your thoughts about the potential risks and benefits you see!

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IBM Case Study: A Lesson In Social Business Transformation | Social Media Blog by Michael Brito

What advice can you give to other executives who want to transform their organizations into a fully collaborative social business?

We’ve learned many valuable lessons along our social business transformation journey. One of the biggest lessons learned was that social business transformation involves more changes to culture than technology. Remember that your employees are your most important asset. Shift your focus from documents, project plans and other temporary artifacts to the source of the energy, creativity and decision making that moves the business forward: people. Remember that trust is a key element to becoming a social business. An organization needs a certain level of trust to empower its employees to share their ideas and expertise and it must demonstrate this trust by rewarding behavior. At the same time, this trust must be balanced with an appropriate level of governance or discipline that sets the parameters of appropriate actions. Lastly, becoming a social business is not simply a matter of deploying some collaboration tools and hoping for the best. It is a long-term strategic approach to shaping a business culture and is highly dependent on executive leadership and effective corporate strategy, including business processes, risk management, leadership development, financial controls and business analytics.

via IBM Case Study: A Lesson In Social Business Transformation | Social Media Blog by Michael Brito.

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On Social Media Becoming Social Business – David Armano – Harvard Business Review

We are entering an age of social business: a purposeful, planned, orchestrated, and integrated way of doing business in a social context which may feel personal to the outside world but combine complexities internally within organizations that will need navigating. As further evidence to the shift, one can look to technology for yet another clue.

Over the past several years, forward-thinking companies have begun to understand the value of monitoring conversations, so they have purchased software licenses from platforms like Radian 6. Recently, Enterprise software behemoth Salesforce acquired the startup, sending the signal that listening to social conversations is only one slice of the bigger pie for business. The true opportunity lies in scaling and operationalizing “social”. If the next phase of social media is operating as a scalable social organization or business, then expect to see an explosion of activity in the following areas:

via On Social Media Becoming Social Business – David Armano – Harvard Business Review.

If you haven’t read this article please do so before continuing to read this post. David is a thought leader in the social media space. We have to thank David for validating our business model with his post.

He highlights 3 areas of focus:

  1. Organizational Design – a social business is redesigned as it moves through key phases of its evolution. All business functions have to undergo several iterations of change. Looking at your organization from a social business lens means looking at it more holistically.
  2. Social Business Intelligence: The rise of social media led to a gold rush in technology solutions, which allowed organizations to eavesdrop on conversations happening across multiple social ecosystems and digital public spaces such as the blogosphere, message boards, and Facebook.
  3. Cultures of Collaboration, Co-Creation & Shared Value – The end result is what’s commonly known in the business world as an ecosystem in which value is entered into it and extracted by multiple stakeholders for mutual gain. An ecosystem, by definition, is sustainable.

(more…)

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