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To get an idea of what's inside this paper here are a few choice cuts.
Abstract. This essay makes the case for the role of a Super Connector in large organisations whose sole responsibility is to create the same levels of connectivity, collaboration and productivity achieved by open source movements, conversational software and social media platforms. It recognises the need for evolution rather than revolution and most importantly describes the end game, and the implications for leadership, employees, revenue, stakeholder investment return and market valuation.
The horrific events of September 11th and their aftermath, including war, restricted mobility, big government, and fear. The banking crisis, crippled economies, the shift of power to the East, pandemic flu, climate change, peak oil, the war on terror, the emergence of social networks the size of continents, a black US president. When will things get back to normal? They are. This is the new normal.
Business and government aren’t structured or designed to cope with this rate of change and it’s apparent even to the layman they’ve struggled to understand, react and adapt to a seemingly endless stream of social, economic and political crises, many of which don’t even arise in their own countries.
Productive professionals make big enterprises competitive, yet these employees increasingly find their work obstructed. Creating and exchanging tacit knowledge through interaction with their professional peers internally and externally is ‘what they do’. Yet most of them squander endless hours searching for the knowledge and access to people they need, even when it resides in their own companies.
The future of an organisation is a lot less about the nature of its issues, as it is about its capacity to invent social structures able to solve them. That’s why social software is at its most transformative inside the organisation and the implications for its performance, sustainability, value and long term survival, are far reaching.
Leaders get their support and power from the ‘bottom’ of the organisation where as chiefs and managers get theirs from the ‘top’.
Image by ixtlan via Flickr
The Super Connector is a network. A network with ‘clue’ with the ability to build social software applications. It’s not a single person, although it does have a leader, but it’s more about a group of people dedicated to delivering services that extract untold value from existing resources. In effect, ‘doing better with less’. But it needs the same level of investment as any other strategic shared service. In return, the Super Connector can bring about profound measurable organisational benefits in revenue, productivity and the cost base. So what’s the value proposition?
Read the whole thing by downloading the PDF.
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