Social Business Toolkit (EN) by OpenKnowledge

Social Business is bringing the collaborative and emerging Web 2.0 models into the organizations. This irreversible trend is producing tangible advantages. But, in order to express its full potential, it implies a deep transformation. A toolkit to tackle it by a systemic approach.

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Social Business Toolkit Social Business is bringing the collaborative and emerging Web 2.0 models into the organizations. This irreversible trend is producing tangible advantages. But, in order to express its full potential, it implies a deep transformation. A toolkit to tackle it by a systemic approach.

Direttore responsabile Enrico Sassoon sassoon@hbritalia.it Collaborazione grafica Carlo Baiardi Segreteria editoriale Eva Sportoletti Baduel sportoletti@hbritalia.it Pubblicità

INDEX 2 Social Business Transformation

Towards the connected intelligent enterprise

6 Toolkit • • • • •

Social Business Transformation Strategy & Consultancy Employee Empowerment Customer Engagement Social Technologies Social Dynamic Dashboard

42 Focus on some of the methods

and issues mentioned in the toolkit: • • • • •

Enterprise Gamification CQ: Connected Intelligence Digital storytelling Collaboration framework Big (Social Data) Bang

66 Interviews: Paolo Cederle (UniCredit), Massimiliano Tiana (Vodafone),

John Lovett, Cindy Groenke (Bauknecht), Ray Wang, Matteo Verri (BPER), Roberta Vanetti (Whirlpool), Davide De Carolis (Amplifon)

76 OpenKnowledge and the editors of this booklet

Concessionaria per la Pubblicità PUBLIMASTER Surl Via Winckelmann, 2 20146 Milano Tel +39 02 424191 - fax +39 02 47710278 www.publimaster.it Amministratore Delegato: Alessandro Zonca StrategiQs Edizioni srl Via Nirone 19, 20123 Milano Tel. 02.3659.9235 – Fax 02.8785.98 mail: info@hbritalia.it Per pubblicità settori Formazione, Professioni, Consulenza Media & Co srl Tel. 02.2940.9880 mail: marketing@mediaedi.it Informazioni e abbonamenti Eva Sportoletti Baduel info@hbritalia.it srl

Consiglio di Amministrazione: Alessandro Di Fiore Presidente Enrico Sassoon Amministratore Delegato Donato Pinto Consigliere Via Nirone 19, 20123 Milano - www.hbritalia.it Testata registrata presso il Tribunale di Milano n. 192 del 20/03/2006 Stampa Industria Grafica -GraphicScalve, Loc. Ponte Formello Vilminore di Scalve (BG) Distributore per l’Italia: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. 20090 Segrate (Mi) Abbonamenti: Press-Di, Milano Oltre, via Cassanese 224, 20090 Segrate (MI). Per informazioni: tel. 199.111.999; fax 030.3198.202; e-mail: abbonamenti@ mondadori.it. Indirizzo postale: Servizio Abbonati – Casella Postale 97 – 25197 Brescia. Abbonamento annuale: Euro 99,90 (Euro 135,00, sconto 26%),oltre spese di spedizione secondo tariffe per l’estero. Garanzia di riservatezza per gli abbonati. L’Editore garantisce la massima riservatezza dei dati forniti dagli abbonati e la possibilità di richiederne gratuitamente la rettifica o la cancellazione ai sensi dell’art. 7 del D. leg. 196/2003 scrivendo a Press Di srl – Distribuzione Stampa e Multimedia - Ufficio Privacy – Milano Oltre - Via Cassanese, 224 - 20090 Segrate (MI)

Social Business Transformation Towards a connected and intelligent organization Complex markets and the challenges of change

The scenario that companies are facing is the result of an unprecedented series of discontinuities. It is perhaps the first time that – in the brief history of organizations – such an important sequence of transformations has occurred simultaneously.

Turbulent economy

Customer relationship at risk Ever larger organizations and those ever more structured by silos are tending to lose contact with the consumer. Few results have produced decades of innovative policies on more up-to-date systems of customer care, call and contact centres. In this way, organizations have lost the ability to build close and long-term relationships whilst new players are conquering this role.

The speed with which companies over the last few deca- Data intensive age des have altered their ranking (topple rate) is the effect We live in a data intensive age. Never before have our liof sudden and unpredictable changes: new competitors ves as consumers or citizens generated quantities of data from other industries, disruptive technologies and busi- growing exponentially at an ever-faster speed and from a ness models, ever more global markets, and a strong in- multitude of sources (structured and unstructured). Curterdependence among systems (not only financial ones). rent organizations are not ready to handle this vast amount Just twenty years ago, many of today’s leading companies of information, and they are suffering from background simply did not exist. noise, disorientation, and an information overload.

Social & empowered customers

The market has truly become a conversation, as the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto had suggested in 2000. Consumers have been able to utilise the power of the internet much better – for now – than brands and marketers have. The power that consumers have taken on in reputation mechanisms and in the formation of purchase behaviours is unprecedented.

Social Business: a definition

Social Business is a new enterprise organization system that centres on collaborative and networking relationships (employees, partners, customers, suppliers, etc.) to face and generate value in complex markets. Social Business is building an organization that is more suited to the challenges of the change: • More efficient in managing the collaborative mechaniService economy sms that characterise our working method but that are Product economies have definitively transformed themnot supported by the current systems; selves into service economies and any product incapable of generating a strong service component is destined to • More reactive and resilient as it is based on continually reconfigurable networking mechanisms; exit the market. The service economy – based on the interaction/integration between the organization and system- • More intelligent in increasing the value of resources already present within the organization; customer – is far more complex and requires the entire organization to be ready to expose itself and be resilient • More capable of innovation; • More open and connected to the market and to customers. to new demands.

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BIZ FUNCTION

RULES

CHANNEL

COMMUNITY

RULES

CHANNEL

BIZ FUNCTION

COMMUNITY

CMY

technologies. The focus is on the transformation process in the adoption of new technologies; • Social Business Transformation (2013): the awareness that the process of Social Business is a true transformation – also disruptive and not linear – that surpasses the current structure and culture of organizations.

Our point of view

The implications of this new paradigm: • The borders separating the company’s inside from the outside are called into question; • Processes that were once assigned to management or to a decision-making centre tend to be redistributed according to widespread empowerment criteria; • The exchange process between inside and outside is made possible by a participation (and co-creation) approach and not just a communication approach; • Emerging and cloud technologies support collaborative and co-creation processes, opening a new phase in the role of technologies in organizations (not of process optimisation or information archiving).

Social Business Transformation

The evolution of the approaches to the use of the 2.0 paradigm inside organizations has had different seasons that we can summarise as follows: • Web 2.0: term coined in 2004 by Tim O’Really to indicate the new participative course of social web; • Enterprise 2.0: Andrew McAfee (then professor at the Harvard Business School) in 2006 published an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review (vol. 47 no. 3) in which he illustrated for the first time the term Enterprise 2.0 as a process of the entry into companies of social technologies (blogs, wikis, social networks, etc.); • Social Business: the pioneering vision (technological and merely implementative) is surpassed in the concept of Social Business that is more systemic and broader than its predecessor was. Social software suites, at the same time, mature and acquire a space of recognisability; • Social economy: a McKinsey report (07/2012) quantified the values in play in different industries in the application of collaborative methods in company development. It highlights the advantages both from the recovery of efficiency and from the creation of new value; • Digital Transformation: MIT Sloan (10/2012) published research focused on social media and on the opportunities offered by new media, analytics and mobile

OpenKnowledge has been active on these topics since 2008. The experience and reflection that we have gained cause us to see the transformation process according to a distinctive approach. The characteristics of our approach include: • Keeping together the focus on the outside (marketing, communication, etc.) and the focus on the inside (operation, HR, R&D, etc.): social media strategy projects imply interventions on processes and on internal competencies; • Building a new working business model that is more meritocratic and more open, including reviewing positions of power and breaking up restraining hierarchical logics; • Integrating technologies and business lines: creating working tables between CTO and CMT, CTO and HR, CRO and R&D, etc.; • Attention to the culture and organizational aspects: working not only on new behaviours but also on the underlying mindsets and creating new centres of excellence that support the change; • Harmonising the old with the new: paying attention to cultivating innovation and change, guaranteeing commitment and engagement; • Transformative and sustainable approach: creating systems of real use both for the organization and for the people and ensuring sustainability over time.

Social Business Toolkit

Following the publication of the Social Business Manifesto (HBR, June 2012; http://socialbusinessmanifesto.com/), today we are offering the community this Social Business Toolkit. We have made the effort to explain clearly the 59 actions that an organization can put into place in order to change. Each action is represented by a card. We intend with this toolkit to move from a phase of sharing a vision and intervention models to an operational and transformative action phase. The cards are organized into the three macro areas on which an organization is called to start its own process of Social Business Transformation:

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TRANSFORMATIVE STRATEGY Social Business Transformation strategy & consultancy

Re-shaping corporate vision, values, mission

Organizational Network Analysis: unveiling the social employee

Opening mindset

Process/workflow analysis

Organizational culture and readiness assessment

Understanding

Employee empowerment

Mapping the social eco-system (Visual Market) Business and services re-modeling in a connected ecosystem C

Planning

Envisioning, social business strategy & roadmap (ROI)

Social BPR: business processes collaborative redesign Community co-design Collaboration design Internal communication strategy & design

HR 2.0

Social learning

Change management and cultural transformation

CMY

Coaching and management support

Execution

Training (“Digital School”) Strategy and tools toward the learning organization

Social intranet: the new digital workplace Social collaboration: the new knowledge management system Community of practice Social innovation & Idea management Social recruiting

KPIs and transformation monitoring

Governance

Harnessing the disruptive power of social business change

KPIs and employee empowerment monitoring

Organizational empowerment: transformation units, roles and responsibilities

• Transformative strategy: a complex change, from the business model to the operational organization, from the new interpretation of its own business ecosystem to the diagnosis of its readiness. • Adaptive implementation: the planning and execution of transformative projects both inside the organization and in its relationship with the market and external partners. • Organizational learning: the activation of an ongoing process of monitoring and analysing the data produced by the new systems, generating feedback and organizational learning. • The actions explore these three macro areas considering the four steps a system approach has to antici4 Attached to Harvard Business Review Italy - June 2013

•

• •

pate (as shown by the “Social Business Toolkit” table). The steps are as follows: Understanding: building new maps and compasses considering the informal, collaborative and network sizes not previously captured by traditional systems of analysis; Planning: designing and planning the intervention actions, involving the different departments and company stakeholders; Execution: carrying out the interventions, supporting the change process that these projects involve; Governance: defining the new company dashboards and harmonising – where possible – old and new systems.

Social Business Transformation

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

ADAPTIVE IMPLEMENTATION Customer engagement Social customer and advocate insights Influencer mapping

Social technologies

Social dynamic dashboards

Technology mapping and assessment

Netnography & cool hunting Social media monitoring and Social Network Analysis Digital marketing strategy Social media strategy Social CRM

Business and user requirements analysis Social software scouting Software selection Customization and integration design

Brand communities Social support Social sales and lead generation Crowdsourcing & co-creation initiatives

Apps/Widgets design & development

Data visualization and storytelling (employee & customers) Prediction market tools (collective intelligence)

System integration

Seeding practices: SEO, SEM, digital PR Content marketing Social media marketing Storytelling & viral content Mobile marketing (augmented reality, Apps) KPIs and customer engagement monitoring

IT Governance

Social media governance and policy

This booklet consists of the following sections: their reflections and experiences; • The 59 actions that represent the ingredients • A company profile of OpenKnowledge and bios of Social Business Transformation. They are of the editors of this booklet. grouped into five sections: • Social Business Transformation strategy & consultancy; • Employee empowerment; • Customer engagement; • Social technologies; • Social dynamic dashboards; • Some in-depth analysis of the methods and topics mentioned in the cards; • Interviews with some managers who are experimenting with this process and who share here

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Toolkit section 1

Social Business Transformation Strategy & Consultancy

ow ready and already linked to the emergence and adoption of social on the path to social technologies. business transforma- Instead it is connected, intimately, to the methods tion are organizations? with which organization cultures and business How c a n w e f av o u r processes boost collaborative and informal nett h e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n works, as much external as internal ones, in order process by defeating to co-create value benefitting the networks of plaresistance and stimu- yers in the ecosystem. lating organizational and business innovation? In order for business processes to be remodelled There is no doubt that today the idea and practice and redesigned by emerging collaborative and soof change and transformation are at the centre of cial cultures and technologies, we need, however, the needs to develop and redesign business models to understand, plan, carry out and govern the enfor organizations, brands and marketers. tire process of mindset change by managing, taThe question is no longer “whether” to start a king care of and supporting the change (envision, change process, but “how” to proceed, in the fa- coaching, training) as much with a top-down perstest and most efficient way, on the path to digi- spective as in a bottom-up method. tal transformation. For the connected and social The preparation of a strategic shared roadmap will enterprise, constant change is the norm and no help to visualize, do storytelling and sense-making longer the exception. of the path on which the organization is starting Change, however, before being considered from out. a perspective of technological-engineering evolu- As with each change process, even the transfortion, must be understood as a strategic change in mation brought by social business will encounter mindset, as a systemic reorientation that involves difficulties and times of crisis. organizational cultures, business models, techno- As with each change process, it will also know that logical architectures and learning strategies. there is no alternative to the need for competitive The change that the transformative paradigm of innovation if it aspires to future leadership and social business is imposing is, therefore, not only success.

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1. Organizational culture and readiness assessment

Assess the characteristics of the culture, and the organizational and individual readiness with respect to the digital and social paradigm The introduction of collaborative methods and technologies suggests a change of approaches and culture, which is the true challenge of a transformation process. The analysis of the culture and readiness are therefore important, both to better represent the change process and to identify any areas of the organization that are more ready with respect to the open characteristics typical of the social paradigm. From the point of view of culture, the aspects to be examined include: • Dominant characteristics: procedures/rules vs. initiative/proactivity • Leadership: support/cultivation vs. coordination/ efficiency • Organizational glue: trust vs. policies • Strategic focus: development of people vs. efficiency/control • Management: participation/team work vs. compliance/stability • Meritocracy: engagement vs. efficiency The following should be assessed in terms of organizational readiness: • Nature and characteristics of the business processes: variability of processes, teams involved, nature of the exchanges (transactional, cooperative, co-creative) • Maturity in the adoption of emerging technologies

• Awareness and commitment to the digital transformation process both from management and from middle management Finally, the individual aspect is no less important than the others and includes: • Skill: capability/familiarity in using digital technologies • Inclination towards team work and to social working

2. Re-shaping corporate vision, values, mission

The founding values of organizational identity and action Organizations still show today all the imprinting with which the Taylorist model shaped organizations of the first industrialisation. However, this model – even for manufacturing companies – is part of the problem that many managers have on their table: slowness, low reactivity, low innovation, sharing out of work and responsibilities, low circulation of good practices and internal excellence. Vision, mission and values that the company places at the basis of its identity must acknowledge new stimuli from the entire ecosystem and open up to new responsibilities: • Recognize the importance that networks in the territory and in the market have in the creation of value (social role of the enterprise) • Generate – thanks to connections – new and ongoing meanings not anticipated at the earlier stage In this work, the following are important: • Value-exchange-analysis ecosystem: map the rela-

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tionships and the value exchange among stakeholders • Ethnographical analysis and storytelling: gather and tell stories that express the company identity • Co-design management • Building an atmosphere of transparency, trust and common sense able to transfer to all resources of the system the latest reasons of the organization and the way it intends to respond to the promise on which it was established

3. Opening mindset

Building a shared vision and a widespread commitment to the new paradigm of Social Business Despite knowledge of the web 2.0 phenomena now being widespread, the awareness of what all of this means for the world of organizations and for their business processes is not so well known. It is now urgent to gain awareness of how the phenomenon changes the processes of marketing, branding, communication; and – even more important – how it can provide new perspectives to look with fresh eyes at the organization of work and more overall of business models. The actions to take during this stage include: • Identify change agents • Compare with cases and with evidence of success (regardless of the industry it belongs to) • Reach dissatisfaction with the current status quo (dissatisfaction often hidden and traced back to transitory reasons) • Focus with the management on application scenarios and evolution prospects

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4. Mapping the social ecosystem (Visual Market)

Interpreting the organizational ecosystem in terms of network. Recognising the role of connections in the dynamics of value creation with partners, suppliers and competitors. Interpreting one’s own market – and more overall the ecosystem in which it is found – from a network perspective (Visual Market) allows an organization to look at its own business with fresh eyes. Almost all industries are experimenting, at different paces, with the complexity and interdependence of global systems in which an apparently US-local phenomenon transformed itself into the largest financial and then economic crisis in our planet’s history. These dynamics are in large part invisible to the practices of traditional analysis (focused on the players) and with analysis based on networks (focused on relationships/interdependencies) they emerge and reveal themselves. The method applies the techniques of Social Network Analysis to the analysis of complex markets, representing the relationships among the different parties of the market (whether these be suppliers, customers, competitors, institutions, etc.). The aspects to be examined include: • Map of the market of reference (“Visual market”) with respect to the business connections with suppliers, partners, customers and competitors • Interpretation of value exchanges (and not just absolute values) among the different parties in play • Identification of market clusters and of development paths towards business areas or customers not reached directly but contactable through other parts of the network it belongs to

social business toolkit

5. Business and services re-modeling in a connected ecosystem Rethinking one’s own business model

Top management has always exclusively dealt with strategy. However, are we sure that it is today able – alone – to bring the organization into the new paradigm? Moreover, once defined, how long does a strategy last? In the case of a British encyclopaedia (with Wikipedia) or a Nokia (with Apple), the strategy collapsed within the space of very few seasons. More and more often – in the interconnected company – the strategy is something co-created in a non-linear way and emerging from the different innovation experiences occurring within the company. The top management has the role of validating the strategies that emerge and verifying their implementation at all times. The characteristics of the emerging strategy are: • Explored vs. planned • Fuzzy vs. linear • Based on chaos more than on order • Co-created vs. devised at one’s desk • Able to attract resources more than to be carried out/ top down • Based on qualifying contexts (both physical and digital) more than on predefined roadmaps

6. Envisioning, social business strategy & roadmap (ROI)

Designing the path of change: scenarios, expected returns, action plans The path towards social business transformation is not only a path introducing collaborative technolo-

gies. It is a profound and complex change that needs a deliberate strategy, to be based on a strong integration between IT and Business Executives. There are two feasible paths: • A process of incremental improvement – manageable also in a bottom-up manner – in contexts in which the conditions allow to launch pilot projects that cause the expected participation and transformation to break out from the bottom up – in a viral manner • A disruptive initiative – leader driven – in which the current structure (processes and operational flows, atmosphere and culture, technologies) is called into question and rethought from the point of view of an interconnected organization. Both these approaches can be compared with two intervention levels: • Pilot logic, in which the transformation starts from a limited experience and then spreads • Top down logic, (or “pirate approach”), in which the change starts from the wishes of the top manager and/or of a group of managers This activity includes the creation of a well-constructed document that includes: • Application scenarios detailed in priority and time, aligned with the requirements gathered during the assessment stages • Business cases with expected returns for the pilot project • Critical success factors • Values expected in the medium term and KPI to be monitored • Stakeholder analysis and involvement plan • Skill gap analysis and related development plan • IT strategy

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Change management and cultural transformation

Support the transformation process with plans aimed at change and new stories Each change plan must know how to act on the two levels characteristic of the Behaviour (current and expected) and of the underlying Mindset (current and expected). Important elements of change management concern the process through which the new system has been built: • Co-design: to what extent the system is built with the participation of users • Sense-making: the sense has been built and recognised by all players in the system • Example: senior managers and other colleagues adopt the new system • Support system: there is harmonisation between the new system and the existing ones, obtaining the necessary support • Skills: the necessary competencies have been spread and metabolised Other elements – typical of the theory of complexity – that characterise the new operational context can be a support to the change: • Ambiguity: leaving a certain amount of vagueness allows people to find their own personal advantage by reconciling apparently contradictory influences • Diversity: avoiding excess specialisations by increasing the rotation of people in projects. Different points of view on the same topic increase the possibilities of success • Redundancy: imposing more intervention plans can be helpful in order to open paths that were

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not previously planned • Attractiveness: producing engagement and attention in the project allows to receive energies and contributions including without requesting them, selecting players able to generate profound changes The actions include:: • Reviewing systems of selection, assessment, calibration, incentives, promotion and making clear the organizational values they are built on • Rethinking these tools according to collaborative and network logics • Supporting the creation of a new managerial model • Working on the direct evidence and on storytelling

8. Coaching and management support

Helping management to build new leadership systems, based on network mechanisms The connected enterprise seems to assert the revenge of cooperation on competition. Interconnected organization is the organization of collaboration processes. This involves a profound change to the leadership models: • From command/control to support/service: the main challenge of management is to integrate, surpass the silos, activate energy of people and teams • From isolated (he/she decides in his/her own room) to connected (he/she assesses and decides with colleagues) • From authoritarian (justified by the position held) to authoritative (justified by his/her capability and em-

social business toolkit

pathy) • From manager (centred on procedures and systems) to leader (centred on people) • From push to pull: from the implementation of plans to listening and open

• Social technologies • Social analytics

10.Strategy and tools toward the learning organization

9. Training (“Digital School”)

Create logics and tools of feedback; building a systemic approach to renewal

Each of the areas and cards of this pack can be the subject of training and constitute the portfolio of a Digital School. The Digital School can become the pillar of Social Business Transformation. The new competencies not only relate to the familiarity with social web or with new devices but to the spread in the specific organizational context of new behaviours and approaches to work. The characteristics of the Digital School: • hands-on: laboratories for experimentation • bottom-up: made by users (both during the user requirements stage and in the generation of contents stage) • open-school: online and in open methods with other companies • perpetual beta: constantly being redefined • patchwork-design: making the most out of contents and experiences that the web already contains • sense-making: the school must contribute to the creation of sense in the new paradigm in the specific organizational context The areas of the Digital School include: • Social Business Transformation strategy • Employee empowerment • Customer engagement

The connected enterprise initiatives take on a strategic and transformative nature if they access the learning organization aspect. In the learning organization both the ongoing learning from the experience and the capability of “learning to learn” are cultivated. As the new collaboration systems gradually get a foothold (e.g.: Community of Practice, Intranet 2.0., Collaborative Innovation, Social Support, etc.) the communities that are joining in see as tangible the learning that they are generating in the form of conversations, contents, networks and changing relationships. The paths with which the systems learn and improve must consider a systemic approach, which surpasses the approaches based on mere personal command. The eleven laws of Senge’s Fifth Discipline are astonishing if applied to this domain: • Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions”. • The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. • Behaviour grows better before it grows worse. • The easy way out leads back in. • The cure can be worse than the disease. • Faster is slower. • Cause and effect are not always closely related in time and space. • Small changes can produce big results…but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.

Introducing new organizational and technological competencies

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• You can have your cake and eat it too – but not all at once. • Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants. • There is no blame.

11. KPIs and transformation monitoring

Defining the indicators and interpreting the progress of the transformation process

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The assessment of the transformation process trend interprets the maps of relationships built and altered by the process itself. These maps, defined with the Network Analysis method (see figure below), are based on information exchanges, problem solving, innovation, and energy and cross the five aspects of the transformative process: • Organizational culture; • Leadership system; • Competencies; • Systemic approach/learning organization; • Adoption of social technologies. 12.02

BEFORE

AFTER

12. Harnessing the disruptive power of social business change

Making governance with the transformation process by guaranteeing the harmonisation of all components The process of harmonisation between old and new systems is important for the sustainability of the project. It touches as many soft aspects (culture, management styles, etc.) as hard aspects (processes, roles, technologies, etc.). It can be represented in different ways in the different company functions, pushing the management to create connections both within the function (with groups of activated projects) and among different functions. The final goal is both to best capitalise on the contribution generated and to avoid the risks of antagonistic parallel practices (see table on the following page).

13. Organizational empowerment: transformation units, roles and responsibilities

Creating a Centre of Excellence that assumes ownership of the initiative The transformation process requires actions on the organization that only a dedicated unit is able to guarantee and develop from scratch. The functions of this new unit vary based on the evolution of the transformation process and include:

• Launch and focal point on the Social Business initiatives in progress • Monitoring of the methods and metrics used • Integration of business lines and IT services • Commitment from the top management • Finding – outside the organization – best practices,

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Function

Standard

Recruiting

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Social Initiative

Social recruiting

Organization

Operational processes

Social BPR

Reward system

Social CRM

Rules of activation /Task management Management of feedback from the consumer, to be integrated with other functions

CMY

Marketing

R&D

Systems and platforms Approach for organizational position and approach for talent Employer branding logic

Focus of the harmonisation

CRM

Innovation

Social innovation

know-how, lessons learned • Support for the change management and the dynamics of adoption • Development of culture on technologies and emerOrganic 180x35mm.pdf 1 03/05/13 11.55 ging approaches Depending on the evolution of the transformation pro-

Organic

Centralized

Idea management and product development: PLM

cess, the unit’s role can go from initiating projects, to coordinating projects initiated by others, to qualifying other units in a pervasive logic. In a completed process the unit’s competencies are widespread and placed throughout the organization (see figure below).

Coordinated

Dandelion

Holistic

CMY

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Toolkit section 2

Employee Empowerment

alking about social employees laboration platforms, stimulus to communities of today means recognising the practice and informal networks via social intranet, methods with which work ac- activation of innovative experiences for a faster ontually flows and the role that boarding of new recruits, devising of occasions and networking and community environments for idea management initiatives, and mechanisms actually have in so on. many companies. There are two Although the benefits that the organization can organizational and economic demonstrate in activating policies and practices of reasons that drive the adoption of employee empo- employee empowerment are today now documenwerment practices. On the one hand, there is the ted, it is not always easy to start down the path to ability to increase the contribution the company social business transformation linked to the inside resources can offer by receiving greater responsi- of the organization. bility and sharing, growing decision-making au- Often, for example, the introduction of platforms tonomy, and recognition of competencies. On the and internal collaborative tools is carried out wiother hand, there is the need to develop employees thout looking at the organizational cultures that so they can respond, in the appropriate manner, to guide employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviour. the needs (ever higher and more sophisticated) that Collaborative technologies in fact cannot be insocial customers show to have in their relationship troduced whilst leaving unaltered organizational cultures characterised by the idea of competition, with brands. Many aspects can be worked on in order to de- by the culture of punishment of errors, or by the velop employees. These include the creation of a policy of continuously reinventing the best pracwell-planned and implemented digital workplace, tices produced, but not recognised and shared in support through social learning practices and col- the company.

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Collaboration

15. Organizational Network Analysis: unveiling the social-employee

Interpreting the collaborative networks through which the organization creates its own value: real information flows, problem-solving, innovation, energy

Network Analysis C

Business Operations

The analysis of informal organizational networks allows an organization to represent and analyse the connections that people use to carry out their own work. These are connections through which information, problem-solving/operational support, effectiveness, energy, ideas, etc. all travel. Organizational network analysis interprets network features (type, density, strength, cluster…), the type of relationships (nature and quantity) and the online identities of the players (brokers, hubs, bridges, etc.) in order to open up new perspectives on at least six different aspects (see figure below). Ona-So what 180x87mm.pdf

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Knowledge management

Internal communication

People management and development

Organizational check

Influencer, information flows, energizers, sources of value discovered

People assessment from network perspective

Collaboration 2.0

Communities of practies

Intranet 2.0

Efficiency / Efficacy

Knowledge sharing

Alignment, Passion, Energy

Transactions

CMY

Business Process Analysis

16. Process/workflow analysis

Analysing operational processes by identifying the collaborative potential for improvement

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Subject matter experts and advice networks uncovered

Learning & Training

Innovation

Learning impact from network perspective

Innovation pipeline from a network persective

Training and coaching to social collaboration

Social learning

Collaborative innovation projects

HR policies

Time to competence

Knowledge creation; new service / process

CMY

The analysis of business processes is an important step to anchor the potential of social approaches to the daily effectiveness and the output that the specific unit or entire organization are called on to guarantee (see figure above). Network Analysis allows to interpret the relationships and value exchanges in the process and to provide correct indications in order to introduce emerging technologies in a contextualised way. This activity occurs through: • Mapping the existing process through workshops • Mapping the informal flows through surveys • Sense making workshops • Formalization of collaborative intervention areas with greater potential

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17. Social BPR: business processes collaborative redesign

processes. The updates of these processes come together in a sole stream through which users interact with each other and with the services available in the company.

Integrating communities within operational processes. Remodelling the collaborative process.

18. Community co-design

Designing contents and services of communities by engaging the key players

Working on communities is entirely different from working on other types of groups present in organizations. The engagement strategy – which is essential for the success of any project based on communities – depends firstly on the nature of the community. We can distinguish four types (see figure). Organization Employee 141x94mm.pdf

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ORGANIZATION

CMY

03/05/13

16.23

Focus: Collaboration goals: Business objectives, process integration

EMPLOYEE

This concerns a performance improvement intervention that works on the operational process, and that supports the collaborative components that today – when activated – follow inefficient and dispersive channels (e-mails, meetings, phone calls, etc.). Four types of intervention are envisaged: • Communities that are isolated and outside the flow. This is the starting point with communities released from pre-existing workflows. They are professional communities or communities of practice, or other forms of networks that – although bringing an interesting contribution – struggle to achieve a critical mass of adoption and to measure tangible returns. • Communities outside the flow supporting a traditional process. This concerns placing beside a workflow (which remains unchanged) social tools able to capture the exceptions to the process, non-codified exchanges and silent knowledge. Structured and unstructured work are not yet integrated, but only side-by-side. • Socialised process. A sole place in which all activities are carried out. Comments, posts, status updates and documents are placed in the workflow, which is reassessed and improved. The processes, although socialised, remain silos in their own right, supported by technological solutions that do not communicate with each other. • Integration of socialised processes. This is the pooling of a series of services (identity, business intelligence, collaboration ability, etc.) necessary to all the

Focus: Knowledge sharing goals: Problem solving, expertise location

FROM

ORGANIZATION

EMPLOYEE

Operative processes and work teams

Internal communication

Communities of practice

Communities of interest

Focus: Internal communication goals: Allignment feedback

Focus: Social networking goals: Building trust

social business toolkit

Open Knowledge Collaboration 107,5x110,5mm.pdf

Generally speaking, engagement is based on a co-design process: • Identifying the key users • Identifying with the key users the needs and advantages expected • Link between the needs of the key users and the expectations of stakeholders • Pilot and fine tuning of communities • Engagement of the key users as ambassadors and opening of the community • Cultivating and enlarging the community’s range of action C

04/05/13

17.00

COLLABORATION

Alignment

Collective intelligence

I unite I share all of the missions, company’s values, challenges intelligence

Communication and sharing

I share knowledge

Connection Coordination Co-creation

I find the We are part colleague of a team that can help me

We create the solution together

Designing contents and services of collaborative mechanisms supporting processes CMY

By collaboration, we mean not as a precise activity, but rather as an organizational pattern that is carried out on various aspects. In our framework, collaboration is a continuum of different levels or degrees of interaction among individuals with logic, links, sharing of objectives and specific enabling functionalities for each level (see figure on the right). Each aspect of collaboration needs its own intervention model, a summary of the building process and emerging technologies.

Strength of the connection

19. Collaboration design

Sharing of objectives

Independent Independent Potentially Interand implicit and explicit interdependent dependent

Absent

Potential

Weak

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Medium

Negotiated

Strong

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20. Internal communication strategy & design

21. HR 2.0

Renewing internal communication by introducing participative, viral and bottom-up logic

Modelli di Governance

Internal communication is an important stimulus to integration and alignment. It always has been. The social phenomenon is posing a series of challenges to this discipline: • Role of resources in the production and selection of contents, as well as in the definition of the agenda/programme schedule • Levels of interactivity, through comments and ranking systems • Methods of governance, surpassing concentrated models • Internal and external communication integration, boosting alignment and consistency • Integration with other company services: knowledge management, collaboration and social net141x73mm.pdf 1 05/05/13 21.59 working, applications (see figure below).

Governance and content production models C

“Corporate” Model Employees

“Spread Editing” Model

Contributors

Employees

“Social network” Model Contributors

CMY

Editorial staff

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Contributors

Employees

Editorial staff

The management of human resources in the era of the social enterprise: map of competencies, recruiting, assessment of services, career paths People strategy is just as important as business strategy. Keeping these two aspects aligned is not simple. In the industrial economy, this alignment is the result of a progressive organizational design, which starts from the deliverables, goes back to the operational processes, extracts their competencies and roles, and works – in terms of gap analysis – on best filling the identified needs. In the knowledge economy, the deliverables are variable, with a large service and overall turbulence component. Organizational design is more recursive and the search for talent often drives towards an ad hoc logic (see figure on the following page). The key activities include: • Creating a new system of management and assessment of people based on the logic of Employee Relationship Management (ERM) • Integrating and feeding this ERM system with the social flows that arrive from different collaboration environments • Structuring the user profile – fed automatically with emerging logic – according to areas that serve HR: tags as competencies, social networks as performance systems, contents generated as knowledge, etc. • Supporting the creation of new management models and new metrics consistent with the emerging logic

social business toolkit

Ieri Oggi Domani HR 141x62mm.pdf

04/05/13

Yesterday: HR 0.0

12.25

Today: HR 1.0

Tomorrow: HR 2.0

Knowledge economy

Innovation economy

Adaption /Integration

Creativity & Networking

Proximity to the line

Emerging approach

Era

First industrialization

HR Focus

Execution

CMY

Critical HR competency

Control of power

22. Social learning

Learning communities supported by platforms that integrate formal and informal learning Social learning is placed in the line of active learning methods and enables exploration and cooperation dynamics on all aspects of the process: • Management of learning processes: learning paths are built and mapped out by utilising user experiences and by introducing gamification logic • Management of contents: participant contribution is introduced both in revising existing contents and in producing new contents • Management of communities: learning communities come to life and are managed by integrating with the formative process The figures of a social learning system include: • Subject matter expert • Trainer • Instructional designer • Community designer • Community manager

23. Social intranet: the new digital workplace

New Intranets serving the social enterprise: communication, knowledge, applications, collaboration Intranets have experienced an important evolution from their first appearances in internal communication systems in the nineties. Since then their function has been enriched with contents, integrating the different seasons into which the web has been divided, bringing in Groupware systems, Social Web components, and the services and applications necessary for daily work. Today the intranet is becoming the new Digital Workplace, the access point that can respond to the new needs of a drastically altered way of working: • Mobile work, including outside company boundaries (remote work) • Collaborative and emerging work • Quick and “real time” work The Digital Workplace – as a pillar of the new connected enterprise – is the fruit of a transformation process that integrates service components and contents within four macro-areas: • Communication • Knowledge • Services • Collaboration

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24. Social collaboration: the new knowledge management system

Supporting collaborative dynamics with emerging technologies The implementation of a social collaboration platform actually builds a system that captures knowledge (documents, suggestions, links, expertise, etc.) which travels in various professional interactions, today dispersed in e-mails, but also in meetings, in informal telephone conversations, in chats and in the corridors. It is structured in the following work phases: • Vision: a high level roadmap is defined in a collaborative manner • Assessment: an As Is framework is rebuilt through surveys and interviews • Strategy: the intervention priorities, success factors and expected values are identified • Co-design: the contents and services of the collaboration platform are designed involving the key people • Implementation: a technology is identified that is suitable and customised for the project’s requirements • Governance: a unit is created to coordinate and support collaboration activities • Cultivation: community management and spreading of the experience to other scenarios

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25. Community of practice

Communities of help and of learning based on professional families Among the different forms that knowledge can assume within organizations (procedures, memorandums, regulations, manuals, courses and lessons, etc.), Communities of Practice (CoP) are social groups within which the more implicit and unstructured forms of knowledge are exchanged, in the form of advice, experience, conversations and mutual help. Explicit knowledge – knowledge is presented in procedures, memorandums, manuals and presentations by experts. It is generally selected by the person or group possessing the knowledge, who decides what others need to know. Implicit knowledge – Communities of Practice recognise that the most practical knowledge “lives” in people. It is here that learning needs lie, along with specific challenges to be tackled immediately, which determine the knowledge to be spread. Communities of Practice deal with “know-how” and “know who”. CoP are generally defined by three aspects: the community (in the form of relationships of mutual trust and recognition), the domain (the area of action of the Community and its “corporate purpose”), and practice (meant as sharing the task and the values that refer to it). CoP are for: • Personal development • Professional development • Problem solving • Supporting and participating in the organization’s mission

social business toolkit

• • • • • •

Creating a more systemic and integrated approach Motivation Building relationships Developing new operational tools Innovation and new ideas Making existing knowledge visible and accessible

26. Social innovation & Idea management

Innovation environments based on crowdsourcing logic and technologies

sals made also identify a group of people that believe in the idea and that could even be involved in its implementation. In this new way of seeing innovation as a “social” process, it is important to consider it as an “open” process that must therefore involve more players inside or outside the same business ecosystem.

27. Social recruiting

Attracting talent by exploiting the strength and characteristics of social networks

Social recruiting allows viral dynamics to be used in This concerns the social evolution of the traditional order to attract potential candidates that are not ne“idea box”, where, however, the use of the social proces- cessarily looking for a new professional position. ses and technological platforms of Social Management The activity consists in creating social networking environments, generally based on a specific content straprofoundly transforms the nature of it: • Different forms of participation: these systems in- tegy aimed at employer branding, favouring contact crease the value of the contribution not only of the between the brand and candidates. idea proposal but also of the cross-valuation (vote), the comment or the criticism of the idea • Contamination: everyone sees the proposals from colleagues and an idea which is not very concrete or not very focused can give rise to a consistent idea by enriching the information and/or concept • Emergency: the most read, commented or appreciated ideas emerge and stand out from the others, allowing the community to rapidly see the selection process in action • Collective intelligence: when properly supported the community can make proposals evolve by exploiting the intelligence and knowledge present in the system • Focus on people (and not just on ideas): the propo-

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28. KPIs and employee empowerment monitoring

Defining the most appropriate KPIs to measure the results of employee empowerment initiatives The actions of empowerment from collaborative approaches aim to distribute larger degrees of responsibility and autonomy within the organization. The assessment of the effectiveness and evolution of the 13.04 Grado Focus KPI 141x83.pdf 1 04/05/13 process include (see figure below):

GRADO

FOCUS

Reaction

Level of satisfaction of the initiative

Learning

Level of spreading and stabilisation

Transfer

Level of operational impact

ROI

Tangible returns

CMY

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KPI (esemplificativo) Employee satisfaction Active users Contents generated Classifications of reputation Reduction of emails Meeting times Revision/errors Crossing time Comparison between cost sustained and tangible advantages

social business toolkit

Toolkit section 3

Customer Engagement

f we consider the consumer as a resource operating (not merely a passive party) inside the processes of marketing, communication, support and sales, it appears clear how vital it is for brands and marketers to build relationships with these resources as active and sense-making protagonists. Consumers supplement resources and are not simply passive recipients of the products and services they buy: they review products, share opinions, support other consumers. At times, they are innovative users, sometimes they are demanding or clearly critical, other times they spread and share brand messages or can help with co-creation. We can therefore understand how undoubtedly important it is for the brand and marketer to be able to design and implement, take care of and support all of the most appropriate initiatives to involve and stimulate the activeness of consumers and their involvement. A digital marketing strategy is needed for this precious and complex task. Thanks to engagement activities, the social customer, boosted by online digital technologies (including of a social nature) and proactively stimulated through different relational experiences (storytel-

ling, viral contents, content marketing, SEO activities, SEM, digital PR, mobile apps and augmented realities, brand communities) also becomes a precious source of information and insight. By making use of analysis techniques such as monitoring conversations, netnographic observations, and mapping social graphs and influencers, brands and marketers are able to deepen their knowledge of preferences and attitudes and investigate emerging trends, thus being able to enrich the traditional customer database with a social layer (social CRM). The opportunities have to be weighed up with the potential and actual critical issues that can emerge during the course of the relationship between the social customer and the marketer. Brands and marketers must be prepared and suitably well-mannered to interact with these new potential and socialised consumers. The transformation produced by social business requires the design and adoption of a social media governance policy. Transparency, authenticity, service quality and relationship quality must be based on solid guidelines that provide assurance to employees and the brands, including in situations of reputational crisis.

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30. Social customer and advocate insights

31. Influencer mapping

Identifying the real influencers New dashboards to monitor and make visible in social dynamics clients’ perceptions and receive stimuli for business innovation Identifying and mapping the influencers of de-

Having the ability to make the most of the knowledge of one’s own advocates means being able to count on an important competitive asset. It is not just about fans and followers (who are maybe only looking for discounts and promotions) or loyal consumers (who do not always become ambassadors) or influencers (who might not have a close relationship with the brand/product). The profile of an advocate is as follows: • High use of social networks • Strong producers of contents that they share • Inclination to adoption of the brand’s products and services • Positive position and one that is proactive with regard to the brand and has close communications and interactions with it Advocates contribute to generating insights/improvements for social business: • Via reviews and recommendations of services and products (stimulus to sales) • With evidence and experiences of use (generation of qualified leads) • By carrying out social support activities (assistance to other consumers and users) • With support for the brand in times of management crisis (reputational risks) • In the phases of design and launch of new products as testers or co-creators

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cisions, rebuilding the communities of reference and the measures of the impact of opinions, suggestions, and product, service and brand reviews, is the operational and strategic objective of influence marketing. The influence is, however, always contextual in nature: measures and indicators such as social reach, social scoring or the amplification of a message, recommendation or product/service revision therefore always have to be gauged according to the situations, contexts, relationship models, nature and dynamics of the networks and social graphs. For an efficient analysis and mapping of the influencers that facilitate digital transformation: • Identify important or emerging themes, topics and trends for the brand • Analyse the conversations and methods of social action of consumers and users • Map and estimate the impact capability of individuals who show credibility, significance and expertise • Visualise the relationships of these influencers with their social graphs and the communities of interest • Select the metrics of influence and the most appropriate KPIs based on business goals

social business toolkit

32. Netnography & cool hunting

Gathering trends and insights emerging from social networks with digital ethnography and its investigation techniques

Today, in order to investigate the most qualitative and value aspects of online communities, social networks and social customers, netnographic research techniques constitute an unprecedented opportunity to carry out research on consumers and gain business insight. Observing, in a non-intrusive manner, online cultures and communities, provides a profound understanding of the nature of individual and group experiences and needs. This is because the researcher is immersed in relational dynamics, analysing texts and subjects of interest, and reconstructing consumer attitudes and values. What characterises netnographic research and how can it be of help to social enterprises? • It produces verbal and visual patterns enriched with qualitative information more than data • It provides contextualised and situated information with respect to the investigated phenomenon • It extracts insight and knowledge from the examination of real behaviours of the communities under examination • It investigates the reasons and value aspects of the dynamics of online social behaviour What are the innovation benefits for brands and marketers? By analysing various case histories of the concrete use of netnography, we discover how consumers and users concretely make use of products and services, how they reinvent their use by adapting them or by providing product innovation stimuli, and how they express new needs and open up new business opportunities.

33. Social media monitoring and Social Network Analysis

Intercepting conversations and opinions on brands and products: influencers, sentiments, share of voice

The voicing of words and action of consumers with the opportunity offered by digital and social communications to spread and share this voice and action within their own social networks, forums and blogs forces companies and organizations to activate platforms and methods in order to listen to and observe users and customers. Analytical and listening platforms are today powerful research and business insight tools with which organizations must familiarise themselves and recognise their potential, but also limits. In actual fact, monitoring and listening activities can be useful to: • Quantify the volumes of conversations, quotes and reports concerning brands, companies, products and services • Monitor opinions and analyse sentiments with respect to the themes of interest and to the reputation • Identify emerging competitors or ones that are not commonly known • Pay attention to signs and forecasts of growing trends and new market niches • Identify the communities/groups of interest and analyse the relationships among consumers’ social graphs Pay attention to: • Clear business and research objectives • The reliability of the monitoring platforms and the setup criteria • The selection of key words and the assessment of semantic contexts • Metrics and KPIs in agreement with business goals

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• Avoiding data overload and concentrating only on a few action metrics • The intervention of the analyst, which is crucial in all stages of the process • Methodological limitations of the platform and the research

• paid media (online advertising) • earned media (results ‘gained’ in terms of SEO or interest gathered through content marketing, word of mouth, viral phenomenon).

35. Social media strategy

Definire gli orientamenti strategici per guidare Define the strategic directions in order to effectively Developing the organization’s own marketing and bu- guide the organization’s activity in social media siness strategy potential by fully using the resources of the digital world The use of social media is now an unstoppable tendency in

34. Digital marketing strategy

Digital marketing has now become part of the organization charts of all large organizations. However, it has a scope that has only just started to be defined. The proliferation of social media and the rapid emergence of mobiles, as a marketing channel that is already important but still to be fully discovered, tend to create uncertainties for many managers on the most appropriate strategic options. Notwithstanding the importance of websites as the basis of the digital activity of companies, every related strategy should be along these lines: • Start from an assessment of the organization’s digital activities, its strong and weak points • Define the objectives of the digital marketing strategy in relation to the general marketing and business objectives • Build the organization’s own digital presence through many and specialised media channels and forms, placing the website in the role of hub • In particular, aim to optimise the way in which the company/brand makes use of: • owned media (e.g., its own Facebook page, its own Twitter account or YouTube channel)

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nearly all businesses. Given the pervasiveness of the new platforms, it is very likely that some departments, offer lines or groups of employees are already active in environments such as Facebook or LinkedIn, with or without the approval of management. In the absence of a strategic framework, this exposes the company to potential risks, and to the danger of not best utilising the opportunities of the new platforms. In international companies, another problem is caused by the possibility that each country proceeds on its own path and implements ad hoc solutions in social media, which do not allow the company to develop a relevant global competency. All of this creates the need to focus on the definition and implementation of a shared social media strategy. Here are the steps to bear in mind in order to be able to do this successfully: • Prefer – when defining the strategy – the adoption of a bottom-up approach, that favours the involvement of project teams and makes the most of the specificity of the business • Clearly explain the organization’s vision of the collaborative use of social media and why this area needs crucial action for the future of the business

social business toolkit

• Clarify the purposes proposed to be achieved in supdition to customers it also involves other stakeholders porting the online presence of the company and its of the organization – above all the employees, partners brands, in relation to the business goals and suppliers. • Do not neglect to underline what benefits all employ- Moreover, the connection among the profiles present in ees who commit to supporting the strategic vision the CRM tradition with the corresponding social profiles can receive enables many further opportunities, including: • Establish the metrics and KPIs that can allow to mea- • The possibility to enrich information by gathering it sure the performances obtained, so as to constantly from individual profiles and from the networks it beguide the strategy on the most efficient actions. longs to • The personalisation of communications on an individual level • The acquisition of precious business intelligence data 36. Social CRM • The segmentation of customers and prospects into Integrate traditional logic of relationships with fresh and cross-cutting clusters. the market with collaborative and social logic CRM (Customer Relationship Management) becomes social when, by making use of social media platforms and technologies, it recognises and develops the role of customers in co-determining the conversations around a brand, product or service. Traditional CRM manages relationships with customers in a way that, from the customers’ point of view, is substantially passive and centred around predetermined events. The data that define the relationships are mostly linked to past behaviours (purchases, telephone calls, other events that have already taken place) and users are not asked for any action containing a proposal. Social CRM instead works differently. In particular: • It invites the customer to converse (and exchange data) with the organization through open collaborative forms and forms directed towards the future • It sets itself the goal of allowing the company and its customers to reach mutually beneficial values • It offers customers a more inclusive, reliable and transparent business environment • In order to be able to fully achieve its intentions, in ad-

37. Brand communities

Building communities with vibrant brands: places to unite customers’ interests and passions and connect them with the brand

Brand communities precede the arrival of social media, but there is no doubt that social platforms are a wonderful means to spread them. They are based on the intersection between brand, individual identity and culture, and they typically tend to cross geographical borders especially when they are organized on the web. What is important to bear in mind in this regard? That the following are among the key aspects that drive towards being part of a brand community: • The sharing of a system of values, symbols, rituals • The recognition of links, real or imaginary, with the brand and the other members of the community • The tendency to make the brand’s adhesion to the symbolic world an important element of its auto-

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representation. Communities of this type can be activated by the brand or autonomously by fans. In any case, it is good for the brand to support them with actions such as the following: • Monitoring the web and social media to always have an up-to-date picture on the social unions that are being formed in its name • Actively participate in conversations, avoiding silence on too aristocratic or indifferent brands • Show in conversations not only the manager communities but also, on certain occasions, the top management • Feed the passion of fans with special attention gestures (e.g. transmitting information on the brand first in the community rather than in other environments). A brand community serves to create a digital territory that unites people around contents – a digital territory where the brand is near and enables a sense-making environment for all participants. The impact on the business of a brand community is proportionally linked to the value that participants assign to it and to the triggering of a mechanism that each member is stimulated to participate in, adding incremental meaning to the community itself.

when brand communities reach significant sizes. Success in this case depends on how efficiently the company is able to organize itself in order to meet the needs of customers ready to interact on the new social channels, by providing the information and solutions requested with a good balancing of the policy constraints and resources available. For this purpose, the guiding principles are as follows: • Introduce systems that help users to channel their requests and suggestions for solutions into relatively defined contexts • Ensure to create a social environment in which customers who need assistance can get into contact both with other customers and with the company’s experts • Support the emergence of forms of shared collective intelligence, which give rise to deposits of knowledge on the solutions arising from the participation and experience of customers and experts • Study and implement these tools so that they can support the impact of customer numbers that are also strongly increasing (scalability) • As a consequence of all of the above, aim to offer post-sales support systems that are open, collaborative, fast, flexible and transparent. It should be underlined that, although on the one hand the opening of social channels automatically 38. Social support forces companies to organize social support due to Creating after sales assistance systems that involve the bidirectional nature of such channels, on the customers and experts in our product/service other hand it is a process that can allow an organiThe greater relationships with customers stimulated zation to reduce its costs when individual support by social CRM tend to lead to expectations of greater demands are transformed with collective assistance involvement and participation in the post sales phase, and reference mechanisms. which can represent a challenge for the company

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social business toolkit

39. Social sales and lead generation 40. Crowdsourcing Developing digital points of sale able to activate & Co-creation initiatives endorsement and advocacy 2.0 mechanisms

When businesses are able to deviate their online sales activity into social form, their results are consequently significantly boosted. In the best cases, employees (from all sectors) and customers (current and potential) are transformed on a large scale into efficient marketing forces – an active part of the efforts of distribution, spreading, promotion and increasing the value of the products and services sold. Here are the actions to take in order to excel in this context: • Use social channels such as blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to communicate with existing and prospective customers • Update the organization’s CRM so that it captures from social media information on user profiles that goes beyond the standard information such as telephone number, address and email address • Ensure that the organization’s digital points of sale also become conversation environments, favouring the exchange of comments, opinions and advice • Reward the employees and customers who stand out for their availability and capability in endorsing the products and services sold • Favour the mechanisms of advocacy 2.0, i.e. the processes in which employees or customers can take a position in social media in favour of the company and its brands, aiming to involve and positively influence others.

Improve the organization’s product/service with the involvement and innovative ideas of customers, employees and partners

Identified for the first time in an article in Wired in 2006, in just a few years Crowdsourcing has become a new and extraordinarily powerful way of tapping into collective intelligence for innovation purposes, in numerous business areas. Contrary to the vision of a reality in which the internet and social media distance and separate people, Crowdsourcing expresses the unexpected richness arising from connecting, through the new social platforms, the creative potential of a vast number of people from every culture, profession, education level and geographical location. How can companies free up the energy of Crowdsourcing? The following principles apply: • Although the motivations coming from some economic incentives can play a role, never think that this is the main factor • Play on the great pleasure that people take in cultivating their own talents and in passing the fruit of their own intuitions onto others • Favour organic growth paths, through which the ideas offered by some can be taken and improved by others • Fully commit to the relationships with the communities that collaborate with the innovation processes • Maintain a correct and respectful attitude towards the ideas gathered – people expect their creative contribution to be recognised and they do not like feeling exploited.

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Clearly, a Crowdsourcing project cannot be improvised and assumes that one or more conversation channels on social media are already active. A clear definition is also needed of the limits within which the proposals developed by the community can range, as this perimeter must be transparent and well communicated. Another crucial factor is providing for one or more figures who can “cultivate” ideas, contributing to their development and stimulating conversations. Moreover, the organization must take into account the mechanisms at the basis of the network of people, based on which a certain critical mass (differing for each sector and type of project) is needed to trigger the virtuous process stimulating the generation of ideas and the participation in sharing them. In order to reach the right critical mass, communication and promotion initiatives have to be implemented that facilitate a rapid and appropriately-sized visibility.

41. Seeding practices: Sem, Seo, Digital Pr

Increasing the company’s visibility in search engines and online, cultivating and engaging influencers

likes and votes from the users of social media. This means setting up efficient social seeding and inbound marketing activities, which technically generate links towards the company’s digital channels and in actual fact develop qualified visits to the website. Valid results from this perspective can be obtained with the following actions: • Creating contents on the organization’s website that users really want to share – i.e. useful, interesting, informative, entertaining and involving contents • Encouraging the organization’s fans to retweet links or in any case share the content with their friends through prize competitions, or other similar incentives • Adding contents of interest also on other websites primarily directed towards content sharing, which can attract the organization’s online community • Multiplying the effect of these strategies by involving influencers, through suitable digital PR activities.

42. Content marketing

Producing contents suitable to be commented on, shared – and largely changed by the publico

The practice of increasing the visibility of company Focusing on having contents circulated on social media websites through SEM (Search Engine Marketing) implies some conceptual leaps. The traditional contents of and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) activities is advertising and marketing today distance users (no one now well established. voluntarily listen to pompous rants on brands and proToday, however, trying to have a high position in se- ducts). arch engines only by writing or rewriting the contents Companies therefore have to look at the theme of contents of a website is no longer enough. In order to achieve on the web with fresh eyes. good results, it is necessary to gather lots of tweets, Valid contents are those thanks to which the magic effect

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social business toolkit

that overturns the communicative movement is achieved. The desired result is: • Instead of it being the contents that are driven towards recipients (push), it is the people who actively look for those contents (pull) • The circulation of contents no longer occurs top down (and with large media investments) but through dissemination and spontaneous sharing among people. In order to achieve this result, there are new constraints that need to be interiorised. In particular, contents must: • Be customer-focused, authentic, entertaining, interesting, innovative, surprising • Leave enough conversational space to users • When possible be produced in participative co-creation activities • Urge and make the most of user-generated content and employee-generated content. The organization therefore needs to prepare an editorial plan identifying the topics most coveted by recipients and identifying the form (possibly multimedia), the “tone of voice”, the channels to use and the publication frequency.

43. Social media marketing

Making relationships with customers more direct, deep and significant, conversing with them on social platforms Social media is profoundly changing the logic of marketing and the way in which companies and consumers build relationships with each other. In fact, the speed and depth of the transformations are such that the same notions of marketing and consumer appear to be largely outdated.

Choosing what to do in social media is neither obvious nor simple. Many CEOs and managers do not really know where to start, and for good reasons. The automatic solutions (the use of Facebook and Twitter, for example) are not always the best. Important questions to ask are: • All platforms leave space to a number of initiatives; which ones are truly interesting for our customers? • New social media are born and rapidly become popular, whilst others lose importance; how can we tackle this constantly changing rising tide? • Communities are also showing a strong tendency towards mobility; how can we follow them when they move and rebuild elsewhere? In consideration of the above, the attitude to adopt is as follows: • Build relationships with social media in a flexible, open and up-to-date manner • Constantly monitor where the organization’s consumers are and what they are doing • Do not ever forget that social media are bidirectional communication platforms • Dedicate suitable resources and commitment to stimulate a dialogue that gives users a voice, involving them in real conversations. Social Media Marketing is the natural execution of Social Media Strategy, defined previously. In addition to the initiatives concerning dialogue with visitors of social channels, Social Media Marketing uses seeding initiatives (see Card 40), Facebook apps, mobile apps, georeferencing and augmented realities (see Card 44).

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44. Storytelling & Viral content

Brand storytelling in social media, combining old narrative logic with the new explosive power of viral content

The science of narration, and in particular storytelling, is establishing itself as a precious tool to offer brand (or company) stories capable of interesting and involving internet users. The condition to ensure that stories can truly circulate is that it is not based on the same assumptions and conceptual tools that for decades guided communication on classical methods. Far from old style advertising and its persuasive intentions, social storytelling must: La condizione perché possano realmente circolare è che non siano basate sugli stessi presupposti e armamentari concettuali che hanno guidato per decenni la comunicazione sui mezzi classici. Lontano dalla pubblicità vecchia maniera e dai suoi intenti persuasivi, lo storytelling in chiave social deve: • Take into account the non-linear nature of the new online platforms • Combine the new participative methods, giving rise to brand stories devised in the logic of narrative sharing • Best use the endings of stories in relation to various media that cross platforms (with great attention to transmedia storytelling) • Enter fully into the paradox of viral content, which draws on old forms of human communication (word-of-mouth, horizontal and bidirectional storytelling) but boosts them with the multiplying energy of the new technologies • From this perspective, understand and make deep logic that connects storytelling and virality.

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45. Mobile marketing (augmented reality, apps)

Designing and implementing new applications capable of surprising, serving and involving the customer

The arrival of mobile devices and the spread of applications and mobile internet is profoundly transforming marketing practices and consumer experiences of the connected enterprise. A ubiquitous marketing is not, however, simply a multi-channel marketing. It is the ability to offer customers an immersive experience in different aspects (from mobility to intimacy) also exploring innovative strategies and approaches. • Has the advanced adopted of mobile technologies been started and planned? • Is the communication offered to customers actually contextual and significant? • How truly timely and personalised is the relationship with the brand? • How is the organization making the most of the interaction between mobile devices and social media? In order to best utilise the potential of mobile internet and mobile social applications, it is good to: • Reconstruct the daily consumer journey of the consumer/customer • Identify the new added value that can be offered in the different mobile contexts • Activate pilot projects to experiment and measure the significance for the mobile consumer • Involve employees and influencers in the experimentation with mobile and social technologies • Design, test and manage immersive experiences more than multi-channel tactics.

social business toolkit

46. KPIs and Customer engagement monitoring

Defining the most appropriate KPIs to measure the results of customer engagement initiatives

From web analytics to digital analytics and, finally, to big data: a long analytical journey between technologies and methods has increased, over the last twenty years, the ability of brands and organizations to investigate and analyse in depth the behaviours and preferences of consumers and customers. Consequently, metrics and key performance indicators to measure the effects of communication, marketing and advertising strategies in relationships with social customers have grown exponentially. The plan of KPIs must not be, however, a merely technological or analytical process, but it must have a purpose of action, of business decisionmaking and business improvement. In determining the KPIs capable of guiding the action, in the marketing and communication strategies with the social customer, the organization needs to keep its various objectives and business goals under control, such as: • Exposure (impression, social reach, share of voice, mentions…) • Interaction (conversations, involvement, conversions…) • Support (solution rate, satisfaction rate, solution time…) • Advocacy (net promoter score, impact, influence…) • Innovation (idea generation, contributions…).

47. Social media governance and policy

Planning the internal organization and the rules to follow to validly direct employees’ activities in social media

Identifying a valid social media strategy is not sufficient in order to keep under control the company’s activity on the new collaborative platforms, maximising its positive effects. The principles of social media governance (how the organization is organized) and social media policy (what the rules are) also need to be defined and made known. The main steps to ensure social media governance are as follows: • Establish a daily management plan of the online platforms • Establish clear and timely Crisis Management procedures (and a Recovery Plan) • Define the roles and responsibilities of employees in the use of social media • Try to plan the main internal collaboration flows. As regards the social media policy, the main steps to adopt are: • Give precise guidelines for the use of social media, and provide examples of best practices • Define the tone of voice and the style of the relationship with customers • Specify the rules of conduct in community management • Structure all of the customer care based on the new collaborative principles.

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Toolkit section 4

Social Technologies

he innovation of the solutions and technological architectures that an organization calls on to support the development of social business is a key step for the success of the initiatives and process of transformation. The family of emerging enterprise technologies has greatly evolved over the last few years, first with the arrival of new parties specialised in individual solutions (Jive, Telligent…) and then with the big names (Broadvision, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle…) who offered social updating to the CMS, ERP and CRM solutions or offered completely new solutions altogether. This is a field that today is seeing mature solutions with a large installed base, and which, however, is still rapidly evolving; acquisitions, repositioning and innovation products will have more surprises in store for us in the near future. The trends with which these technologies are evolving can be summarised as follows: • Consumerisation: the user experience is central and the reference to personal social networks is increasingly pronounced • Multi-channels: the ability to integrate chat and web conferencing • Social analytics: building dashboards not only for use but also for understanding engagement levels, the networks being created, and the reputation recogni-

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sed by peers • M obile • Integration of personal devices (BYOD – Bring your own device) • Cloud: use of “As services” solutions and in general the evolution towards open architectures. As for other aspects, it is also not sufficient when assessing the impact of technologies to consider only their engineering reach. We need to understand the impact on the development and improvement of social business that technologies are able to produce. From this perspective, it works to activate a higher-level strategy, embracing an IT governance idea and no longer only of a performance nature (optimisation of existing processes), but rather of a transformation nature (redesigning business models and processes in the making) in order to be able to obtain benefit from the potential of social business. Fear of risk, poor knowledge of the emerging technologies, strict and rigid safety logic, low readiness, business as usual, and uncertain amount of ROI are, however, some of the binding thoughts on the willingness to begin the process of technological change. As we have learned, on the path to transforming the company architecture from a digital and collaborative perspective, there is no small amount of critics and resistance that need to be overcome.

social business toolkit

49. Technology mapping and assessment

50. Business and user requirements analysis

Market and business scenarios with high competitiveness and heavily driven towards innovation (equally incremental and disruptive) today call for extreme attention to the processes and practices of assessing technologies. A strategic management of technological assets makes it clear that assessing and mapping technologies does not mean only identifying the engineering components; above all, it means assessing the present and future impact on the social business management of emerging technologies. The approaches to assessment may vary, but it is important to keep a constant dialogue flowing between two significant aspects: both the strategic one and the procedural one. • The strategic aspect identifies the frameworks connecting business models and goals and the technological architecture called on to enable them. In this phase, the drivers of creation/co-creation of value (at present and in future projections) are also identified. • The procedural aspect selects the potential supporting technologies and marks out the indicators for the phase of assessment and benchmarking of each technology under examination (assessing the gap between state of the art and the organizational technological capabilities). In phases of great innovation, technological drive and transformation of business models, in order to maximise its contribution, assessment must be a process of ongoing experience and applied knowledge that strategically involves the entire business ecosystem (internal and external) in addition to the technologies.

Analysis of the requirements is the process of identifying the technical-functional specifications that a technological solution has to have in order to satisfy the business and employment needs for which it is implemented. As a rule, it follows the strategic analysis phase and precedes the phase of design, configuration and customisation of the solution. It is fundamental, especially in the initial phase, to identify the stakeholders and plan the requirements (stimulation, analysis, specification and validation). There are two basic approaches to analysing the technological requirements: • A traditional method (which, starting from planning and from optimal theoretic requirements, consequently estimates the efforts of resources and time) • An agile method (which, starting from the vision and considering the budget and time constraints, determines more realistically the requirements that are actually attainable). What are the challenges that an analysis of requirements presents? • People: the selection of people to be involved in determining the technical requirements should be able to activate resources with good experience in the subject. This does not always occur and the project can significantly suffer as a result. • Ideas: often the idea of the expected solution is incomplete or excessively optimistic and not particularly clear in the minds of the stakeholders. The requirements that come out of it therefore might not be the real ones. • Complexity: even precisely determining the requirements does not protect from the complexities that can

The assessment of technologies is becoming a competitive asset, no longer just an impromptu practice

The analysis of functional and business requirements as a crucial intermediate step between strategy and development

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emerge during the actual development or when implementing the solution. Provide for an emergency plan and a service recovery plan.

51. Social software scouting

To tackle increasingly innovative markets, social software scouting activities are vital Social technology scouting is the activity responsible for systematically investigating the technological panorama of social applications and architectures in order to identify innovative solutions suitable for the organization’s needs. Having scouting networks active both inside (employees) and outside (consumers, business partners, experts) the company allows to more rapidly identify the opportunities to develop and improve business linked to collaborative and social technologies (not only for research of software solutions to problems or critical issues). The research initiatives and activities of social technologies can take various forms: contests, crowdsourcing, partnerships, networks of experts that complement the more traditional R&D activities. Once the business needs and contexts have been preliminarily investigated, a technological research process is divided into distinct phases: • Definition of objectives and areas of research and technological scouting • Choice of information sources and methods to monitor trends and innovation • Gathering of data and selection of technologies based on a set of specific criteria • Assessment process guided on ad hoc KPIs: impact, TCO, complexities, novelties • Final assessment phases and decision-making process. The players in a scouting network (veterans or outsiders)

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can be involved with various reward or gamification initiatives and stimuli: internal scouts (recognition, bonuses), external and sector scouts (business or collaboration opportunities), academic sources (joint research projects, visibility).

52. Software selection

Select the software solution able to satisfy not only technical requirements, but integrate with other systems The selection of a software solution is never a simple process. It is not just about choosing a solution that is technologically in keeping with the technical requirements, in line with the budget constraints and that can be implemented and productive within the envisaged time constraints. It is necessary, in fact, to assess how the introduction of a new platform will affect the architectures and overall information and operational systems. For the software selection of solutions and social platforms it is necessary to assess the technological and transformational impact of the business more generally, and not only the engineering components. The fundamental steps for software selection are as follows: • Establish the model of technological requirements in order to determine the nature and dynamic of the coverage • Explore the platforms and prepare a shortlist of the solutions to assess • Set assessment criteria for the selection test based on the technical and business requirements • Carry out any tests in order to fine-tune priorities and any customisations necessary

social business toolkit

• Examine the results of the selection in relation to the criteria identified and final choice. The selection is not only a question of technological requirements or of covering the identified needs. Indicators such as TOC (total cost of ownership) and ROI (return on investment) should be emphasized, as they allow the organization to quantify the financial aspects connected with the choice (from the start-up and maintenance costs to the less immediate and visible costs of a lock-in, if any).

53. Customization and integration design

Designing the customisation of application solutions in order to facilitate the integration of systems The design of the customisation and integration of applications and software solutions meets both the business needs and the usability requirements of users. Customisation allows the organization to expand the configuration by adding specific functionalities useful for the development of processes. One of the key reasons for customisation is the need for integration with other systems. The build-up process can be designed as internal to the system, as an extension or as a separate component that can be reused. It can also be horizontal or vertical (or mixed) within the limits of the architectures supporting the business.

54. Apps/Widgets design & development

Planning the design and development of functional and emotionally-impacting apps The interface and design of an application or a widget are, undoubtedly, distinguishing factors in building an experience for the consumer that is not only functional and of service, but also hedonic and develops loyalty and closeness with the user. Naturally, no development or design of an app should occur unless part of a clear digital marketing strategy and of a social business strategy in general. In planning the development of apps and accessories, the organization definitely needs to bear in mind two basic technological perspectives: • The device (graphic, interaction, contents, functionality and code) • The network (coverage, standards, databases, api and code) However, in order to build a successful app, the organization should: • Understand the needs and attitudes of consumers and users • Assess what its competitors are doing with apps and widgets • Study the analysis and research carried out on the markets as well as mobile consumers • Study in-depth the analytics of apps with regard to preferences and uses • Find out the revisions that consumers make to apps and widgets • Test and fine-tune in the prototype phase in order to improve usability • Design communication and marketing suitable for the organization’s app.

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55. System integration

The integration of information systems in the service of collaborative enterprise architecture Integrating technological systems is the strategic response that organizations and enterprises implement in order to manage the complexity of interoperability and interconnectivity of company technologies, data, knowledge and performance within the context of business processes. System integration is a vital operation, even more so for the connected and social enterprise that is exposed to the risk of the increasing number of applications and contexts of use. Very often integration is considered as an exclusively technological operation and a closed action. In actual fact, the idea and the practice of system integration are a process of ongoing experience of integration of resources and of “execution-as-learning”. There are no easy paths to avoid the risks and challenges of a system integration. We can, however: • Look at the rhythm of the integration more than at the single integration event • Structure the integration process into subsystems that are easier to manage and test • Create a system integration management framework that manages the modularity • Monitor and modulate the process of verifying the integration starting from the subsystems • Automate the processes of testing the integration so they are recursive without excessive effort A final point on the human and organizational side of system integration. Each system integration process involves technologies, processes and people (which in various cases are meeting for the first time) that activate new social and relational dynamics, which have to

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be taken into consideration. System integration is not only a technological challenge, but a process of coordination and collaboration among the various souls of a connected enterprise.

56. IT Governance

Building an IT governance as a strategic asset for business transformation IT governance is the strategic framework that organizations adopt to ensure that architectures and technological systems are performing and aligned with the business goals. More specifically, the support from IT to the business performativity is divided into three macro carriers: a) automation of processes; b) support to decision-making; and c) business transformation. Whilst in the last few decades the first two aspects have been at the centre of attention, today’s increasingly competitive market scenarios and the new paradigms of the connected enterprise are strongly veering the interest of top management onto the third aspect: the capability of information and communication technology to enable business transformations, equally incremental and disruptive in nature. The shift from a collaborative architecture is growing in these new scenarios of transformational IT governance. An IT governance directed towards business transformation will have a broad spectrum of action: • Design transformational experiences (non-performing) • Cultivate and protect the innovation initiatives/pilots • Manage the risk by handling uncertainty and failure • Identify metrics suitable for innovation (not only ROI)

social business toolkit

• Involve teams and samples who are ready for the new technologies in all phases. The restricting factors of a transformational IT governance are: • Firm resistance to change • Fear of damaging “business as usual” • Incapability to monitor and validate change • Low readiness for the new technologies • Non-rewarding organizational cultures (error culture) • Unclear and determined costs and ROI • Lack of/ambiguous internal communication • No support from the top management.

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Toolkit section 5

Social Dynamic Dashboard

he connected and collaborative organization generates a large quantity of data, both inside and in its relationship with the ecosystem. As a result, it is crucial for the organization to be capable of designing and implementing practices and analytical processes that can keep up with the vast amount of information, with the speed with which they are updated and with the variety of sources that produce information. These data allow the organization to:

• See phenomena not captured today by traditional systems: information collaborative networks, granular data in consumer behaviour, levels of engagement and of relationships managed in real time, identification of weak signals and insights, etc. • Make decisions that are more guided by the evidence • Learn and redefine projects based on feedback • Activate emergency and collective intelligence mechanisms enabled by collaborative platforms. 40 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

These elements lead to building a social dashboard that represents: • Dynamic visualisations on collaborative phenomena present in the organization • Rankings on people, offices and departments with respect to indicators of reputation, centrality, efficiency, etc. • Rankings and visualisations of mechanisms of engagement and relationships with consumers and outside partners (qualitative and quantitative) • Forecasting on key phenomena: process efficiency, offers destined for success, conversation rates in the commercial pipeline… As for the innovation horizon, also for “high data intensity” social business (which we define as what is coming with the arrival of the so-called “big data”), the risk of starting out along a transformation path without suitable knowledge or a strategic roadmap is high. A “wait and see” approach, however, is no less risky. Only the capability to build a social dashboard that visualizes and relates KPIs of the connected enterprise to support the transformation process will produce successful social business.

social business toolkit

58. Data visualization and storytelling

59. Prediction market tools (collective intelligence)

More and more organizations and brands are making use of visualization techniques to explore and make sense of organizational data as well as data relating to consumers and the markets. Data visualization is today the practice and innovative technique of rapidly growing knowledge discovery and business intelligence. For these reasons, the visual intelligence component has become part of the new analytical tools available to connected enterprises. Data visualization offers analysts numerous advantages in terms of exploratory and explanatory capabilities concerning the data: • It utilizes the immediacy and the impact of the visual representation • It makes phenomena or hidden trends emerge that were not otherwise identifiable • It stimulates the identification of critical issues or underperforming situations • It simplifies the complexity of data with the dynamic use of views • It allows to build data storytelling in order to carry out sense-making. Warning on visual intelligence: be careful not to confuse the cognitive and exploratory potentials of data visualization with the more common and widespread infographic. The first, in fact, focuses on exploring the unknown and discovering the new, whilst the second is more directed towards representing in graphic form what is already known.

Relying on the intelligence of collectives (consumers, employees, communities) by using the prediction mechanism of the markets is a useful managerial practice in many cases: to test the success of a new product or to assess the strategies to adopt towards competitors, to decide on possible acquisitions or internationalisation or even to assess new pricing policies. In order to explore the transformational potentials of prediction markets, the organization should: • Do some practice on the platforms and projects of existing prediction markets to familiarize itself with them; ask vendors for access to trial periods on the respective platforms • Find a prediction market champion (not necessarily an expert) to start the project and begin presenting and spreading the idea within the organization • Use concretes cases of successful application on prediction markets to gain support for the prediction market project from a sponsor and top management • Involve even only a moderate number of trader users, stimulating their participation also with provocative actions, incentive and reward strategies and managing the related critical issues (attempts of undue influence, insufficient information…). Attention from traders is not infinite: it is necessary to cultivate and keep participants active for a reasonable period of time and manage communications on the outcome of the trading.

The techniques of data visualization make organizational and market dynamics visible

Prediction markets for making the most of the collective intelligence of consumers and employees

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Focus

Enterprise Gamification Improve business processes and the involvement of the company ecosystem with the game

n an aphorism as famous as it is charming, Brian Sutton-Smith, professor and prolific author who has dedicated his entire life to the study of games, states: “The opposite of play is not work. It’s depression”. It is partly this assumption that has prompted reflections in the field of Gamification, a trend that has established itself on the market and in organizations (especially overseas) over the last few years. In order to better understand the phenomenon it is a good idea to take a few steps back and collect some data and statistics. Jane McGonigal, famous game designer and author of the book Reality is Broken (2011), underlines how the videogame industry nowadays represents a world that can be anything but underestimated. In the United States alone there are over 183 million active videogame players: people who declare spending an average time of approximately 13 hours a week on this activity. Globally, the community of videogame players amounts to over 4 million people in the

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Middle East, 105 million in India, 100 million in Europe and over 200 million in China, 6 million of whom dedicate over 22 hours a week to this activity: without using too many metaphors, more or less the equivalent of a part-time job! The economic industry and the turnover revolving around this type of business is certainly no less: in 2012 over 68 billion dollars was invested in video games. But it is not just the videogame industry; Bloomberg market projections and forecasts estimate growing and constant investments in the field of Gamification: approximately 1.6 billion dollars for 2015 and 2.8 billion for 2016. Kids’ stuff ? Not really: a survey conducted in 2009 by the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking showed how 61% of company C-levels interviewed allowed themselves a videogame break at least once a day. Moreover, in the United States alone one in four players is aged on average over fifty. And in Italy? Data from the AESVI1 underline how the average age of Italian videogame players in 2009 was 28. The AESVI also noted that 17% of the Italian po-

www.hbritalia.it

pulation play videogames, whereas in France the estimates were around 38%. In our country alone we are talking about an industry that has generated in the two-year period 2009-2010 profits amounting to 604 million euros (up by 17% on the previous year and in constant growth). The list of statistics could go on and on but the picture is already clearly defined: this is a rapidly growing industry that concerns an increasingly wide range of the population with regard to age, gender and social status. So why the game? Because a game, in its essential characteristics, besides its recognised educational qualities and the importance it has in the formation and development of a child’s personality (but not only children: think about the game between two baby animals or the simulations in adulthood) represents a context of privi-

leged experimentation. Drawing on and paraphrasing the words and studies of Bruner and Huizinga, games are intrinsically characterised by an aspect of experimentation and simulation: they represent a free action, different from the usual world, which totally involves the player despite not entailing any material interest. To quote Jane McGonigal again, games are unnecessary obstacles that we voluntarily choose to face (and overcome). From the psychological point of view, games are able to motivate, challenge, test, give rise to positive and constructive emotions, teach, and even to improve the involvement of people – a rather interesting aspect in order to understand the contribution of Gamification to the business world – by giving them a universe of sense and meaning that is different from the one they are used to (epic meaning).

Some definitions of Gamification found in literature Gamification 141x000mm.pdf

Author

Definition

Zichermann

Gamification is the process that uses game-thinking and game mechanics in order to engage users and resolve problems

Kim

Gamification uses game techniques to make activities more fun and interactive

Deterding et al.

Deterding et al. Gamification is the use of game design elements within non-game contexts

Kapp

Gamification is the use of game mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics and game-thinking to engage people, motivate actions, promote learning and resolve problems.

CMY

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Gamification applies game mechanics to activities not directly connected with games in order to change people’s behaviour

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Bunchball C

Werbach and Hunter

Gamification is the use of game and game-design elements within non-game contexts.

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What is Gamification (and what is it not)? An attempt at definition

Gamification application scenarios: from motivation to innovation

We will now try to define the perimeter of action Because of the definition and comprehension of of Gamification and to reflect on what it means to what we intend – and do not intend – with the implement it inside our organization. term Gamification, we have to ask ourselves on Let’s start from the beginning: the table on the pre- what levels this strategy can be applied in order vious page shows some of the definitions that are to improve our organizations. Specifically, we can found on the theme of Gamification in the litera- identify some scenarios, many of which have alreture. Some differences can be noted among the va- ady had a practical application, and sometimes a rious definitions, as can some recurring elements. successful one: All of this brings us to consider Gamification: a • Intranet collaboration and engagement: with strategic process that involves the use of gamethe use of new intranets and new collaborative thinking and game elements to motivate and intools within the company or the strengthening crease involvement of people in contexts other of existing ones. See for example the applicathan game contexts. tion of Nitro to the Social Business Suite Jive 3. • Improvement of productivity: through a better It is however useful to define Gamification using and greater involvement of the entire company the negative form by clarifying what it is not: ecosystem. • The simple transformation of all processes into • Efficiency of the practices through a better maa game; nagement of processes and objectives that are • The use of games within the company wormore comprehensible. kplace (more than simply the game, logics and • Knowledge Management. mechanics are used); • Human Resources, specifically: • The use of serious games or simulations; • In recruiting and talent attraction procedures. • A new concept of marketing and of adding badIn this respect, the Plantville experience carges, classifications, and scores here and there ried out by Siemens 4 was excellent. (even if unfortunately this is exactly what some • In the training and induction of new recruits. Gamification companies are doing and selling); • In performance reviews. • A novelty: the elements and dynamics offered • In recognising and rewarding employees. by Gamification have already been experimen• In e-Learning. ted with in the past. What is truly innovative • Within the innovation processes to structure – other than the scale on which we can be invola company to be more open and more in line ved in the process – is the integration in a sensiwith the principles of Social Business. In this ble and shared framework that puts everything respect, we can consider the MyStarbucksIdea is its proper place; platform 5, which includes elements of Gamifi• The theory of games. cation in it. • Within marketing and promotion: outside the By now it is clear that Gamification represents a company to engage the consumers and final custrategic value approach that involves in the apstomers within branded communities in a far plication of dynamics, mechanics and aesthetics 2 more active way (see for example the cases of Dell and its communities). of the game and the game and videogame context a driver that is fundamental for maximising the value co-generated inside the entire company eco- One of the themes most correlated to Gamificasystem (partners, suppliers, stakeholders, final cu- tion is definitely (as underlined among others by a recent PwC report 6) that of motivation and involstomers, consumers, employees…). vement. What motivates people in the workplace? What makes us work better? What allows us to be creative and to generate a differentiating and truly innovative value for our company? All of these questions – and many others – can be answered in a 44 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

social business toolkit

Flow dimensions: the optimal experience

strategic approach that includes game-thinking. Recent studies in the motivational field (see also Anxiety-Boredom 68x56,5mm.pdf 1 20/04/13 the excellent volume by Daniel Pink, Drive) show the inefficiency of the classic incentive systems (economic or otherwise) that have historically been High used by companies. The classic “carrot and stick” mechanism (reward for positive behaviour and Anxiety action, punishment/warning if it is negative) does EL not work and shows – now increasingly clearly – its N inefficiency. But why doesn’t this model work? Pink AN CH explains it very well: W Boredom O • It limits the ability of people to have innovative FL ideas, it does not stimulate creativity and it reduLow ces (also according to authoritative research) the possibility to think outside the box. Low High • It reduces people’s intrinsic motivation, also moSkills ving their locus of control towards the outside, on factors that do not depend on us. • It pushes motivation onto external factors that then become addictive and distract from the the action, self-efficiency and in which positive main objectives, contributing to diminishing the emotions and a sense of control of the situation sense of self-efficiency, resilience and the possi- grow. The subject thus becomes more proacbility of people to feel fulfilled and happy. tive, resilient and efficient in the action it is • It directs attitudes and consolidates behaviour in carrying out. Gamification – through precious the short term: preventing significant learning sets of objectives, rewards and actual game meand increasing to the long term resistance to chanics – is able to sustain this state and feed it, change and evolution difficulties. with a great advantage in terms of the motiva• It contrasts positive behaviours: for example, re- tion and involvement of the person. It therefore search shows that an external incentive system plays a fundamental role in the motivation and reduces the willingness to do charity work and maintenance of pre-set objectives. to carry out actions without ulterior motives. • Contrastingly, it encourages negative and Designing and implementing unethical behaviours. a Gamification environment So how can we motivate our resources? Mihaly In implementing a Gamification framework there Csikszentmihalyi has identified over the past are some aspects that need to be considered as few years a ver y interesting model defined as indispensable starting points from which to start “Flow” or an optimal experience model. What the whole design. Werbach and Hunter summarise the Hungarian professor states is that in order some of them in their volume For the Win: How for an optimal experience to take shape, certain Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. conditions must be present, the first of which Specifically: is a perfect balancing between the challenges • Define specific business goals: it is impossible offered by the environment and the abilities/ to implement a serious Gamification initiative competencies of the subject. When the chalunless it is connected to business goals that can lenges are too difficult, the subject has a sense be specifically measured and identified with of anxiety and incompetence in the situation; precise metrics and assessments. when the challenges are too easy, however, the • Outline user behaviour: once we have decided subject is completely bored. In brief, if we are what we want to achieve, we have to suggest able to maintain a suitable balance between steps to assess, understand and design the bethese two aspects, we can enter into a state of haviours that we want our users to have. Flow, a state in which the subject experiences • Describe your own “players”: understanding a very high sense of pleasantness, awareness of who our “public” is is fundamental in order to

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Challenges

CMY

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be able to understand how it can interact with our environment and how it may be possible to build communities within our socialised environment. Understanding the journey that our “players” have to take is also just as fundamental. • Provide for activity cycles: planning right from the start how the players must behave is fundamental for understanding how to organize the Gamification experience that we are implementing. • Don’t forget the fun! • Structure and provide for adequate tools: the technology – including in the case of Gamification as in many other aspects – is an enabling context, not the final goal. Allowing people to work better, with more effective and efficient methods thanks to these strategies, is the task of today’s companies and organizations.

Conclusion

Gamification is therefore a powerful tool that today’s organizations can use to enrich their possibilities. It is clear – but it is always good to point out – that it is a tool and not an end. The end must always be to maximise the value cocreated and exchanged within the organization, creating companies that are more innovative, simpler to understand, more fun, more efficient and “richer”; in a word: more user-friendly. To conclude, there are no better words than those of Joseph Chilton Pearce: “Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold”.

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Note. 1. Associazione Editori e Sviluppatori Videogiochi Italiani http://www.aesvi.it/ (Association of Italian Videogame Editors and Developers). 2. Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics are identified by a model that is highly appreciated in literature (Hunicke, Robin; LeBlanc, Marc; Zubek, Robert, MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research) which underlines how these three aspects are essential in composing and building a game environment. For more information see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/MDA_framework. Here it is sufficient to consider the mechanics as what allows the physical and practical interaction with the game (from the interface to the basic interaction systems). The dynamics represent what is placed on the mechanics (sets of rules, times of the game, methods and so on); and the aesthetics are instead the part most linked to the game experience (storytelling, emotions provoked…) 3. For more information see the Bunchball website: http://www.bunchball.com/products/nitro 4. See http://www.siemens.com/industryjournal/en/ journal/01_2012/plantville_free_computer_game_for_ virtual_plant_managers.htm 5. For more information see: http://mystarbucksidea. force.com/ 6. The whitepaper of PricewaterhouseCoopers dedicated to the application of Gamification in an organizational context and within business processes is available on the company’s official website: http://www.pwc.com/ us/en/technology-forecast/2012/issue3/indewx.jhtml

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Focus

CQ: Connected Intelligence Completing the Leadership Trifecta

conve rge nc e of p e rspectives is changing the emphasis of leadership development. The world has never been as connected as it is today. Companies can no longer hide behind national trade barriers and less than globally competitive work practices. Those tasked with developing the next generation of leaders are acknowledging that it is no longer sufficient to focus on the individual leaders’ qualities and attributes1. The modern leader must typically deal with a complex web of interdependent stakeholders. CQ Connected Intelligence 141x146mm.pdf How they position themselves to influence and/or be influenced by their network of peers, reports, customers and suppliers may ultimately determine their relative success. Psychological measures of IQ and EQ (Emotional Intelligence) have traditionally been designed to assess the individual leader’s cognitive and emotional capability. While IQ and EQ acknowledge the need to manage relationships2, these are still measures that focus on internal processes. Having a high IQ or EQ, does not necessarily result in being connected to the relevant people or communities or to the social capital that these connections can provide us with. What is relevant, is CQ3. Lets examine the recent election of Pope Francis to arguably the world’s most challenging leadership role, the C

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Catholic Church. One could surmise that the other candidates would not be lacking in IQ or EQ in comparison. However his election was commonly announced as: “Francis is the first non-European Pope in more than 1200 years, a choice that reflects the shifting demographics of the Roman Catholic faith 4”, suggesting that his experiences and his connections with those in this growth area for the Catholic church, would have contributed significantly to his election. Could this be an example of CQ? What role did social capital play in his election?

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Perhaps less visible, but just as representative is the more rapid turnover of CEO roles that we are now witnessing. Many researchers believe that this is attributed to leadership shortcomings in EQ5? Of course to be a leader at the top of a major corporation requires significant quantities of both IQ and EQ. But as corporations adjust to the new context6 leaders with CQ are better placed to lead these changes. The leader of the future can no longer depend on just IQ, industry expertise or even EQ. CEO’s are predicted to need a wider range of experience and come from a more varied background than has traditionally been the case7. While ‘experience’ is usually not associated with the ‘connections’ which contributed to this experience, in reality, leaders regularly call on such connections when looking to promotion or making decisions based on their past experiences. This is CQ.

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The Harvard Business Review recently published its Top 100 CEOs based on long-term objective performance measures (http://hbr.org/2013/01/the-bestperforming-ceos-in-the-world). Not surprisingly, top of the list is Steve Jobs, who has left a legacy in Apple that perhaps we will never see the likes of again. Apple’s ‘second coming’ led by Jobs is completely attributable to the entertainment centred “i” line of products. But how much of his success can be attributed to his CQ? His links to the entertainment industry through Pixar and Disney, during his enforced leave from Apple, afforded him the contacts and capability to forge the cross industry partnerships required to make products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad possible. Apple’s competitors did not lack the capability to produce competitive hardware. What they lacked was a leader with the CQ to harness the complex ecosystem of relationships required to deliver the whole product. The ‘CQ’ label for Connected Intelligence is credited to Director, Education and executive coach Hilary Armstrong from IECL and provides the natural extension to the IQ, EQ theme for leadership measurement and assessment. CQ assessment must measure the “space between” or reciprocal relationships of network members which means providing a snapshot of the network as a whole and its structural conditions as well as individual positioning. While a mature suite of measures for CQ is still an aspiration, Social Network Analysis (SNA) provides a valuable glimpse of the structure and personal connections across an organisation. From our different organisational standpoints, we are CQ 141x79mm.pdf 1 20/04/13 17.40 experiencing a convergence of perspectives around

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CQ that are contributing to its growing prominence in leadership development. We have termed these inside-out and outside-in perspectives. We have identified at least four main perspectives that identify with CQ: 1. Organisational Psychology (IQ, EQ, “Competency frameworks) 2. Social Capital 3. Collective Intelligence 4. Knowledge Management CQ Leadership is a shift from traditional psychological approaches that emphasise individual competencies and measures of IQ and EQ as the basis for effective leadership. The dominant narrative is of the lonely hero singlehandedly overcoming the odds of the fickle marketplace to achieve results. This was called transactional leadership. With the introduction of transformational leadership, the weight of moral responsibility to his or her followers and their well being was added. In the past, control of information (content) has been the major source of a transactional or transformational leaders’ status and power. The technological age has removed much of this control. Instead of looking to information for power, leaders now need to recognise that power also comes from experience. Experience involves tacit knowledge gleaned from the myriad of connections that a leader has over the course of a career. CQ is knowing this, a shift in focus from individual competencies to engaging with and moderating collaborative and networked organisation cultures in which task leaders can emerge easily and seamlessly to fill the requirements of the moment.

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A CEO who called himself a “refugee” from a large corporate set up his own company which in the first year grew from 2 people to 80 and five years later has a staff of 150 permanents and 200 contractors. He was determined to create and sustain an agile organisation that was not weighed down by bureaucracy and processes and policies and therefore was flexible, innovative and one in which people wanted to work. His starting point was to insist that each employee in the company directly contributed value to the customer. There were to be no “middlemen”[sic]. The Company is organized around functional hubs and has minimal policies and processes (apart from the legal and statuary requirements). There are no leadership competency frameworks and no performance development plans and no psychological diagnostics. He believed that creative and innovative people could be EQ challenged and wanted to find a way to retain them without creating a culture where everyone “had to be the same”. People were rewarded on a team basis rather than individually. This meant that the day-today relationships were extremely important. The HR functional hub had two team members involved with transactional HR issues, but the rest of the team were out in the business, assisting and guiding people to have the conversations they need to have in order to collaborate. The functional hubs however, were having difficulty conducting the everyday robust conversations that would enable people to collaborate within hubs and across hubs. In assisting them, we asked groups of people who they needed to connect with and experiential workshops and activities were designed to assist them gain the skills they required to do this. The conversations began to happen at all levels of the organisation. Team coaches worked in real-time with teams in their meetings and in the workshops. In the evaluation what occurred was an increase of CQ. Turnover in this organisation is under 3% and the CEO was able to achieved the agile organisations that he was looking for. “Connected Intelligence” has commonly been associated with the collective intelligence that can be gleaned from interactions afforded through Internet facilitated connections. “Intelligence” in this context is not attributed to the individual, but as a collective noun for information and insights gained through a combination of sources, both human and informational. However, individuals do gain from their participation in intelligence gathering activities and therefore it

could be argued that they have gained CQ from such participation. The field of Knowledge Management has now been with us for more than 20 years. While the initial focus had been on developing repositories for codified “explicit” knowledge, the field has well and truly moved beyond this to value the role collaboration and connections play in sharing more valued, but difficult to articulate, “tacit” knowledge. David Coleman from Collaborative Strategies9 illustrates this movement through the development of a CQ like “Collaborative Intelligence” index10. While perhaps motivated by a desire to provide a measure for knowledge sharing potential, Coleman clearly sees the link to the individual participant’s IQ/EQ capabilities. The fourth perspective comes from the social and psychological sciences. “Social Intelligence” describes the human capacity to navigate complex social relationships. Goleman identifies and measures SQ characteristics such as Attunement, Empathy, Organisational Awareness, Influence, Developing Others, Teamwork . This however is still an individual perception questionnaire, although in our experience if it is used between team members who have to collaborate can be very effective in creating change). The initial motivation for developing a measure for Social Intelligence was to provide a “quality of life” measure, with its proponents believing that Social Intelligence is essentially what being human is. For example chimpanzees can at times outperform humans in their ability to observe and remember, but are much less adept at managing their social relationships. Social Capital is another concept in social science that inspires the CQ. Emanating from modern sociology and particularly Bourdieu, social capital is the capacity to gain access to information, resources and sponsorship. The capacity to do this is through a person’s participation in groups and their deliberate construction of sociability for the purpose of creating this resource. Social Capital has been clearly linked to leadership success12. A Social Network Analysis (SNA) aims to provide a visual picture of the invisible social relational networks that pervade our everyday home and work life. SNA provides structural measures that are able to characterise specific roles that an individual may play in a social network e.g. broker, co-ordinator, central connector, peripheral expert etc. SNA researcher Professor Ron Burt from the University of Chicago has conducted longitudinal studies on leadership performance as it relates to the structure of the social networks that a leader embeds themselves in. He

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What makes up a good CQ assessment?

found that those leaders who placed themselves as a “bridge” between established cliques and clusters gained higher performance ratings and were more likely to have their ideas supported by senior management 13. Rob Cross from the University of Virginia has also conducted extensive research on leadership capabilities using SNA techniques. His particular interest has been in the “energy” that exists in productive networks and how individual leaders can, by their own actions and behaviours, energise or de-energise these networks and therefore impact on the performance of the network as a whole 14. Used in concert with the individual human centred attributes, the social structure attributes provided by SNA can provide a more complete CQ measure. The expat HR director of this branch of a global energy company had sensed that the identified ‘high potentials’ in the region were missing something. While they met the traditional attributes typically assigned to high potential leaders, their remoteness to the core areas of the firm meant that they suffered in “connectedness” in comparison with their peers in more central areas of the company. To gain some ‘data’ to support his assumptions he commissioned two organizational network analysis studies to be conducted. One survey aimed to identify how ‘connected’ the senior leadership team was to the high potential group. The second survey was designed to see how the high potential group was connected to the executive leaders, and each other. In essence he was evaluating the CQ of both the high potential individuals and the organisation’s leadership. The results were intriguing. Firstly, those high potential leaders that the executive team recognised, overlapped little with whom the high potential group identified as leaders within their own cohort. Secondly, when this group was asked what they believed the executive could do to help them best progress their careers, the response was uniform. They wanted connections, many nominating the expat members of the executive team as those they would like to spend more time with. They are clearly looking for the brokerage opportunities that these members could provide. What the organisation and the individual leaders were looking for is CQ. C

Sample CQ 141x118mm.pdf

Dimension Dimension Structural

IQ and EQ assessments are “inside-out”, in that they look to characterise the internal attributes of an individual leader to predict how they will perform in the outside world. A CQ will have both an “inside-out” component and an “outside-in” perspective. Even if conducted as a self-assessment, a good CQ assessment will encourage the respondent to reflect on, not only how their connections may perceive them, but also how their connections are connected with each other, to form the ecosystem of social relationships that the leader can influence or be influenced by15. This social network structural assessment will provide the leader with an “outside-in” perspective of what their potential may be to impact or not, the world that they live and work in. To what extent is the leader’s network closed to those that think and work just like themselves? Or is it open to diverse experiences and opinions from those that they may not be in day-to-day contact? i.e the “what” and the “who”. We see a good CQ assessment will have a mix of inside-out and outside-in measures. Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s heavily cited paper on Social Capital , Intellectual Capital and Organizational Performance16 suggests that social capital could be constructed from three elements; a structural element that describes the nature a person’s network; a cognitive element, which could be roughly equated 26/04/13 19.38 to an IQ element; and a relationship element, which

Sample CQ question From the important connections you have nominated: How many people work in the same organisation as you? How many work people in the same industry? How many are at the same management level as yourself?

Cognitive

In evaluating aims for your career, do you prefer to be in control of your own destiny, or go with opportunities as they arise? Would you describe yourself as someone who strives to get a point across clearly, or someone who is more easy going?

In a leadership role, is your strength more in winning people over to your views or keeping everyone informed?

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Relationship

At an event or conference setting do you tend to stick with people you know or circulate actively, keeping conversations short? In a team situation do you tend to immediately take charge or are you happy quietly listen before talking? Do you prefer to engage in deep conversations with a few or shallow conversations with many?

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roughly equates to the relationship component of EQ. For illustration purposes, the previous table provides an extract for a CQ assessment tool we have designed along these principles.

How can you as a Leader assess and build your CQ?

“It’s not what you know but who you know!” is a common response when one has been beaten to a coveted leadership role. We believe it’s both what you know as well as who you know, that together constitute your CQ and therefore your potential for gaining that coveted leadership role. This is not to say IQ and EQ are irrelevant, just insufficient. In our work with leaders we experience that prospective leaders intuitively sense the need to build a stronger network, if they are to progress to their full potential. To date however, there have not been the tools available to help them with this task. Social Networking platforms like Linkedin and Facebook have been able to demonstrate the power of making transparent your network of connections. Linkedin, in particular, is a powerful tool for sustaining your current professional network connections, as well as identifying potential new connections. We would encourage those readers who have joined Linkedin to take advantage of the InMaps application17 to look at what your ecosystem of Linkedin connections looks like. You will no doubt see clusters that represent former employers, educational institutions you studied at, professional groups you have joined and the like. Now look at the map and ask yourself “If I am to get that leadership role that I’m aspiring to, which parts of my network are helping or indeed hindering me?” If you are not participating in a Social Networking platform simply take a piece of paper and list out 10 to 20 people that you believe that you have the capacity to influence, or be influenced by. If it’s someone you think you can influence draw an arrow toward them. If it is someone that influences you, then draw the arrow towards yourself. If you influence each other, draw a double-ended arrow. It is worth pausing to think about the meaning of reciprocated connections. Are they an indicator of the level of trust between the two entities? What obligations and/or norms might exist between yourself and those on your map i.e. relationship dimension. Now try and complete the influence network by thinking about how your contacts might influence each other. Now review the structure

of your map i.e. structural dimension. Is it tightly clustered with m a ny r e d u n d a nt l i n k s between your close contacts? If you are looking to become a specialist in a defined field perhaps this is appropriate. However, if you are looking to expand and grow into a more general management role, this is not so good. Think about what your natural inclinations towards leading are - leading in a defined discipline or leading toward new frontiers i.e. cognitive dimension? How can you play to your natural inclinations or overcome your natural disinclinations. For many of us there will be times in our careers where we need to be more of the specialist and there are times when we need to be more entrepreneurial. If we have consciously built and maintained our networks, these networks can help us to adjust as our careers develop over time.

A Final Word

In this paper we have elaborated the concept of “Connected Intelligence” CQ, as an adjunct to the traditional IQ and EQ dimensions of leadership assessment. We have argued that CQ fills a gap in leadership development, providing pragmatic support for leaders aspiring to higher appointments, that require specific experience (what) and connections (who), to move their respective organisations forward. It is not unusual for aspiring leaders to mentally map out their job paths in developing Cursore 141x58mm.pdf 1 20/04/13 17.35 their careers. Recruitment consultants and execu-

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Note. 1.

tive coaches would also spend much of their efforts assisting their clients in this endeavour. CQ tools and diagnostics provide the means for making this process more transparent and providing the aspiring leader with the insights required to accelerate their journey along their chosen career paths.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

14. 15.

16. 17.

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Institute of Executive Coaching and Learning (IECL) and The Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) are two such organisations that have explicitly acknowledge ‘connected leadership in their leadership development programmes. See Daniel Goleman’s EI model “Social Skills” attribute http://danielgoleman.info/topics/emotional-intelligence/ Armstrong H Follow the leader: leadership development for the future http://iecl.com/whitepaper http://www.smh.com.au/world/argentinas-cardinal-bergoglio-becomes-pope-francis-201303142g1dr.html Armstrong ,H 2011 Spirited Leadership: growing leaders for the future in Roffey S Ed Positive Relationships: Evidence Based Practice across the World http://www.springer.com/psychology/ community+psychology/book/978-94-007-2146-3 http://iecl.com/whitepaper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10119480. http://www.iecl.com/inside-institute/dr-hilaryarmstrong.html http://www.collaborate.com/our-staff http://blog.mindjet.com/2011/12/demystifyingcollaborative-intelligence/ Goleman D., The New Science of Human Relationships, Bantam Books. A social capital theory of career success SE Seibert, ML Kraimer, RC Liden - Academy of Management Journal, 2001 - JSTOR. http://custom.chicagoexec.net/chicagocustom. nsf/ROI_7-09_rev8-6.pdf for an overview of the results of leaders being educated in Social Capital. http://www.robcross.org/pdf/roundtable/energy_and_innovation.pdf Lock Lee, L., “Is Your Social Capital Helping or Hindering Your Leadership Aspirations?” http:// www.optimice.com.au/documents/SCandLeadership.pdf www.jstor.org/stable/259373 http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/

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Focus

Digital storytelling The case of Mr Bauknecht

he new campaign for the brand Bauknecht, in which OpenKnowledge collaborated on the strategic orientation plan, represents a rather interesting case of web storytelling. As such, it deserves to be told detailing all the steps that led to its creation. First of all, what is Bauknecht? The brand is part of the Whirlpool world and is the brand with which the American multinational mainly sells its products â&#x20AC;&#x201C; white household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in various important Central European markets: above all Germany, then Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia. Bauknecht is the name of the founder, so a Mr. Bauknecht did actually exist at the beginning of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. In truth, the current campaign has not been devised as a historicist recovery (far from it), but for the German public the notion of a Mr. Bauknecht is connected with the memory and heritage of the brand and therefore has significant value. What inspired Bauknecht to devise an offline and online multimedia campaign led by the common thread of storytelling? It is obvious: as Bauknecht is a historically strong brand with a loyal consumer base built up over the years, it noticed the need to strengthen the presence of the brand with a younger target audience. In addition to that were the valid communication initiatives of some com-

petitors that in recent years had intensified their competitive pressure. Mainly based on classic methods like TV and press, competitor campaigns, particularly those of Bosch, AEG and Siemens, had attracted many consumers with a crucial sociodemographic profile for this product category, i.e. young or middle-aged women, with an active lifestyle and a good purchasing power. Which communicative strategies were used? They essentially intelligently combined the highlighting of technological features and of the style of products with elegant, modern and ironic visual/verbal language. These campaigns, however, also had limits, including above all sophisticated but cold backgrounds, and a rare human presence.

Storytelling extended to social media

The new communication thought up for Bauknecht by the Hamburg agency Pepperzak started precisely from these aspects and suggested contrasting them aggressively with the introduction of a very strong human presence. Bauknecht has always had a much stronger emotional link with the public than its competitors, but it needed to evolve it in a suitable way to involve younger consumers, conveying at the same time a sense of prestige and modernity. The communication was based initially on a press campaign, but the marketing team immediately felt the need to combine this approach with identifying a storytelling aspect that could be extended to the web and to social media. The character of Mr. Bauknecht had come to life: at

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this point they needed to decide what clothes to dress him in and in particular what his narrative role should be, in a perspective that was already looking at the social world. This was the moment when the collaboration with OpenKnowledge began. In order to explain how the case took shape it might be useful to briefly digress and discuss what we mean by web storytelling. The expression refers to the art and practice of developing contents for the communication of online brands that have symbolic depth, narrative value and therefore the ability to appeal to people’s imagination. The starting assumption is that the web and social media form a context in which, no differently from any other media universe, telling good brand stories is possible and in many respects advantageous. This is provided, of course, that they are put forward correctly (something that cannot be taken for granted). For this purpose, it is firstly necessary to refer to the universal rules of constructing a story. A useful reference in that sense, in our experience, is given by the French school of semiotics, which, among its many clarifying contributions, on the one hand explained the importance of verbal and visual rhetoric also in contemporary communication. On the other hand, it subdivided the narrative patterns of each story imaginable by identifying within them some decisive roles: Dispatcher, Subject (or Hero), Anti-subject (or Anti-hero), Helper, Opponent and Object of Value. Reduced to its essential elements, a story is the tension between a Subject and an Object of Value; the other roles enrich the story and make it interesting, but always within this fundamental narrative axis. By immediately applying these concepts to the case of the new Bauknecht campaign, it is easy to notice that the character of Mr. Bauknecht has a notable ‘semiotic motor’ within him since he expresses one of the most powerful rhetorical devices – the metaphor. What is a metaphor? It is a device (verbal or visual) in which a term is used to mean another, with the two terms being connected by a relation of similarity. How is that device expressed here? In the whole campaign (offline and online) the first term is represented by the male protagonist, the second by the brand or by the Bauknecht products. What can be imagined to associate these two terms is a series of traits such as efficiency, resolution, strength, 54 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

sturdiness, intelligence, beauty and – as provided by the campaign from the very start – a delicate touch. What instead creates the difference (and justifies us talking about similarity and not identicalness) is entirely obvious: one term is given by a rather attractive young man, the other by a rather abstract entity (a brand) or by some machines. This difference is at the heart of the persuasive mechanism, as always occurs with each valid metaphorical construction. To clarify the concept with a simple example: if a tiger has metaphorically represented a petrol brand for fifty years, it is not this that these two terms have in common (the energy) but what the tiger adds that is different – acceleration, speed, aggressiveness.

Identify the correct narrative pattern

With regard to the narrative pattern, the semiotic approach has allowed us to clarify that Mr. Bauknecht could cover the role of Dispatcher (as the brand) or Helper (as the product). However, leaving the choice uncertain would have caused confusion. In addition, the second option was not advisable because expressing Mr. Bauknecht as a product in social media would have been tough – it would have made conversations with the users awkward or bizarre. Analysis therefore led to organizing the narrative pattern as shown in the figure below. How do we interpret this diagram? In addition to defining the role of Mr. Bauknecht as Dispatcher (and therefore as a metaphorical representative of the brand), the pattern clarifies the formulation of the story: the fundamental tension is that which connects the Subject/Consumer Hero with its Object of Value (better results in managing food

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for the fridge, more delicate treatment of clothing items for the washing machine). With respect to this central axis, the role of the products is the Helper of the Subject. In other words, Mr. Bauknecht, who represents the brand, creates the conditions so that the Subject can connect with what he cares about, whilst the Bauknecht products help him to do this. This is a precise and rigorous definition of the narrative roles, the compliance with which allows us to guide the whole campaign in its multiple media outlets. This pattern is important in its deep logic of narrative organization, but it does not define the character of Mr. Bauknecht and only partly guides what he can do in the campaign. These aspects depend on the strategic choices that the Bauknecht team has adopted, deciding to move, with the new communicative approach, the centre of gravity of the brand from the concept of “care”, which evokes an image of concern (not very involving), to the

concept of “seduction”, which evokes an image of charm and temptation (very involving). The consequence is that Mr. Bauknecht does not aim to be a young obliging boy who takes care of the consumer but something different: a more intriguing character, capable of combining an undoubted sex appeal with a trait that contemporary women, in particular those used to the widespread language on social media, find very seductive – irony. Mr. Bauknecht, in short, is an ironic seducer, which may appeal to many because this aspect is also partly self-irony. With this choice, the aspect that had been so winning for competitors in their campaigns was drawn on and considerably strengthened.

The discreet charm of irony

It has to be pointed out that a similarly inspired approach has already been tried in another sector, obtaining great viral success and bringing back into fashion a brand with a glorious past but that had become outdated and almost unknown to new generations. The well-known case in question is the Old Spice videos, all playing on the alliance between the sexy aspect and irony. The original film, entitled “The man your man could smell like”, obtained 45 million views on YouTube. Other videos in the series also registered tens of millions of views. What brought about this success? It was certainly not only the aesthetic appeal of Isaiah Mustafa, the black American actor and football champion who appeared bare-chested in the videos; but also – and above all – his shamelessly seductive and at the same time amusingly self-ironic announcement. A man who is able to laugh at himself is likeable, and not only with a female audience.Mr. Bauknecht is only just starting to appear online, and is doing so with some videos whose storyline was carefully examined by OpenKnowledge. This examination served to avoid a loss of balance and to keep the character in line with the strategic intentions. What considerations were kept in mind? One was taking care to ensure that the character, although attractive, never slips into the position of Object of Value (or Desire). This position would be completely incorrect not only because that position belongs to the effects of the use of the product, but also because the character would become passive – whereas Mr. Bauknecht, as a high-performance technology brand,

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must play a decidedly active role. competition. The challenges assume a certain Another suggestion concerned the importance knowledge of the campaign and include various of building narrative developments based on two dramatic twists in which the character has a sense axes. The irony comes out of saying one chance to show as much his seductive capabilities thing and meaning another: what amuses the as his tendency to use irony and self-irony that rerespondent is the mental game between the two gularly accompany him. Further possibilities of insense levels, which is intertwined in an unsettling teraction with the users on other media platforms and surprising manner. (In another famous film, are expected once the spontaneous conversations Isaiah continues his seductive speech whilst clim- triggered by the videos have started to appear on bing on a white horse â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but straddling the horse the web. backwards.) For Mr. Bauknecht this becomes a key method of expression, which may translate into The challenge of viral many original narrative solutions. Various aspects in the video proposals supported An important aspect to underline concerns the the possibility of obtaining a good viral trend. relationship with the consumer (male or female). The Mr. Bauknecht campaign in particular has The campaign foresees an initial video with the proved to have the following: a) the fact that it functions of a trailer offered through a Facebook is based on the principles of narrative sharing application with an ending open to the imagina- (users can take a part in the story); b) the fact tion; and then a series of videos that involve the that it is unexpected and surprising (especially consumer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; especially female but also male â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in in the sector of household appliances); c) the fact different forms of interaction with Mr. Bauknecht. that it speaks with a human voice (not with the Encouraged by the character, the user must pass typical marketing or advertising communication three challenges in order to qualify for a prize jargon); d) the ability to arouse emotions (especially amusement); e) the fact that it has a slightly unconventional inspiration (but without unnecessary excesses, a bit in the style of Old Spice). Obviously, it remains to be seen whether these factors are enough to produce a viral outcome. Virality is an elusive phenomenon and can depend on numerous other aspects. Those contained in the first Mr. Bauknecht videos are in any case very valid and the company is expecting a considerable response in that regard. With this campaign, Bauknecht is launching itself into the rough and bracing sea of social media and is opening itself up to a new relationship with its consumers. As it is an online communication initiative, entrusted to the agency PIXELPARK AG from Cologne, its outcome will be measured over the next few months and years through KPIs relevant to this context. However, if well guided, the character of Mr. Bauknecht may act as an intermediary with the consumer also in different arenas: for example, the co-creation of new products and solutions, in forms of crowdsourcing all still to be invented. The ice has been broken with the consumer: now the ways in which Bauknecht can grow its sense and value of its new social tendency are limited only by the imagination. 56 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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Focus

Collaboration framework The process of transformation towards a collaborative company

he way contemporary organizations operate appears to be increasingly inadequate for dealing with a world based on knowledge, unpredictability and continuous change. It has been calculated that knowledge workers spend more than half their working time not managing their own specific tasks but producing e-mails, looking for information, and activating and managing the collaboration they need. The possibility to improve this activity share is decidedly high. However, 95% of IT investments are today still focused on the automation of business processes with a view to cutting costs, even though a good part of employees’ working time is not spent on the process, but on the exception to the process. E-mails still remain the most widespread – and inadequate – channel through which the unstructured and informal collaborative flows of contemporary organizations travel. Collaboration (noun) [originating from Late Latin collaborates, from Latin con- (“with”) and labōrare (“work”), work together with others], indicates the activity of collaborating, i.e. participating together with others in a job, work, or production. It is a concept that crosses all managerial paradigms, from the manufacturing ones (Frederick Taylor, Toyota) to those from the knowledge economy (Drucker), to the more recent participative models of Enterprise 2.0. In each of these, it assumes a totally different value, thus being – if not defined in detail – an ambiguous and often misleading term. C

The aspects of collaboration: the 5Cs model

Our Collaboration proposal identifies five different stages, with as many contents, types of relations and enabling mechanisms (emerging Open Knowledge Collaboration 107,5x110,5mm.pdf technologies):

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COLLABORATION Collective Alignment intelligence I unite I share all of the missions, company’s values, challenges intelligence

Communication and sharing

I share knowledge

Connection Coordination Co-creation

I find the We are part colleague of a team that can help me

We create the solution together

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Strength of the connection

Sharing of objectives

Independent Independent Potentially Interand implicit and explicit interdependent dependent

Absent

Potential

Weak

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Communication and Sharing: • Scenario: Contents, documents and resources are shared, facilitating group work and pooling individual knowledge. • Enabling mechanisms: shared folders, document sharing (files, videos, photos), microsharing, blogging, bookmarking

ology

tive techn

Collabora

e climate

Social media, mostly bottom-up and outside company organizations, are showing a great capacity/efficiency in supporting collaborative behaviours and processes and for the first time building technical apparatus adequate for knowledge workers: • To connect (to find expertise or documents in their own network) • To communicate (with blogs and microblogs) • To share (document sharing, social bookmarking…) • To exploit collective intelligence (idea management, prediction market…) • To create (e.g. through wikis)

Alignment: Co-creation: • Scenario: It is level zero of the collaboration. • Scenario: Individuals and teams devise soluThe people and the work teams operate autotions and develop contents in a participative nomously on independent goals, but recognise way. Objectives and constraints can be negotiathe general objectives, guidelines and organited. Creative solutions not foreseen in advance zational policies (missions, values, challenges). can emerge. Knowledge is created with a tran• Enabling mechanisms: all the tools of internal sparent accumulation process starting from incommunication, onboarding, incentive system, dividual contributions. organizational culture, etc. • Enabling mechanisms: wikis, collaborative realtime editing, brainstorming. Collective intelligence: • Scenario: the system unites on a large scale Elements affecting Flows Business Processes 68x57mm copia.pdf explicit contributions (creating documents, collaboration voting, comments, suggestions…) or implicit contributions (viewing a document, navigation paths, ownership…) of users within the digital workplace in order to generate new knowledge. Flows and Business Processes • Enabling mechanisms: mechanisms of emergence, crowdsourcing and idea management, prediction market. Collaborativ

Emerging Technologies

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COLLABORATION

Collaboration can be seen as a result of three contributory factors: Connection: • The culture and the climate: collaborative beha• Scenario: People connect with each other viours are determined by cultural factors. Search for based on affinity, professional background consensus, availability to openness and comparison, or shared knowledge, forming networks and and level of competition are important incentives groups supporting tasks. for or restraints on collaboration. Relational connectivity makes skills emerge • The processes and operational flows: the level of and be recognised. collaboration depends on the nature of the opera• Enabling mechanisms: forums, question & antional flows. The more variable, knowledge intensive, swer areas, areas/groups/communities, persointegrated with other functions or with customers nal profiles, competencies associated with the (external/internal), linked to service dynamics, etc., profile, connections, reputation. these are, the more important collaboration dynamics are. Coordination: • Enabling technologies: the presence of emerging • Scenario: People interact for a common task technologies that enable the collaborative processes and purpose. Activities are structured with is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for colconstraints, deadlines, objectives and responlaboration to emerge and develop. sibilities decided in advance. • Enabling mechanisms: project management, Socialising the processes groupware, presence/instant messaging, pri- The integration between communities and operational vate messages, workflow and task management. flows can occur in four different ways:

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Le trappole della collab_141x104mm ENG.pdf

11/07/13

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The Traps of Collaboration Competition and ambition:

“You say we have to work together. But then each of us is rewarded on competition.”

Culture of error:

“As soon as I take a step forward and wander off the subject, you punish me. So why should I do it?”

“Whoever works in other offices is often seen with hostility; if there were more sharing I think there would be less hostility.”

Visibility and recognition of others:

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“I don’t have time”:

“It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t have time to collaborate but I don’t have time because I don’t collaborate enough.”

Confused and badly used collaborative tools:

“We do actually have a lot of tools, but none of them is right for our case.”

• Isolated communities outside the flow. This is the starting point with communities free from pre-existing work flows. They are professional communities or communities of practice, or other forms of networks which – although bringing an interesting contribution – struggle to achieve a critical mass of adoption and to measure tangible returns. • Communities outside the flow supporting a traditional process. Supporting a work flow (which remains unchanged) are social tools able to capture the exceptions to the process, uncodified exchanges, and tacit knowledge. Structured and unstructured work are not yet integrated, but only supporting. • Socialised process. A single place in which all the activities are carried out. Comments, posts, status updates, and documents are placed in the work flow which is revised and improved. The different company processes, as socialized as they may be, remain closed silos, supported by technological solutions that do1not03/05/13 yet speak11.55 to Organic 180x35mm.pdf each other.

• Integration of socialised processes. Pooling a series of services (identity, business intelligence, collaboration capability, etc.) necessary for all processes whose updates come together in a single stream through which users interact with each other and with the services available in the company.

Supporting the transformation: a Centre of Excellence

Companies involved in processes of change through collaborative technologies and approaches have found the need to build a Centre of Excellence (CoE), a unit dedicated to the transformation process. The CoE’s tasks may vary according to the evolution of the transformation process and include: • Building and promoting a common framework of introduction of collaboration • Defining a roadmap of adoption and integration of the communities in company processes • Providing leadership on all the collaboration initiatives • Preparing policies and guidelines for employees • Developing training, educating and sensitising the organization • Sharing market research and best practices useful to community managers • Defining metrics and KPIs • Providing help in software selection and IT strategies • Guaranteeing the success of the communities within a consistent approach, although leaving individual teams the responsibility for their own projects Depending on the evolution of the transformation process, the role of the CoE can go from starting projects, to coordinating projects started by others, to enabling other units in a pervasive logic. In an organization with a mature transformation process, the competencies of the CoE are widespread and placed throughout the structure (see figure below, taken from Altimeter):

Organic

Centralized

Coordinated

Dandelion

Holistic

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Focus

Big (Social Data) Bang Towards data-intensive social business

One billion collisions per second

Deciding to suspend LEP activities and start up the LHC project was not a simple decision for the director of CERN to make. Deciding that the time had come to abandon a consolidated and, all things considered, productive particle accelerator like Large Electronic Positron to launch the new hadron collider (the Large Hadron Collider with one billion atomic collisions per second) has been a process that has long tormented him, torn between the fears concerning the outcome of the changeover to the new explorative tool and the awareness that, by continuing to use the old colliders, nothing new could have been discovered. At a distance, that courageous choice proved to be correct and wiped out the competition. The recent discovery, thanks in fact to LHC, of the Higgs boson (the long envisaged and sought after “God particle”) proved right those who had understood that, with the existing tools, it would not have been possible to “see the invisible”. Will companies and organizations have the same courage on the road to innovation and digital transformation with regard to their current business intelligence tools?

Social business intelligence: beyond the analysis of conversations

From the mid 20th century up until today, business intelligence has gone through a clear evolution: the main focus of intelligence systems has moved (although with difficulty) its attention from the automation and optimisation of business processes to cultivating business decision-making technologies. All of this is, ho60 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

wever, no longer sufficient. It is now about making a final transformative step to allow organizations to face up to the new challenges connected with the emergence of the social and connected enterprise. We are therefore talking about social business intelligence. But what exactly do we mean by this term? This label (but also expressions such as “social media analytics”, “business intelligence 2.0”, “social media intelligence”, “social BI”, “SBI”) identifies today, most commonly, monitoring and listening services and processes for conversations that consumers spontaneously share online. In brief, it is an analysis activity able to quantify and qualify contents, topics and sentiments of consumers relating to brands, products and services. These interactions and conversations normally occur on social networks, microblogging services, forums, communities, and blogs. If, however, we consider social business as a transformative paradigm that maximises the co-creation of value to the benefit of the networks in the ecosystem (employees, consumers, suppliers, partners, communities, institutions…) through the application of social and collaborative cultures, strategies, processes and technologies, the exclusive attention paid to measuring online conversations can be considered as limiting, to say the least. Monitoring consumers’ conversations can only be one of the analytical aspects to which social business attention must pay attention. As we will try to show in this article, social business intelligence in fact has a much broader strategic framework and spectrum of action than the analytical and business insight possibilities offered by the operations of social customer listening and analytics.

social business toolkit

Big (Social Data) Bang: the era of the data-intensive social business

When we talk about high data-intensive social business, we mean that there are in fact numerous aspects to assess in the context of social business (therefore not only the analysis of consumer opinions or sentiment) and each of these potentially and actually generates data, information and knowledge. Let’s try to list some of these aspects: we must certainly monitor the sentiment and empowerment of employees (social employees); assess the online health and efficiency of business partners; estimate the significance and impact of influencers and stakeholders; quantify the capability to create collaborative innovation inside the organization and ecosystem of reference; measure the success of idea management projects that involve communities of practice and professional families; verify the business significance of informal collaborative networks; measure the efficiency of knowledge and organizational sense-making in production, circulation and sharing. This is naturally without forgetting the monitoring of the competitive scenarios and social business readiness of competitors who can also be strengthened by the new social cultures and technologies. It is therefore clear, even only from this brief list, how the intensity, nature and purposes of intelligence in social business are much broader than just “customer listening”. From our perspective, we have experienced how it is necessary to draw on various methodologies and metrics in relation to social business intelligence objectives. This can occur by using, for example, organizational network analysis (ONA) to map the flows of communication and relation of informal organizational networks; by using the prediction market mechanism to make the most of the collective intelligence of groups and networks; by turning to netnographic analysis if it is necessary to extract qualitative insight on the attitudes and values of a brand community; by carrying out an analysis of social graphs (SNA) to visualise the dynamics of influence among consumers, fans and advocates in a social network; by using the platforms and metrics of community analytics to monitor the health of a community of technicians or sellers; by turning to metrics and KPIs that are suitable for assessing the success of an idea management and social innovation platform; by using the data from an enterprise social networking platform or from a social intranet in order to improve communications and interactions amongst employees; by using the

techniques of data visualization to highlight critical issues or emerging opportunities otherwise not visible; and finally, by building social enterprise dynamic dashboards to monitor the KPIs relating to the above aspects to which attention should be paid. It is therefore easy to understand how the hot topic of the socalled “Big Data”, overexposed in the media, cannot simply be exhausted by saying that the connected and social enterprise must and in the future will increasingly have to deal with growing and exponential quantities of data, at high speed of collection and analysis and originating from very different sources (both of a structured nature such as transaction data and of an unstructured nature such as conversations occurring within social media). For us, making the most of Big Data in the era of data-intensive social business means having cultures, methodologies and practices that are operational, analytical and interpretative, plus appropriate, multi-disciplinary and innovative as we have shown above, in order to produce, process and circulate intelligence and knowledge in a transformational business perspective (and not merely contemplative of the data) to the benefit of the players in the ecosystem. Using above all actionable metrics means being able to support and stimulate the social business transformation processes. All of this must be carried out taking into consideration the evolution trends characterising the scenarios and future strategies of social business decision-making. We will try to indicate some of the long-lasting evolutionary carriers (for those which are currently identifiable) of this new social business intelligence.

The progressive erosion of the border between analysis and operation

One of the emerging aspects of new social business intelligence is that the distinction between operational activities and analytical activities is gradually disappearing. The massive analysis of information relating to the social enterprise (as a collaborative, connected and living organization) that arrives in real time in the information systems (both automatically and voluntarily), will not be able to remain separate from the operational systems that are called to act based on the information and intelligence obtained from various consumers, employees, business partners, competitors and stakeholders. Traditional scenarios, which to a large extent still exist, instead see architectures and systems of business mining and intelligence as technically separated by the operational interface structures

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through which the enterprise perceives and interacts with the ecosystem of reference. If the contemporary organization is, increasingly, a connected company, an extended and situated organization (and “impermanent” as Weick would say), the mechanisms of social business remote sensing, of monitoring extended and distributed towards internal and external business partnerships and beneficiary networks, informal and incorporated as well as explicit and codified, will have to progressively and profoundly connect to the mechanisms and operational tools of actuating, becoming in perspective a single intelligent and responsive system. Sensing and actuating are the two faces of the same organizational method of the collaborative and social enterprise, which is adaptive and creative also through real-time analytics enabled by architecture operating on the fly. In the connected enterprise, information flows and is processed at the same time, serving as real-time input for organizational effectiveness. The analytics/action operations that support the Wallmart Social Genome are an example of this. Through the Social Genome, the company is able to map social graphs of its consumers and in real time suggest gift ideas to social network users for their respective friends by analysing preferences and tastes. Moreover, if the product was out of stock at the shop nearest the user at the time of the consumer’s interest, the company can refer the user to another shop that has the object. Intelligence and operations will tend to converge. All of this will require dealing with the subject of how to select the (actuating) decisions that can be automated and the other ones for which it is instead necessary to design platforms to support the individual or collaborative decision-making.

The market emergence of secondary agencies

Connected with the previous aspect, another central aspect of social business intelligence is (and will increasingly be) the exponential emergence of “secondary agencies” of an algorithmic nature as co-protagonist players of market interactions between consumers and brands, between partner networks and employees. By secondary agencies, we mean the active role (in the ecologies of the market and of contemporary business) of artificial intelligence. This includes: algorithms for personalisation of contents used, peer recommendation systems, social ranking or social scoring criteria, artificial agents to serve the user, algorithmic auction mechanisms through which ad-

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vertising is provided, networks of proximity sensors and devices able to locate and socialise consumer experiences, predictive scores based on the organizational or market connected intelligence, applications for face, voice and gesture recognition, and so on. It is therefore no longer sufficient to attract business intelligence attention to consumers, customers or “human” employees. It will instead be necessary to start looking at the more overall digital ecosystem made up of people and networks of people, but also of non-human agents both in the form of software code and automated and intelligent social applications, as much as in the emerging form of objects from our daily lives connected and socialised online (the “social internet of things”). Advanced social business intelligence will therefore have to have the ability to investigate and fully understand the role of these primary and secondary players and their relations and interactions. The user-centric (or consumer-centric) paradigm in this way continues to disappear by opening itself up to the intervention of new agents of the ecosystem, both of a reticular nature (the “consumer” is also the network of its social relationships, its social graph) and of an algorithmic nature (the “consumer” is also the network of its secondary agencies and of its relationship with them and of the relationships among them).

The “present-future” axis in business research

If we look at the evolution of market and marketing research, some clear emerging trends are increasingly appearing that will characterise the future of the business research industry. On the one hand we are witnessing a shift in paradigm from the use of discontinuous inquisitorial sample technologies to continuous observational census technologies (what we referred to in another text as “continuous learning”). Organizations and businesses will be increasingly able to count on data and information constantly produced, on entire populations and behaviours and updated in real time. On the other hand, we are observing the progressive direction of intelligence from research and analysis approaches centred on the “pastpresent” axis to cognitive and exploratory paradigms focused on the “present-future” axis (although with more limited boundaries, this is the field of predictive analytics). A progressive redirection is clearly emerging, from methods and tools describing the present to those with a focus on the aspects of anticipatory analysis predicting the future. The interest of market, marketing and business research is therefore being in-

social business toolkit

creasingly directed towards projection, predictability, and the envisioning of plausible, possible or probable futures. We are more and more interested in knowing what consumers, employees, business partners and competitors will do rather than what they have had chance to do. Another aspect with a growing trend is the interest in market and marketing research of a co-creation and participatory nature. Here, we notice a broadening of perspectives: the research axis is being moved from asking consumers (by conducting interviews) to observing consumers (by monitoring behaviours), to involving and co-creating consumers, employees and communities through various mechanisms (community panels, predictive markets, idea management and crowdstorming, game simulations). Consequently, even the connected professional figures will be changing shape: in these emerging scenarios, the figure of the researcher is progressively diminishing from being a director of research projects to assuming the form of a community manager (naturally with solid and up-to-date methodological competencies).

Three emerging forms of analytics: incorporated, environment, reticular

Another important factor for social business intelligence is the evolution of information and communication technology towards the ability to keep track of and make intelligence out of information that is more concrete, situated, widespread, socialised and informal. In fact, we are now moving from processing abstract information to being able to codify and process even information incorporated in social, organizational and collaborative experiences of a more informal, incorporated and sensory nature. In this perspective, we can identify three fields of data production that are experiencing exponential growth (and consequently of interest for the analysis of social business intelligence): self-analytics (incorporated), machine-tomachine analytics (environmental) and network analytics (reticular). a) Self or personal analytics (also quantified self analytics) uses devices in direct contact with bodies and activities to measure physiological states, health and wellness, sports activities (but not only) to share with their own social networks (participatory personal data). It is also, however, a cognitive opportunity for organizations, as Waber recently demonstrated in People Analytics (2013). Here he details, through real cases (change management in a banking call centre or in the management of illness for human resources), how data arising from research via sociometric badges (social sensing technologies) that employees wore

may lead to creating efficiency and optimising organizational dynamics and interactions, stimulating innovation and improving communication and informal exchanges. In this way, people analytics is able to visualise socialisation practices in the workplace, to activate behavioural changes and to improve organizational and business services and dynamics. It is necessary, however, also to look at these developments and practices with a sense of responsibility for the possible intrusiveness in people’s lives. In fact, we do not think that steps can be made in this direction of innovation unless they are made with just as much radicality in the direction of heavily strengthening the possibilities of privacy management by individuals (consumers, employees, etc). b) Machine-to-machine analytics (m2m analytics) instead originates from data generated by the increasingly frequent short-range communication between devices (e.g. NFC): think of the case of communications between a smartphone and a payment device, or objects and devices connected to the internet and social networks in which consumers or employees participate. The communications and interactions between devices and environments produce and will produce growing volumes of data, more and more so in the future. In this scenario, the Internet of Things definitely represents the most important example (objects of daily life that communicate with each other and with consumers and users via internet protocol), but it is also necessary to consider that the objects will be connected with more local and proximity networks (intranet of things and subnet of things). These connected objects, as recently underlined in “Social Machines” (Semmelhack, 2013), will give rise to a social internet of things in which, as has been written, “socialised machines are defined by the data they produce and consume within the networks to which they are connected”. In this scenario, machines and objects of daily use will enter as co-protagonist players on the social networks in which consumers, employees and business partners participate. This reflection leads us to the third point, the analysis of social networks. c) Network analytics gathers and analyses the data of social and online graphs of various kinds in order to map the sizes, characters and dynamics of communications and interactions (both formal and informal) among the nodes. For example, network analysis applied to data from telcos is potentially able to identify and reconstruct the graphs of a network of callers (sms/call graph) indentifying, through specific metrics, the level of centrality of a node (the number of its calls), the intensity and frequency of the calls, dynamics and interaction flows, and so on. If you look at them from a business insight and decision-making perspective, these measures allow organizations to assign the

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user a “gatekeeping” value and can allow organizations to decide whether to activate a specific campaign to minimise the impact of churn rates arising from the abandonment of the telephone company by a significant network node. However, network analysis may be carried out by analysing the data arising from the company use of enterprise social networks, i.e. collaborative platforms used within organizations. In a recent analysis of data collected through an enterprise social networking platform (tracing activities such as comments, posts, shared documents…), the researchers of Bell Laboratories mapped the intensity and the methods of real organizational relationships in relation to the formal hierarchical structures, identified the variables involved in increasing or limiting exchanges and interactions, and identified and connected the employee’s attributes to its organizational graph by mapping the communities and informal groups involved in the actual exchanges.

Information design and data visualisation as a means of transformation

to model known problems, but to inspire new forms of interaction and cross-functional collaborative conversation.

The dialectic narrative/database in connected enterprises

If a first significant carrier is, as we have clarified up to now, that of growing availability, collection, processing of data and the extraction of knowledge and insight, it is not the only factor that effective social business intelligence should be able to consider. Although the size of production and of the processing of the knowledge, which we can summarise with the metaphor of a database, is certainly crucial, the other aspect to be kept in mind is what we can define as and use the metaphor of narrative. This aspect refers to the production and sense-communication capability of the connected and social enterprise within its online ecosystems starting from the interpretation and sharing within the organization of the knowledge and information produced by social business intelligence. In particular, we refer to the capability to carry out data storytelling in order to be able to involve in the analysis, interpretation and decision-making business processes the C-suite, management board, and significant markets and players in the business ecosystem. Storytelling with/of data means using narrative techniques and approaches to draw attention to, stimulate and involve in the action the employees, business partners, communities of interest and stakeholders. Data, maps, visualisations and views must form input that the data scientists use in order to build, communicate and share narrative and sense patterns, at the same time avoiding fallacies and stimulating organizational and business transformations. “Social business intelligence”, therefore – as we have mentioned – does not consist in the single opportunity to generate data and graphics, but rather in its capacity to produce business transformations. We could sum it up as “Not chart, but change”.

An additional significant aspect of social business intelligence (and of the big connected social data) is certainly the use of data visualization techniques which allow the organization to make visible dynamic patterns and emerging patterns in the organizational and business ecosystem. Although the relationship between visualisation and cognition (seeing and understanding) is not free from critical issues, as the sociologist Bruno Latour points out, mapping the competencies of informal organizations, or the social graphs of a sales force or its consumers, or even visualising the business relations of a network of companies and communities of practice, all represent knowledge tools of considerable impact for a social business transformation. In this perspective, the potentials of the techniques of information design and data visualisation are not With fresh minds and eyes exhausted in the mere representation of data, but can be We will end this journey in the intelligence trends and effectively used as strategic assets and a means of innova- challenges that social business will have to tackle, with a tion inside and outside the organization. recent news story relating to the hadron collider we menAs a recent article in the Harvard Business Review pointed tioned at the beginning of this article. It was in the news out, the strength of data visualisation is not in its aesthetic this week that the LHC, after having discovered the Higgs value, but rather in its ability to stimulate the business and boson, will have a two-year break for maintenance. But the organization to rethink dynamics and organizational it will not completely stop operating. Running it, for the processes. A recent example is CASL (Consortium for Ad- next two years, will be two social scientists, two sociolovanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors) which used, gists, who asked the physicist colleagues of CERN to be during an internal workshop on innovation, simulations able to use the computing power of the collider in order to and visualisations to force the different structures of the conduct social research experiments. We will therefore see organization to rethink the dynamics and collaborative in- the first experiments in action concerning data-intensive teractions in operation. In this case, the data visualisation computational sociology. Might there not be disruptive ditechniques have no longer been used (as usually occurred) scoveries and innovations waiting for us on this front, too? 64 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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Bibliography Dinter B., Lorenz A. (2013), Social Business Intelligence: A Literature Review and Research Agenda. Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS, 2012). Waber B. (2013), People Analytics. How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work, FT Press. Moran R. (2013), The Futures of Marketing Research. In “Leading Edge Marketing Research: 21st Century Tools and Practices”. Semmelhack P. (2013), Social Machines . How to Develop Connected Products That Change Customers’ Lives, FT Press. Cao J., Gao H., Li L., Friedman B. (2013), Enterprise Social Network Analysis and Modeling: A Tale of Two Graphs. Bell Laboratories, Research Paper Latour B.(2011), Visualisation and Cognition: Thinking with Eyes and Hands. In Science and Technology Studies: Critical Concepts, edited by Professor Michael Lynch, Routledge (reprint).

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Interview The Enterprise 2.0 strategy of UniCredit Interview with Paolo Cederle CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions In the UniCredit Group since 2001 as Managing Director of i-Faber, leading company in e-Sourcing and e-Procurement services, in 2005 Paolo Cederle also became Head of the Group’s Global Sourcing Area. In December 2008 he took on the role of Head of Group ICT & Operations, with the task of ensuring a strategic and managerial coordination of ICT services, Operations, Workout, Insurance Services, Shared Service Center HR and F&A and Card Processing. He holds the offices of member of the board of directors of i-Faber S.p.A. and SIA-SSB, Ukrsotsbank Ukraine and ZEO Unicredit Bank Russia. He has been CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions (UBIS) since January 2012. Where did the idea of social collaboration within UniCredit come from? Social collaboration in UniCredit began in 2008, when the strong need to consolidate the company culture emerged following various mergers and acquisitions that led to the establishment of one of the largest European banking groups. In this context, the challenge was creating value by pooling the innovative capabilities of our people, capitalising on the knowledge and competencies of each of them to transform them into a competitive advantage. This is when OneNet was created, the UniCredit Group’s social platform of internal collaboration, which was adopted by UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions and is available to all employees of the company.

son. It immediately emerged however that OneNet, as an internal social network, offered enormous potential for supporting business activities. Each of our employees has the possibility to take part in building the service for the final customer. Although on the one hand, digital 2.0 collaboration tools offer people the possibility to contribute and feel like an active part of their future in the company, also increasing their visibility, on the other hand such tools allow the company vice versa to take advantage of the wealth of thought of its own human capital, and its ability to generate innovative ideas and value for the company. It should also not be disregarded that the network sets off a virtuous cycle of informal and spontaneous dynamics among colleagues based on the thirst for knowledge of the most proactive people, as well as on career aspirations or on simple interest. These relations are not immediately predictable, but in any case, this is an important asset that can be born and evolve in a privileged place in the internal social network. For me as CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, our internal social network represents a precious and effective opportunity to open a channel of direct and immediate dialogue with colleagues. This comparison is possible thanks to a user-friendly tool such as blogs. On my personal blog, I publish posts with reflections that spring from personal letters, visits to suppliers or partners, or relating to company missions and some strategic decisions.

Can you quote some cases where you were able to put these objectives into practice? Let’s start with the management’s concept of “proximity”. UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions operates in 11 countries and is distributed in nearly 40 cities. It is therefore natural that colleagues working in peripheral branches, perhaps in Central and Eastern Europe, may perceive a certain distance between their daily work and the strategic decisions made at headquarters. We therefore thought of an initiative that would allow to shorten the noticed distance from management, as well as gather feedback from all colleagues, and asked Top Management to put themselves What are the objectives of your on the front line in this regard. Enterprise 2.0 strategy? The presence of an internal social network certainly The format of the initiative, named “Ask the Manager”, facilitates knowledge sharing and allows management envisages a video interview in which I as CEO ask to make use of a tool able to direct change. OneNet the manager questions on its role, the challenges of has changed the paradigm of company interaction, in its business, its strategic vision. We added, however, many cases allowing us to abandon a top-down verti- a social action to this internal communication inical communication model and beginning a horizontal tiative, giving all colleagues the possibility to ask the method of peer-to-peer or even bottom-up compari- manager questions, who is available online for a cou66 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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How OneNet works in detail UniCredit’s internal social networking platform is divided into three virtual environments: MySite, the area where each user can present themselves, by adding information on their own professional background, uploading contents or updates, also by opening a personal blog. A second environment is the

Communities, which represent the main drivers of interaction within OneNet and are proper virtual sharing rooms among users joined together by a determined project, by belonging to the same organizational structure or by the same location. Communities can host blogs, discussion forums on determined

ple of hours of conversations in real time, and offline in the following days. We deliberately left colleagues the freedom to ask any question without placing any limits and without any filters. In less than a year we involved eight members of the Top Management in this initiative, who found themselves answering questions on “soft” topics such as leadership, motivation, involvement of resources, but also with regard to strategic decisions (also on “uncomfortable” topics linked to reorganizations) or technical aspects of the business. In addition to all the positive aspects already described, “Ask the Manager” has also contributed to consolidating our social collaboration strategy, affirming the potential of OneNet both among managers, who have experienced the effectiveness of a social tool for gathering feedback on their actions and decisions, and among colleagues, who found an ally in OneNet for communicating with management without filters and for making themselves more visible. What do you think is the future of Enterprise 2.0? What direction must we move in? In the debates on the future of Enterprise 2.0 one of the open subjects is certainly the method of measuring the success of initiatives, in terms of KPIs and metrics. In my opinion, investments in social technologies and in the related strategies cannot be measured in strictly economic terms. Naturally, from a strictly formal point of view they can be measured, but it is thinking of these new ways “of life” as if it was an addon to the “normal” method. However, in our private lives it is something that is increasingly embedded and this is how it should be in the life of the company. Success in terms of adoption is therefore strictly connected with the possibility of integrating social strategies in daily operational processes and in our teams’ mindset. In the future, social technologies will not be able to stay “confined” to a platform, however congenial and user-friendly they are, but will have to be included also in the applications for managing the processes. In our case, we have started by making a

topics, shared calendars, and obviously offer document archiving functions. The third interaction environment of OneNet is Workspace, e-collaboration tools with restricted access that have been enriched by social functions such as comments, ratings and tagging.

small step, integrating the social networking platform with the company intranet. In the future, however, we will need to ensure that social technologies are spread throughout all company decision-making processes, in particular for project management.

The development of collaboration in Vodafone Interview with Massimiliano Tiana Head of Resourcing, Learning and Development, Vodafone Massimiliano Tiana has been Head of the Training Community at Vodafone since April 2010. After 5 years spent at the Boston Consulting Group, he held positions in Fastweb and Autogrill, before landing in Vodafone in 2003, where he worked in Business and Consumer Sales as Regional Sales Director and Head of the Italy Channel. What is the position of Vodafone Italy on the topics of collaboration, social networking and more generally Social Enterprise? Collaboration and communication tools of the 2.0 variety are an important trend that we have been looking at with great attention for a while now. This is not only because for Vodafone – as an operator who provides the enabling platform for these processes – they form a significant business prospect. For us as Vodafone HR they are important tools that enable productivity and drive work processes and the teams operating on them towards more agile, faster and more visible interaction. Social networking in companies – fallen in operational processes – breaks the barriers and creates the transparent company that Vodafone wants to be for the customer and also for its collea-

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gues. Our Village in Milan, opened last year, is a plastic • Vodafone Youniversity is an exclusive web comrepresentation of this new work idea: workstations are munity that operates as a communication channel in an open space, little meeting rooms and spaces for between the company and students identified in telephone calls allow us to create teams and work sithe Universities that are Vodafone partners. With tuations dynamically, and videoconferencing technoYouniversity it is possible to obtain information, logies broaden the horizons of cooperative work. The share experiences and better know what is happenew building also houses the training centre, which ning inside Vodafone: from updates on events, on can be accessed from the outside without registering business, to the latest news and videos! It is also and is available to outside entities and parties who repossible to find out about the Vodafone Way (the quest it. The tools of collaboration 2.0 are combined in Vodafone values), meet other recent university grathe Vodafone experience with a very consistent layout duates and obtain information first hand for the of new offices. However, I also want to add that in our journey from candidate to employee! experience the collaboration tools are a means that affect not only efficiency but also effectiveness. I will What results have you obtained? also just say that many suggestions and indications for Our focus on collaboration is strongly linked to work improvements to our services arrive every day at our processes and effectiveness. We have built particular Vodafone-Lab (http://lab.vodafone.it/) open to Part- systems to assess the return on these initiatives; we liners and Customers. mit ourselves to seeing whether the work process has an advantage or not. We therefore look at: What experiences do you have in progress? • Alignment of information in real time In Vodafone, encouragement for social networking • Reduction of rework starts from the bottom-up. The work teams and pro- • Co-creation of contents fessionals request it or launch pilot initiatives, so much • Reduction of the complexity of informational flows. so that a recent recognition led us to discover a deci- A synthetic but fairly true indicator remains to be the dedly high number of 2.0 tools. The experiences cur- reduction of the number of e-mails; moving part of rently in progress inside the company include: these interactions to collaboration platforms contri• HUB is the 2.0 social intranet with Global and Lo- butes to reducing the noise and complexity in which cal contents, integrated with Circle and with Noi- we operate. In particular, by using a recently introdulab, the social network of people of Vodafone Italy, ced sharing platform (Basket) we recorded a reducmain channel of information, interaction and dia- tion of e-mails of around 70%. logue on business topics but not only, in which all colleagues are registered. What resistance and difficulties • Circle is the global platform through which we can have you encountered? interact with colleagues from all over the world. It The critical part for the success of these experiences is a tool that is contributing to building an integra- on the one hand lies in the culture of the technoloted company that goes beyond geographical bor- gies (we need to have a new approach to the digital ders, exchanging good practices and help. world, which surpasses the traditional vision of IT in • Basket is the platform where all information re- companies) and on the other hand in the governance lating to commercial products near to launch is of the new technologies. With regard to new digital shared in a structured way. The purpose of Basket culture, we are witnessing every day that it is not a is to guarantee comprehensiveness and timeliness problem concerning age but rather attitude: a colleain the distribution of information to all people in- gue in his/her fifties is often more digital than the new volved in the launch and to favour the consistency 25-year-old arrival… We have had a lot of experience of what will then be published on the various chan- and today we find ourselves in a situation in which nels of contact with customers. technologies have to integrate with each other, be scaAs regards the outside, web 2.0 logics are applied to: lable, and not duplicate functions or activities. As a • Vodafone-lab, the community of Customers and bottom-up phenomenon, we consider it important to Partners launched in 2008 and which has today leave the work teams space to configure the systems become a reference of the sector and a good inter- in the most useful way for them, but at the same time national practice. It is our channel of dialogue with we have to guarantee visibility and monitoring of the Customers and Partners. phenomenon. In order to spread a new digital culture 68 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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we have witnessed that a collection of Videomails is very useful, in which internal experts show colleagues how to use the new systems. Moreover, on the company culture and leadership mechanisms front, an important element to support these solutions is having added a specific level in performance evaluations concerning collaboration.

From digital analytics to social business intelligence Interview with John Lovett President, Digital Analytics Association John Lovett is Senior Partner at Web Analytics Demystified, Inc. and author of Social Media Metrics Secrets (Wiley, 2011). He was previously a Forrester Research Analyst and is now President of the Digital Analytics Association. John blogs about web analytics, sector trends, strategy, business culture and social analytics.

in achieving the objectives that the business has set for itself. Therefore, if I had to define “social business analytics”, I would say that it is the “measuring and analysis of the methods and processes of social business in its various aspects (marketing, sales, collaboration, and communication) in order to achieve specific objectives and business goals”. What dynamics of social business can benefit from the use of social business analytics and intelligence and in what way? For organizations that use social enterprise platforms such as Jive, Chatter, Yammer, etc., the use of these technologies becomes a central resource for information operations, idea sharing and collaboration. Using the old school metaphor of the water cooler, social enterprise platforms can help employees to stay informed on what is happening inside the organization. However, unlike the water cooler, the employees who log onto their company social networks can quickly identify what is of interest to them and what is important for their role in a useful way. Analytics connected with social business supports this process because it serves the methods and practices with which these social platforms are able, for example, to make popular articles visible, or to highlight important posts, comments and significant reactions for users. These analytical facilities available on the platforms not only allow organizations to save time, but they also increase productivity.

What could be a definition of social business analytics and intelligence? Before starting to define what the applied analytics of social business might be, it is first necessary to identify what social business is, and what its nature and con- How can we promote and facilitate the nected action opportunities are. The concept of social development of a suitable analytical culture for business is linked to an emerging phenomenon that the players in the ecosystem of a social business? has progressively developed through the widespread In my experiences with companies and organizations use of the digital medium. It is the perspective of using of all sizes, from the most extended to the micro-comtechnologies and platforms that allow the business to pany, I have understood that encouraging an analytic operate more quickly, more efficiently and more ef- culture in a company is a delicate process, as well as fectively. This operational business speed is not only different for each organization and, often, even diffeinside the company and the organization, but it also rent for the various groups within the same company. extends to external consultants, suppliers and partners. A culture characterised by analytics is not something The operations regard communication, collaboration, that can be imposed and instilled by force within the business processes, marketing and sales activities, as business processes. It must instead be integrated into well as various other aspects and daily business practi- the existing organizational cultures by linking it to ces. These social business operations should ultimately a shared and universally known method of measuguide decisions, resolve critical issues and improve ring the success of a process or an operation. Here, it the supply of goods and services. The analytics and is once more necessary for the organization to have intelligence connected with social business therefore clearly divided and largely shared the social business require having very clear business goals and purposes goal, starting from the assumption that each player in and involve the need to assign precise measures and the ecosystem (external and internal) is aware of and indicators in order to identify progress and advances responsible for the objectives in which it is involved.

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Only by identifying measures and indicators of success and, naturally, establishing adequate recognition and involvement in order to achieve the success, can social business firmly stick to winning analytics.

achieve progress and success, and they can achieve their goals more quickly. And, more importantly, the project collaborators will recognise their conquests when they achieve them and will have an incentive to repeat the success. In my mind, social business is the future of organizations, and companies that today embrace these cultures and strategies will surpass their competitors not only by differentiating themselves in tactical, analytical and strategic intelligence operations, but also by creating better and more productive workplaces.

Are there common mistakes that organizations encounter when they try to apply analytical, listening and monitoring strategies? If we take the example of social media listening, a common mistake by companies that I have had chance to verify is the methods they use to try to interact with consumers on social channels, trying to micro-manage the conversation. With this, I refer to the internal corporate and legal communication teams who try to The company point of view on the global create lists of pre-packaged answers to the requests relaunch of the Bauknecht brand made by consumers using social media. These answers Rediscovering the female target often fail because they do not answer the specific re- through social media quests that emerge and, even worse, sound like a lawyer has written them. Social business communication Interview with Cindy Groenke can be successful if it is genuine and genuine answers Brand Leader Bauknecht Europe to consumers’ requests obtain more positive reactions than hypothetical pre-packaged answers. The value of Cindy Groenke has been social media is interacting with other individuals to European Brand Leader for obtain information, in-depth analysis or answers that Bauknecht, Value Brands are provided more effectively by a person with a direct and Strategic Alliances and significant answer. For those organizations who EMEA since 2012. Previouare afraid of entrusting their own employees to prosly at Whirlpool, she has vide a direct answer to consumers, there is a solution. worked in different naFor whoever starts, establish corporate media guidelitional and regional roles nes that clearly define what is allowed and what is not of Brand Marketing in the allowed on social media. These guidelines should be cosmetic sector, in companies such as Beiersdorf and accompanied by training for the employees who are L’Oréal in various European countries. She received a authorised to communicate with external parties via BA in International Business Studies and Management social media. Doing this instils faith in employees and in the Netherlands and a BScM (Hons)-ESC in Science sets clear boundaries for conduct. of Management in France. Where does the success of a social business What drove you to launch this new course of intelligence project come from? communication at Bauknecht? Social business is successful because it gives emplo- We had noticed in various research with the end conyees the chance to interact with other individuals in sumer that communication from Bauknecht was not the ecosystem in new and innovative ways. This suc- effectively reaching the target group that we call “life cess appeals to businesses that see social media not as balancer” (women aged 30-45 who lead an active life). technological solutions to a business problem, but as a Bauknecht buyers were ‘growing older’ and we had capability that has analytical and intelligence abilities a high brand awareness only with women aged 50 to transform the way individuals work. This capability and over, whereas in our core target and also among enables employees to collaborate altogether, to express younger female consumers (aged 20-35) Bauknecht ideas using visualisation strategies and to make the had a very low brand awareness. Furthermore, if these most of the collective intelligence instead of the intel- female consumers knew the brand, the preference ofligence of few. Projects using socialised capabilities as ten went to competitive brands. In relation to this, the a method to improve business intelligence operations KPIs relating to brand equity (awareness, opinion, preoverall are also able to apply the tools of analytics to ferences, etc.) over the course of recent years had fallen. 70 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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Qual era il panorama della concorrenza? of the overall campaign, the KPIs of the Bauknecht Studiando il posizionamento dei competitor – soprat- brand, especially in the core target and in the younger tutto marche tedesche di elettrodomestici MDA (Ma- target, and will enable the brand to grow once more. jor Domestic Appliances) come Siemens, Bosch, AEG – rispetto al posizionamento di Bauknecht, abbiamo How did OpenKnowledge support notato che la comunicazione di questi brand è molto you in this relaunch? simile: uso generale di ambienti luminosi ma spesso After defining the creative idea of introducing an atasettici, linguaggio molto tecnico. Per Bauknecht vo- tractive young man, we asked ourselves what role the levamo creare un approccio di comunicazione che si character should play in the communication, whether differenziasse dalla concorrenza e riuscisse a valoriz- he should represent the product or the brand. As this zare la marca nel suo insieme; facendo leva sul nostro was crucial and a strategic decision had to be made, heritage tedesco ma anche sul bellissimo design dei we asked OpenKnowledge to assist us in this. Their nostri prodotti, che avevamo già ma non era noto al strategic advice and very detailed work were of great consumatore in quanto non messo adeguatamente in value in supporting our additional strategic work: they risalto nella comunicazione. helped us position Mr. Bauknecht as representative of the Bauknecht brand in a way that was then applied to What course of action did you take? all of the brand’s communication materials. We rejuvenated the brand and developed the idea of a character that could represent Bauknecht, as this Would you like to add anything else? communicative approach had not been used in the I would like to take this opportunity also to thank our sector of MDA household appliances and would help agencies, Pepperzak AG, the main Bauknecht comus to stand out from the competition, and be stron- munication agency, and Pixelpark AG, the main Baugly recognisable. This Bauknecht representative is an knecht agency in digital marketing and social media, attractive man, to the liking of the female audience, for the great work carried out and for the passion they which helps to guide the consumer in our wide range put into relaunching the brand and in this amazing of products and explains them with user-friendly lan- communication campaign! guage. Whilst he guides the consumer and explains the products, the Bauknecht representative focuses on their main benefits. The Gamification guru’s What media strategy did you choose and what weight did you assign to social media? The relaunch of the brand was developed very rapidly in a 10-month timeframe in all the countries that sell Bauknecht worldwide, at first through a new photo shoot of the most premium products. Following this, the relaunch was implemented with a new brand catalogue, websites for the consumer and the trade, and social media (Facebook). An innovative communication campaign has been on air in Germany since May 2013, with very eye-catching advertising banners, and online promotions for the trade in the washing sector. For the first time, Bauknecht is heavily focusing on social media to allow the consumer to experience the brand more intensely and interact with Mr. Bauknecht. The online campaign was started and implemented by Elena Sakakoucheva, Digital Leader Bauknecht Europe; it is an innovative campaign and very different from any other advertisement in the field of MDA household appliances. We are convinced that the activity on social media will push up, as an important part

point of view

Interview with Ray Wang Leader of thought focused on company strategy and disruptive technologies, R “Ray” Wang has assisted organizations and spoken to audiences all over the world. He is the author of the popular software enterprise blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View”, with millions of page views each year. What is your personal definition of Gamification? Gamification describes a series of design principles, processes and systems used to influence, engage and motivate individuals, groups and communities to drive behaviours and desired effects. Originating

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from the video game industry, many of these pioneecentives such as immediate recognition to generate ring concepts now play a crucial role in driving incenengagement. Scarcity in rewards. tive and behaviour management of organizations for • Sloth (user experience optimisation): refers to both brands in their relationships with consumers and indifference. Keep designing the system to be exinternal scenarios in the workplace. tremely convenient for the user. Privacy falls aside Enterprise gamification is both a User Experience when convenience comes into play. (UX) and the “consumerisation” of IT (CoIT), a trend • Wrath (immediacy demand generation): calls out that will take the market by storm over the next few anger, impatience, desire and rage. Designed on the years. We are convinced that by 2013, more than 50 desire for immediacy and on instant rewards for percent of all social business initiatives will include a rapidity of action. Gamification component. • Envy: fuels a need to desire what others have. Highlights the success of others. We need to improve What is – in your opinion – the connection and re– in this regard – the system of transparency and lationship between enterprise gamification and assignment of rewards. social business? • Pride (sense of self and ego): refers to vanity and Gamification addresses one of the key factors of social narcissism. We need to foster healthy competition. business – engagement. The more users become deIncentivize behaviours to do more and do better. sensitised by social media dynamics, the more organiThe setting of goals drives users to set higher exzations will need new strategies and new mechanisms pectations. to influence behaviours and maximise results. Gamification is much more than the next big thing. Gamification has been with us from the dawn of time. Do you believe – as Jane McGonigal maintains Now we have the tools to put it in practice in a more – that we really need to focus on Gameful Design, meaningful and personal way. more connected to emotions and sentiments than to badges and rewards? And what is your opinion Do you think that Gamification could also be used on the future of Gamification? in order to improve learning processes and bring Jane does a great job conveying the passion of gameful more significant results inside the whole organidesign, which is key to driving engagement. At the En- zation? terprise Gamification level, we have to go even deeper Absolutely! Gamification works for both the internal to understand behavioural dynamics. Currently, and I and external. am convinced of this, we are committing seven deadly sins in using our Gamification approaches. In order to maximise the return on investment (ROI) and lead A new digital to results, Enterprise Gamification requires the appli- workplace for BPER cation of concepts of psychology and economics. Because Gamification inside organizations appeals to the Interview with Matteo most natural human behaviour, it could be useful to Verri follow Constellation’s guide and best practices based Head of Training and on the “Seven Deadly Sins” for game design. SpecifiInternal Communically: cations at Banca Po• Lust (interest generation): describes the lack p o l a re d e l l’ E m i l i a of self-control and attraction. Engages the user Romagna. through intrigue. Finds what attracts the user through incentives. Grabs their immediate attenThe BPER Group recention and engages them on a low level. tly began an important Intranet redesign project. • Gluttony (accumulation mechanics): refers to ex- What prompted you to do this? cess, over-consumption, and over-indulgence in The 2012-2014 industrial plan of Banca Popolare the content. Focuses on the desire to accumulate, dell’Emilia Romagna contains an ambitious straacquire and contribute. tegic design that is changing the nature and face of • Greed (scarcity mechanics): refers to the desire for our bank. We want to go from a set of banks with a power, status and wellness. Uses non-monetary in- federated approach to a proper banking group (the 72 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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sixth largest in Italy) in which the identity and way of serving clients are unique and distinctive. In this process, the top management has identified in the new Intranet the tool supporting the change, the number one project for change management of BPER. This commitment is an incentive and at the same time a challenge for the work group that I coordinate. What approach do you have to the Intranet? The Intranet must respond to a strong need of the organization and of the people in this historical moment in our institution. On the one hand, in the Intranet we see a tool of efficiency, which allows our resources to rapidly find the information and the applications they need for the work processes they are involved in. On the other hand, we are building a tool for the governance and direction of the change in progress. It will be possible to build the Group’s new identity through the Intranet. These two incentives make us see the Intranet no longer as a means of communication and dissemination but as BPER’s new Digital Workplace, the place where all 12,000 BPER resources will find their bank and own workstation.

YouTube, etc., each of us has witnessed a different use of the digital world, focused on the connection and exchange among peers. This experience also increases in our bank the level of expectation of smarter tools of communication and collaboration. We are deciding how much space to give to this aspect and how to drop it into our daily lives, in order to direct it towards company objectives. In the BPER Digital Workplace, collaboration will in any case have a significant role.

The Whirlpool EMEA Digital School Interview with Roberta Vanetti Manager Interactive Communication, Education & Social Media, Whirlpool EMEA Roberta Vanetti has held international positions in Whirlpool EMEA in marketing, market research, communication and event organization. She then moved to human resources with a global Knowledge Management project, then became Learning & Development Manager and finally Manager Interactive Communication, Education & Social Media.

How are you proceeding and how far along is the project? We are completing the Concept phase. We have chosen to start work on the new Intranet with a phase of mapping the experiences in progress and listening to people’s needs. Before starting to plan contents and services in detail, we are better defining our objecti- What is the Digital School, where did it come from ves, expectations to which we must respond, the road- and how does it fit in the company’s Social Media map and the resources we will need. We have created policy? a cross-functional team – under the management of The Digital School is a proper school of training in Internal Communications – that unites colleagues of social networks and web marketing. The school was the Organization, Sales and IT departments. We are opened in May 2012 with a two-day seminar for forty making the most of the experiences of the individual managers coming from all over Europe. The school Intranets that have existed up until now and we have developed by expanding to the whole Whirlpool listened, with a survey, to all 12,000 colleagues spread EMEA organization and now makes use of online across the nine banks of the Group, and directly met tools, in addition to the ongoing collaboration with around 150 people in in-depth analysis workshops. I international teachers. The Whirlpool Digital School would define it as a user-centred approach. is the first pillar of the company’s digital strategy and was born out of the need to standardise, by increasing, How social will this new Intranet be? the competencies of whoever is required to interact We are noticing a large request to have more advanced online on a daily basis with trade partners, consumers tools of collaboration and exchange among collea- and various players in the brand and corporate comgues. The experience of social media that each of us munication world. A Whirlpool study conducted on has on a personal level is also showing in BPER a new four European markets shows the growing inclination way of using technology. Historically, technology has of the consumer to make use of the web to decide been used in a bank for the automation of processes; which washing machine or refrigerator to buy. Online in our own personal experience of Facebook, Twitter, sales are also growing. Consumers are moving onto

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the web, and the level of mutual involvement and influencing has never been so high. Whirlpool’s ambition is to establish a digital leadership on a global level.

each group, the teaching work will be aimed at creating practical and real proposals within the framework of digital transformation. The results will then be presented in plenary session and discussed collectively. The company will implement the most interesting results. This exercise is very important for the continuation of the project as it adds in the training those real business elements that allow for the competencies acquired in the classroom to be transferred to actual work situations. Subsequently, at the end of the course, the participants will be asked once again to assess their own competencies. The results will then be compared with the initial assessment in order to quantify the progress made.

What technical and cultural difficulties have you encountered in creating the Digital School? What are the solutions? The initial challenge was correctly assessing the actual competencies of participants. It concerned identifying a criterion of common measurement in order to offer a significant growth process for knowledge and allow the achievement of training goals. This pioneering phase allowed us to create subsequently a structured tool to define the knowledge set pertaining to each position and role in a digital context. Cultural aspects, such as different languages, did not cause significant obstacles, nor did varied origins or Social Media and the creation nationalities, which instead enriched the debate. The of an integrated strategy school is distinctly practical: the subjects are tackled for Amplifon through concrete cases, i.e. working in groups on the creation of a project that is then the subject of analysis Interview with Davide De by all the participants (e.g., the increase in “traffic” in Carolis a specific shop aimed at selling a particular product). Corporate Marketing Finally, the work groups report the results obtained to Manager, Amplifon the social media agency played by the course teachers. The collaboration and support of OpenKnowledge Davide De Carolis joined played an important role, as its highly qualified adthe Amplifon Group in 2012. vice responded well to the needs of the project in both He currently holds the role the initial and advanced phase. In general, the most of Corporate Marketing Manager and is in charge of the frequent obstacles were those linked to the generic Brand & Digital Strategy area. Before Amplifon he worked aspects of change management and not particularly at Unilever and at the Ferrero Group. With a degree in Ecorelated to the specific topic of social media. Bodies nomics and Commerce, he gained a Masters in General such as the digital council and the digital forum, esta- Management at the Università Cattolica (Catholic Univerblished by the company with the task of supervising sity of Milan). and aligning social matters in Whirlpool EMEA, have been useful for overcoming this obstacle. They are Where did the need to develop a Social Media Stramade up of representatives of all the company fun- tegy come from? ctions and have allowed the widespread and effective Amplifon is a multinational group present in 20 dissemination of messages, carrying out the useful job countries, with a unique and innovative business of motivation and overcoming of fears and resistances. model that focuses on the client and its needs. We are global leaders in the marketing of hearing solutions What are the next steps? What results do you ex- with a 9% share of the world market, a network of over pect? 3200 shops, 2400 assistance centres and over 10,000 In the second phase of the project, the attention will professionals for a total turnover of Euro 846.6 million move from competencies to the specific interests of in 2012. the participants. Using a specific OpenKnowledge tool, In Amplifon we have a clear objective: give back the we intend to carry out a graphic mapping of the areas joy of living and full activity to people with hearing of personal and professional interest of each person. problems, guaranteeing them complete satisfaction The goal is to form four homogeneous clusters direc- starting with careful understanding of individual neted towards the following topics: digital marketing, so- eds. We are convinced that hearing communication cial media, technical issues and e-commerce. Within is the cornerstone of human relationships: being able 74 ATTACHED TO Harvard Business Review

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to hear the sounds that accompany life and “hearing” others’ feelings is a fundamental element of the social aspect of human beings. It is these considerations, deeply rooted in the company mission, that give rise to our tendency towards social media, as digital tools of contemporary socialisation. More in detail, the need to develop a Social Media Strategy was born out of the need to integrate this change in social paradigm in our Group and Marketing Strategies, with the clear objective of supporting growth and bringing our brands even closer to consumers. How have you approached the development of a Social Media Strategy? We started from an initial phase of listening to the conversations on social media relating to our brands and to specific themes of our business. This was a crucial phase that allowed us to tune in to the dynamics of social media and to gain insights that proved to be very important. For example, we were able to define the profiles of the people who talk about these topics, better clarifying the platforms on which the conversations take place, and what needs drive people to discuss these topics. The listening phase also allowed us to identify development guidelines for a Social Media Strategy, which was immediately devised to be integrated into our business and marketing strategies. Moving onto the more operational phase, we decided to define the contents of the strategy with a collaborative approach that is directly involving the “Social Champions” belonging to all the countries of the Group. The choice to adopt a shared approach reflects the same nature of social media and has the objective of making more fluid the internal boundaries among the various company roles as well as those between the company and consumers. For this reason, we immediately rejected the idea to adopt a top-down approach, as it risks being obsolete and does not guarantee exploiting the internal knowledge necessary to be able to feed conversations inside and outside the company.

encouraging its application and exportation as best practices. Furthermore, the mapping phase has given us the possibility to better outline the strategy development guidelines, at the same time making more solid and robust the process of defining the vision and objectives, better clarifying the details on the project’s overall deliverables. What are the main lessons gathered up to now and how do you intend to continue? Our experience up to now has been positive. We are currently approaching the creation phase regarding the Social Media Toolkits, i.e., the mix of social business governance, policies and operational indications for the management of social activities. Social Media Toolkits, which are created to be used immediately by teams in charge of marketing and communication activities belonging to various countries, contain indications on strategic objectives and on performance measurement metrics. A special section is dedicated to the in-depth analysis of the basic requirements from the technological point of view, with particular attention on the integration of social activities with our IT and CRM platforms. Based on this experience we are therefore working to finalise and extend the use of Social Media Toolkits to the whole Group and, through pilot projects, guiding integration with respect to the other marketing activities by monitoring the ability to generate a return on the investment.

What are the critical phases that you are facing? We gave the project the official go-ahead with a phase of mapping the current social experiences developed within the various areas of the Group. This phase, together with listening to conversations online, has allowed us to identify a knowledge and experience capital that has not been fully exploited and that we have started to share internally, with the intention of

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OpenKnowledge

With headquarters in Milan and operational branches in London, Shanghai and Sydney, OpenKnowledge is a management consulting company focused on social business transformation. Pioneer and leader on social business themes, since 2008 OpenKnowledge has supported companies in their organizational and technological transformation with a collaborative, emerging and social perspective. Our aim: to maximise the co-created value of employee, customer, and partner networks through the adoption of collaborative paradigms inside and outside the organization. Today we cover the whole range of Social Business projects with five practice areas: Social Business transformation strategy & consultancy: we design and implement strategies and roadmaps to guide the social business transformation of organizations and businesses. We work on several dimensions: envisioning, training, coaching by taking care and supporting change management processes. Employee Empowerment: we improve internal processes through collaborative paradigms. We improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency through projects of Intranet 2.0, Social learning, Community management, Corporate social networking. Customer Engagement: we speed up the relationships between the enterprise and the outside world and make them more in line with the current challenges. We build competitive advantages, based on a better dialogue with partners and customers, through projects of Social media strategy, brand community, Social CRM 2.0. Social Technologies: we increase the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abilities to generate and capitalize on innovation with projects of Idea innovation management, Knowledge creation management, Prediction market. Social dynamic dashboards: with the design of dashboards and visual maps, and by identifying the most relevant KPIs, we support the capacity to implement learning and intelligence, both inside and outside the organization. Data visualization and data storytelling help perform and re-design business models and processes. What makes us different is a systemic approach to social business, the contamination of competences, the plurality of personal developments and standpoints, the desire to connect and be connected, the passion for change and innovation. And, even more than that, a focus on the needs of human beings, absent which no project centred on people can be successful.

Editors of this booklet: Rosario Sica: OpenKnowledge Founder and Chairman. Emanuele Scotti: OpenKnowledge Founder and CEO. Laurence Lock Lee: Partner at OpenKnowledge Australia. Hilary Armstrong: Director of Education at IECL Sidney, Australia. In this booklet she collaborated, as external contributor, to the piece on Connected Intelligence. Joseph Sassoon: Partner at OpenKnowledge. Cosimo Accoto: Partner at OpenKnowledge. Andreina Mandelli: Professor of digital marketing and communication at Bocconi University. In this booklet she collaborated, as external contributor, to the piece Big (Social Data) Bang. Stefano Besana: Senior consultant at OpenKnowledge. Many thanks also go to OpenKnowledgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team, which provided precious help to the preparation of this issue. Art Director: Valter Minelli.

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