Defining Social Business
Preparing for the O’Reilly panel today organized and moderated by Josh Ross on the topic of social business.
A social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web, including social media, social networks, and a long list of other advances.
The first question, aside from background of the panelists, will be “Please define social business.”
My short answer is ‘Social Business’ denotes businesses organized around social networks and the use of social technologies to support them.
A social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web.
But it really is larger than that.
A social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web, including social media, social networks, and a long list of other advances.
The context for business has changed dramatically in recent years — a shifting global economic climate, accelerating need for sustainable operations, and a political and societal demand for increased openness and transparency in business. Add to that the implacable impact of the social web, which is changing the way people interact and perceive the world and their place in it, and which has already drastically changed media and society.
The combination of these forces is already changing business operations. Once businesses have intentionally reconsidered their core premises — how to innovate and prosper — in light of the real-time social web and the new context for business, we can expect a profound reformulation of business operations, technologies, and culture.
Einstein stated, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” I maintain that a new sort of business is needed to fix the mess that 20th century business has created.
Metaphorically, a social business will seem more like a village than an army, and where a lot of 20th management approaches will be obsolete. We can expect these features based on conscious sociality:
- ubiquitous use of social tools, and social networks,
- greater levels of personal autonomy,
- self-organization of groups and projects,
- very porous boundaries with the world,
- high reliance on non-financial motivation, or personal meaning and purpose,
- internal marketplaces for ideas and talent,
- and senior management operating more like Hollywood producers or investors than autocrats.
As Gibson said, ‘The future is already here; it’s just unevenly distributed.’
Over the next ten years, we will see companies in a staggeringly wide distribution of these and other related characteristics. Some will seem like companies straight out of The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, while others will have moved so far along these lines that they almost don’t seem to be ‘businesses’ in the conventional sense. Social businesses may seem more like communities, movements, or religions than what we think of as businesses, currently.
