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Interesting points learned and interesting questions generated from the social business by design in chapter eight, nine and ten.
The reflection of chapter eight, nine and ten of the managerial book, social business by design (Hinchcliffe, & Kim, 2012) implores the need for a well drafted and versed summary of the three chapters. Chapter eight shades light on crowdsourcing and engaging a company’s customer base for reliable information about their business and how to tune their practices to their customer’s interests through the internet, especially the social media. On the other hand, chapter nine depicts social customer care and social customer relations that a business firm can adopt to look into its customers’ desires and act in time. Lastly, chapter ten demonstrates how business partners relate to each other in the competitive business world and rising social trends, both in the firm and outside the firm
Interesting points
In chapter eight (93), the authors depict the first point that “the notion of the Internet as the leading medium for self-expression is no longer novel”. The Internet has thus become a hub for social media, where businesses can tap into a vast data about their customers. The Internet, in this case, the social media has provided a quick and cheap means of organizations to gauge impeding business dynamics, competition and adaptive means to prosper. This point is interesting as the once booming means of self-expressing has drastically converted into a hub that the company can access its customer’s feelings about certain products and the change is made immediately to rectify problems that are not appealing. Through the internet, the cost of such events like customer survey is minimized. Many customers are willing to express their views to their esteemed products, and the organization can gauge useful patterns for the latter. “The advantages of crowdsourcing are clear: extremely low-cost access to enthusiasts and experts on a given subject matter or task, the broader input of new ideas faster design of business solutions and a quicker response to business needs (Hinchcliffe, D & Kim).
Hinchcliffe, & Kim, (2012, p.95), portrays another interesting point by Forester Research that most companies today depend on social media for their product design, and approximates that about 61% of the USA adults are deeply involved in social media platform. This point invokes positive appeals since the modern word has been revolutionized by social media. Either, the larger number of people who are connected to the social media is a sure platform for making meaningful promotion abuts a product. For example, a company is able to reach millions of target customer base by just expressing their product awareness on the social media. The authors show how effective crowdsourcing can be even when the company doesn’t know about this strategy. There is a relatively large number of a willing source of information to accompany for accomplishing a successful product design and integration. This point is interesting as it reveals the low-cost strategy adoptable by any firm willing to make it in the dynamic and competitive online business environment. This point also coincides with “old ways of engaging in customer relations is no longer effective” in chapter nine, page 100
Lastly, “for many companies, the partner business landscape is a competitive environment fought with shifting relationship dynamics, oversight requirements and intensive ongoing support and maintenance” is indeed a point that captivates my interest. The organizational environment is faced with internal competitions between business partners who are out to serve the best interests of the company. This completion brings out ethical faults as each partner tries their best for their departments to win. Engagement with other partners is vital to ensure the success of social business. Many partner management systems reduce competition relationships into us vs. them (Hinchcliffe, & Kim, p.10
Interesting questions
In chapter 9 (105), The authors elucidate that “the social CRM will be the primary way that traditional organizations will transform customer relations in the social business era”. This point, arises the question that, “how will the CRM will overcome its largest barrier?”.The barrier is what mindset the CRM can accomplish in the view to the social relationships with the customers. The CRM may not be the only diverse primary way a company can take care of its customers, and the chances of the strategy capturing all customer views are not reputable. However, the crowd has its way of generating thoughts and feelings about how things get done. (Hinchcliffe, D, &Kim)
Secondly, in chapter eight (95), the writers raise a concern whether crowdsourcing meaningfully works in the social world be a repeatable, reliable way to run a business. In this accord, the aspect begs the question of “which social strategy should be altered in the organization’s general operations to cope with the fierce world market competition?” Crowdsourcing has proven to be one of the cheapest means of obtaining data about products and customer preferences during the past years of its existence. Given the percentage of the population willing to co-create with the business, it is sure to conclude that the question of the success of crowdsourcing can best be answered through practice.
Lastly, in chapter ten (114), the fact that a good portion of social business involves general purpose conversations and collaboration that isn’t tied directly to a particular business process, and the question is, “how would be the conversation business matters and products be created.” The integration of social business can be quite challenging and out to shift the casual conversations into more engaging business conversations.
References
Hinchcliffe, D., & Kim, P. (2012). Social business by design: Transformative social media strategies for the connected company. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint.
