August 12, 2011
Most tech companies who target the small business market know very little about small business, at least in the micro sense. Sure, they’re small businesses themselves when they start out, but they’re tech companies, and that changes the game for them immediately. Your average tech startup is not standing behind a counter waiting for a […]
Read the full article →
August 7, 2011
Michael Brito has an excellent presentation based on this book Smart Business, Social Business, in which he points out how difficult it is for organizations to become social, and what that effort will mean in terms of organizational change.
Since 1995, Brito says, the internet has empowered customers. But now, only fifteen years later, are businesses truly trying to reach out and engage. And it’s hard, for a large organization to turn the ship around, says Brito.
That may be true for large, old organizations. Here the advantage is definitely on the side of the small, the new, the nimble. Larger organizations must break down silos, invent new processes, and protect against wayward employees who are not close enough to the organization’s vision to embody it. In many organizations, the only customer that’s heard from is the disgruntled customer.
Small organizations don’t have that problem. They can be social businesses from the start. They can literally get in the car and seek out the customer. They can connect and get to know him.
Read the full article →
