Home Social Business Culture Change Is The Barrier To Social Business Adoption
Culture Change Is The Barrier To Social Business Adoption
April 1, 2012 17 Comments

Culture Change Is The Barrier To Social Business Adoption

I agree with this statement – Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch. Not sure who coined the term but I first heard it from Sandy Carter, VP of Social Business from IBM last year.

While I agree that culture change is more important than a business strategy, I also believe that culture change must be a business strategy.

In my view, it needs to be the driving force for any and all business strategies, specifically for social business initiatives. They cannot be separate. Process and governance are certainly important. Technology is imperative and will help facilitate collaboration; but it’s behavior change that is the foundation for adoption.

In the following study, “The Economics of A Fully Engaged Enterprise” (their definition is close to that of a social business) by PulsePoint Group, 32% of senior executives report that an unclear strategy for change is a roadblock for social business adoption:

I would also argue that most of the other reasons suggested above all revolve around the cultural norms, behaviors and values that live behind the firewall. When something needs fixed, changed or persuaded, many times it helps to start at the foundation of the business – organizational behavior (culture).

Here are some additional highlights from the study:

  • The average return on social engagement was calculated to be between 3-5%. The most engaged businesses are reporting a calculated 7.7% business impact specifically from social engagement, which is four times the performance of the lowest performers who only achieved a 1.9% estimated return.
  • The top two areas where executives thought social engagement had real value were  improved marketing and sales effectiveness (84%) and increased sales and market share (81%
  • Executive advocacy is critical, now and in the future. Two-thirds of the organizations  achieving the highest returns reported that their C-suites are active advocates– that is, they commit to social engagement as a strategy and they reallocate resources to make it happen.
  • Executives defined social engagement today as online listening (28%), blogging (24%) and building relationships with online influencers (21%).  But the top performers have a different view – they will be more focused on ideas and action in the next two years. Big-return companies crowdsource new products (57%), or let customers participate in developing ideas — they are predicting a significant portion of new products will be derived from social engagement insights.

Image: Big Stock Photo – Overcoming Barriers

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About Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Senior Vice President of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital. He helps his clients transform their organizations to be more open, collaborative and socially proficient; with the end result of creating shared value with employees, partners and customers. Prior to Edelman, Michael worked for Intel and Hewlett Packard in various social media marketing roles. Opinions posted here are his own.

Feel free to follow him on Twitter, subscribe to this blog or read some more of his content on Social Business News.

  • http://twitter.com/tedcoine Ted Coine

    Michael, great post – great blog over-all, as a matter of fact! 

    I’m not sure who coined that phrase, either, but I do have a take on why it resonates with so many of us: http://switchandshift.com/this-trumps-strategy-you-need-more-of-this.

    Your point about crowdsourcing is spot-on. Companies can no longer afford to think of their organization as distinct from the environment in which it dwells. Good ideas are everywhere, not just on the payroll. The firms that fastest learn to harness social/collaboration technology to harness these good ideas: it is they who will win!

  • http://www.britopian.com Michael Brito

    Ted,

    Thanks for the kind words! I will check out that link shortly.

    I agree with you 100%. Sometimes the best ideas come from people outside of the firewall — just like the Starbucks Splash Stick.

  • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

    Man, I just run into you everywhere :D I must be doing something right! 

  • http://www.margieclayman.com Marjorie Clayman

    I’m a little twitchy at the last point. Who are online influencers? How are we defining that? Does this mean these folks are going after people who are big in the social media world? Does it mean they’re looking at Klout or PeerIndex scores? Really, if you are after engagement to grow your business, “influence” only matters in so far as the person might be influenced or influence others to buy from you.

    I’ve gotten into many a tangled argument as people say that you never know who knows who in the online world, so engaging with everyone is great. But to say part of your objective is to reach “online influencers,” I dunno. What did you think of that?

  • http://www.britopian.com Michael Brito

    Marjorie,

    I kind of have a distorted view of influencers. One one hand, we are all influencers, meaning we are influencing our micro-communities’ purchase decisions (and non purchase decisions) everyday via organic conversations.
    On the other hand, in the really broad scheme of things, none of us are true influencers; meaning our impact isn’t such a big deal.
    M

  • http://twitter.com/tedcoine Ted Coine

    Margie, I have no idea what your clout score is (I refuse to misspell that word), but you are one of the most influential friends I have – and that’s no exaggeration. There is a solid core of us who routinely take your opinions to heart. How many people do you “influence?” Who knows?! But are you an EF Hutton to those who know you? Absolutely!

  • peter zmijewski

    nice blogging here…really informative.

  • http://www.britopian.com Michael Brito

    Thanks Peter

  • http://twitter.com/amedicalbilling Elvira

    Great post, love your content you really make sure that you have relevant post and the graphic presentation are very good! keep it up!

  • http://www.britopian.com Michael Brito

    Thank you Elvira! Appreciate the kind words!

  • David

    Joey, I would argue that yes you may have a hiring problem, but possibly and most likely you have a leadership problem. Apologies, when I see the word guidelines I want to scream. I have written them, I have trained them and do you know what? they are not worth the effort. Why? cos guidelines are a management crutch. Of course you should have a framework and some basic rules of engagement, but these should not be the focus. Vision, purpose, meaning give direction. This is the domain of good leadership. If management cannot step up the mark and lead, NO amount of guidelines can fill the gap.

  • Sam Beal

    replacing staff isn’t realistic, so it’s really an education problem. education from within starts with “guides”. 

  • David

    Not advocating a change of leadership, but a change of mindset. Corporate mindset. from command and control to leadership with vision and purpose.

  • http://twitter.com/joey_strawn Joey Strawn

    I very much agree. I’d never suggest going back through and getting rid of current employees. I think guides and education is critical and then taking a hard look at your hiring practices going forward. 

    Thanks for the comment!

  • http://twitter.com/joey_strawn Joey Strawn

    I’m a large advocate for a change in management mindset leading companies towards being social businesses, so I thoroughly agree. I also think that with the correct mindset in management and hiring practices upfront, that systems and written, trained and understood guidelines can be an effective way to get everyone communicating and on the same page. I’ve seen it work when the other pieces are in place. But I TOTALLY agree that without the right leadership and training, guidelines are next to useless. 

  • Curious

    By what happened at GM, do you mean what happened with Chrysler regarding the motor city profanity Tweet?

  • https://www.youtube.com/user/Gcoolgroup Extreme Sports Videos

    good