Big topic #5: Social Business Design – creating connected organizations
In the brief period we’ve been using the Internet, the developments have been dramatic. The technology has evolved from static websites to interactive social networks, online instant collaboration and streaming high-definition content. This is the digital generation; we are collaborators, sophisticated users, moderators, creators and administrators.
Growing up with these tools opened our horizon and became wired into our behavior. We expect transparency and global collaboration. We understand the power of communities and know how to connect to people we have never met in real life—across cultures, interests and geographical borders. We have seen individuals taking responsibilities in grassroots initiatives and contributing to crowdsourced innovation. We’re defined by our ability to connect people and information.
At Sandbox we’re convinced that the Internet is more than a tool, it is an evolving user-powered organism that creates and manages vast information. The trends seen in the evolution of the Internet can be leveraged by organizations and translated into new structures, processes, business models and cultures.
“Social Business Design” – seen in early stages at the Dachis Group in the US or Headshift in the UK, has enormous potential. It aims at helping organizations implement the benefits of the web by making organizations more agile, more connected and more transparent. This could include supporting internal community building and empowering decentralized grass-root initiatives, encouraging people to truly collaborate across departments or install transparent metric tools.
Social Business Design in our opinion is not about introducing new technologies, but about a promising way to run organizations simpler, faster, cheaper and more sustainable, just as we have seen in the evolution of the Internet.
This is one of the six big topics we feel will be important in 2010 and beyond. Have a look at the others and let us know what you think!
