My last blog post, Enterprise 2.0: The Prodigal Parent, caused quite a stir. Countless reactions in the form of tweets, comments and blog posts, followed. Critics, hand wavers, and everyone in between, of both camps and others, had an opinion and voiced them, one more successful than the other - IMO strongly depending on their ability to exclude themselves from the discussion at hand
I strongly dislike debates - they serve the ego. It strikes me that every single person who has blogged on this issue, has taken the time to react to comments posted - except one. I commented on Andrew's post, yet I'm still waiting for his response (but certainly not holding my breath)
I didn't start it all to be deemed right. I didn't start it either to divide. I started it all, in order to unite
Back in July I managed to set up an event where Vinnie Mirchandani spoke to a select group of Capgemini (my former employer) people. Vinnie's main message: it's an age of AND, not OR - abundantly proving so by giving tailor-made examples of companies combining all sorts of tech and non-tech innovations in order to ameliorate a company's general (dis)position
It never is about black or white, it always is about the sheer endless surface of greyscale in between: where do we take position? Let me enlighten you: you can't take a single position at all - everything changes, grows, is dynamic. Are you taking the same position towards anything compared to e.g. 1 year ago? You mustn't have come to new insights then
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats - that's what SWOT stands for. As is the case with humans, strength and weakness are strongly linked, as are opportunity and threat
Enterprise strength: size. What would you rather have to ride in battle, an ant or an elephant?
Enterprise weakness: size. What would you rather have to move in any direction, an ant or an elephant?
Enterprise opportunity: Social in its broadest sense. Customers, employees, a growing portion of those is becoming increasingly connected, sharing information you don't have
Enterprise threat: Social in its broadest sense. Customers, employees, a growing portion of those is becoming increasingly connected, sharing information you thought you had sole access to
This is an extremely simple SWOT; I could write a book about H2 do a proper SWOT, and even divide that up per industry - I simply don't have the time
The issue at hand is a simple one, really. The world is changing (I know, it always has, and never will stop doing so, but if you've spent years in your Ivory Tower, this can be News).
Enterprises all over the world see declining revenues and profits, even if they've moved to India and the like in time.
What is your reaction, dear enterprise? Fight, or Flight? It all depends of course, although your shareholders probably would like to see you fight, rather than flight
Information is key. Ask James Bond
