This blog is primarily focused on IBM’s social business strategy but will wander off from time to time in to side streets like Lotus Domino, Sametime, Quickr and the likes.  I wanted to kick the blog off, however, with an excellent illustration for anyone who is considering what a Social Business means to their business.

Luis Benitez (@lbenitez) tweeted the other day about a – frankly – excellent IBM Redpiece called “Using IBM Social Business to Take Your Business Relationships to the Next Level: A Game Changer for Small, Medium, and Large Business“.  I couldn’t let the opening of this blog pass without mentioning it.

As Redpieces go, it is an excellent introduction to the justification, rationale, evidence and practical steps anyone can take in their organisation to embrace social business.  Without stealing the thunder of the whole article, which I thoroughly recommend you download and read in depth, let me quote the following:

“A challenge faced by virtually all companies is how to be more adaptive and agile, more creative and innovative, and more efficient and resilient. Consumers now wield unprecedented power over how companies are perceived. Crowdsourcing is changing industry landscapes by leveling collective intelligence at an extraordinary rate. In addition, employees are demanding social tools in the workplace and are bypassing established
hierarchies and IT processes to use them. As a result, companies are finding themselves at a transformative point regarding how business is done.”

That’s just the first paragraph on the first page!  If your organisation is not at least thinking about how these changes will affect it going forward then there is a real danger it will face issues with staff retention, customer relationships and innovation in the future – your competitors will be doing it.