Undiscovered Opportunities of the C-Suite

Sometimes you don’t know what you have in front of you. The opportunity to change.

That’s what lies before today’s C-Suite executives if they choose to explore it. What I’m talking about here, of course, is really about relationships. With the advent of social computing in the second half of this decade, the power has shifted from producers and marketers to people.

The challenge, of course, is for today’s executives to leap into the deep end of the pool and embrace these new relationships. To build new loyalty into their customer base, by demonstrating the ability to listen, learn, share and improve.

This is a great opportunity that current executives and VPs have that their predecessors didn’t have.  The ability to change the relationship and make it one built on the trust and respect of quality products and honest interactivity.  This goes equally for internal communications.  The opportunity to use these same open and trust building methods within an organization is huge.  Especially with organizations that are struggling with employee engagement and moral in these trouble economic times.

It goes beyond displaying good will, however.  Any effort in using social computing for building new relationships requires a commitment to open dialog, acceptance of public feedback (both good and bad), and the willingness to discuss this in a public venue.

The point here, is that our current executives have this powerful new option that their ancestors did not.  The question is, how many are of strong enough to take that bold step?

Image credit: Envios

The Youth Movement

'Queen's Commerce Class of 2008 group photo 18' by eddiehosa It’s an interesting time we live in. Economic turmoil, changing social norms, 100 year old publishing businesses crumbling, and new media powerhouses being established. You’d be hard pressed to give our present era a pass and claim it to be not as important as <fill in your favorite era here>.

Along with these incredible times are some challenges for every business, and everyone that works in them. The reality is that the past decade has brought incredible change in our communications and social structures because of digital communication. Included in this is the first generation raised entirely within the Internet, and mobile communication revolution of advanced technology.

This generation has experienced the freedom of wireless connections from an early age, and rediscovered the power of text communications. The “kids” in this generation have expanded their mental and reflex capacities through vigorous sessions of online, multiplayer, interactive & collaborative games. These folks have no stigma about being online, and this generation comes prewired for online social interaction. They have the ability to actively team-build without preamble and pep talks, can do business virtually without the need to meet in person and can work with folks on the other side of the globe as easily as they work with people in the next cube.

This is the youth movement of today, and they’re entering your business right now. These young folks are part of the largest workforce to enter the American business landscape since the boomers. They are your new entry level employees and they know what’s up. They’re smart, fast to learn new things, and anxious to prove themselves. With the Baby Boomers retiring and GenX/Y moving up, these folks coming out of college are bringing a revolution in relationship management with them.

Are you ready for them?

Photo credit: eddiehosa

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