Okay I’m going to be writing a lot about business community over the next few months. After what seems like tons of research and development, I’ve developed a framework that takes us beyond marketing that centres on building a community through strong robust relationships with customers and employees. Its nothing new, lots of people are talking about it. My company is just one of the first to create a practical way of applying it that is just so very exciting.

It starts with the end in mind, a business having a productive, collaborative, engaging, inspiring community of people co-creating, innovating and participating in the growth of the company. This is two, multi way stuff at its most dynamic. Its truly powerful and generates principally three results; true customers, true employees and true profits.

What do I mean? Well a business community is what you define it as, what’s specific to your business. Its the hub that’s at the centre of your brand! And, okay, its a space where people who have a common interest meet, share ideas, connect with each other, build great relationships, find mutual benefit and create things that have greater value. The people involved in your business community will take your business places you never imagined.

It’s not your database, although thats where you begin. A database is too static and inert for today’s business environment. A database doesn’t allow you to connect customers to each other. It only shares information one way and, in fact, its just a list. Not terribly engaging is it? Life has changed, customers have changed and so have employees. Social media has overturned how we do business. Meeting peoples expectations is pivotal in thriving and moving from a passive relationship to a fully engaged, demanding yet valuable organic place where great business is done.

Our businesses now need to start the process of growing, facilitating, encouraging and taking part in a business community that flocks to our brands. Its different from a database, it will grow, it will subtract, it will change dimensions, it will have different kinds of influencers, different connectors. It will have power struggles, it will innovate, it will co-create. It will shape your business and you will shape it. It will change everyday. You’ll measure it, you’ll monitor it but you will never rule it.

Gone are the days of sending newsletters out each month, some direct mail, tweeting and blogging. Building a business community goes much further than that. Its got lots of activity, heavy weight influencers, strong connectors, play, interaction and a hell a lot of conversation.

I’ll talk more over the coming weeks about how this will develop, some practical examples and, if you’re interested in your company taking part, get in touch. We’ve been testing for a while but we’re interested in developing this further with local company’s.

There have been a lot of kind words said to me this last week. A huge thank you. I called the book “Hang On” because thats what a lot of people are doing right now along the whole continuum of business. At the one end, you’ve got people who have stalled, are confused and lost. Some look like ‘bunnies in headlights.’ They are struggling with this new way of doing business. They either deny it or ignore it, in an attempt to bide some time to work out what really is going on.

Then at the other end, you have people who do understand it as best we can. They are moving the majority of their communications from broadcast to social both with customers and employees. They are engaging and connecting in a dynamic fashion that, frankly, is a breath of fresh air.

Most of the words from the book were crowdsourced. They are words already finding comfortable slots in the business language thats evolving. There are some, even a few months after its completion, that I would love to include; obsessive, connection, excess, ecosystem, trouble and many more.

As we approach the launch party, well a few glasses of wine and a little networking, it would be great to hear your views on the eBook both good and well, not so good. Its fine I can take it. I’m going to be talking a lot about business community, relationship, connections, authenticity, co-creation and collaboration over the next couple of years. Its important to start that process here.

So if you have any comments, please share with me, what words were most inspiring, which ones I really could have left out. What arguments I should have included and generally lets start the discussion. It would be just fabulous to get some viewpoints. Go on comment below…..

Thanks

Value has shifted. What we valued in the past isn’t necessarily what we value now! It, perhaps, distinguishes itself slightly differently. It’s led to some huge value gaps in what we offer as brands and what we expect as customers. Some thoughts:

Emotions – In the design of the product/service. We forget about individuality, self expression, trust, transparency, community and what we feel.

Marketing - The difference between what the marketing says and actually what the product/service does. I really don’t want to be ’sold’ to I want to ‘take part ‘ in your brand.

Price – We don’t demonstrate value well especially if we are more expensive. What is the extra value? Brands then get miffed because no one buys and then reduce prices. Customise it and tangibly show the extra value.

Monolithic brands – Complacency or arrogance? Whatever we call it, just because you have been around a long time, doesn’t mean I will buy it. Where’s the value in that?

Innovation – ‘Look at us’ has been replaced with ‘look at’ what we are doing. Value now isn’t in the existing product/service, its moved to how we are constantly changing it, re orientating it.

Seek out the value difference in our products/services rather than hiding the sameness. Value is not what we generate, but the impact we have in our business community assembled around our business.

Well, call us old fashioned, but we thought we’d do something physical even though its an eBook. Actually its just an excuse to have a few beverages with a few followers, connections, fans and clients. Ann Holman launches her new eBook in a dynamic setting in Exeter City Centre. After a year of intensive and diverse research “Hang On” is now ready for release. An eBook about how the character and behaviour in business is changing.

Constructed around 23 words contributed by Ann’s followers on Twitter and 12 of her own, each word deconstructs how it is influencing the future of business and work. Opinionated yes, controversial maybe, balanced perhaps! ‘Community’, ‘relationship’, ‘risk’, ‘power’, ‘influence’, ‘trust’, ‘competition’ and ‘feel’ are some of the offerings. All deliciously designed by Phil Rees of Deface Graphics.

Ann commented “I’ve called it Hang On because that’s what a lot of us are doing at the moment!” The evening will be an informal, yet engaging event, combining a chance to chat with other guests and a 5 minute presentation by Ann. She might even field some questions!

The event is free, to book just click on the link above. Ann would be delighted to see you there! The odd glass of wine will be available too!

WHEN/WHERE? (this might be useful)
Pitcher & Piano, Queen Street in Exeter. 6.30pm – 7.30pm. Refreshments provided.

TO BOOK A FREE PLACE CLICK HERE: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/667435317

It’s easier to maintain the status quo and kill a business, than to change it. The term ‘don’t disrupt for disruptions sake’ just doesn’t hold anymore. Who gets to say that anyway, the boss, who often can’t see the wood for the trees?

Unless you do something, you don’t know whether it will work. Often its the things you can’t see that are the aspects that will cause you problems in the future. Disruption is about finding innovation and innovation is about constantly finding new, improved ways of doing stuff.

Do you spend you’re time fixing things rather than disrupting the core? And what is more healthy; consistently being disruptive, or consistently holding onto what you’ve got? Expect to, in the future, be leading highly talented people who live in creative chaos, rather than the trudging towards synergy.

There needs to be overall coherence to your business but not the routine of sameness. Disruption can bring your brand’s character alive and stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit we all desperately need. Your business is a bubbling cauldron (or it should be) of ideas, thoughts and messing about with ideas. That’s being disruptive.

If it isn’t broken, disrupt it. If you don’t someone else will! Guaranteed.

Despite what we may think, humans need systems and structure. We know groups of people best perform when there is a set of boundaries in place covering expectations, behaviours, beliefs and how things will work. But why do they have to be overbearing, cumbersome and bogged down in irrelevent detail? In their purest form, systems are meant to make life easier when in reality, they tend to double your effort without doubling the rewards.

Systems should demolish barriers, clarify reasoning, promote agility. And, systems must encourage integrity, reputation and calm. A seamless and graceful movement of information, people, money and product. Humanising our systems results in our businesses being centred on the well being of our people.

Take that document you are working on now. Look at it. Can you cut its wording by 30%? Can you cut the number of processes involved without compromising its purpose? Is it a ‘dry’ read, or actually an exciting one? Its the same for the proposal document as it is for the financial procedures. Punch your system in the middle and re design it for the future of your business.

There is a lot of dispiriting going on. There must be something in the air. I’ve made a list:

1. My local Caffe Nero’s not offering free wifi.

2. Companies House making it nigh impossible for you to do business with them, as their website is an entanglement of mush thats completely unusable.

3. The Chelsea Building Society devaluing houses, so on paper you have less equity and they can charge you a higher interest rate. Nice way of promoting customer retention.

4. Biscuits that you used to get in your hotel room, but you don’t now. Cut stuff from behind the scenes, not on the stage!

5. People like lawyers, accountants and public sector workers thinking they have a right to be aloof. Get your parachute chaps, you’re heading for a big fall.

6. People still trying to ’sell’ stuff. Features and benefits is just so yesterday.

7. People using social media to broadcast. In the past we just had companies doing it, now we have thousands of individuals.

8. People who just show up at work, dream all day about doing something else and never get round to it because they didn’t take time out to find their passion and purpose.

Just thought I’d dump that. Ah, feel much better now……..

The world of work has changed dramatically in the last 18 months. Things we did in times of excess will be redundant. Expect sabbaticals to reinvent themselves. In the future these won’t be self indulgent trips to far flung places in the world for a couple of months.

Talented people will still get sabbaticals, but instead they’ll be thrown into a three month project with a supplier, customer, competitor, university or some other collaborative event. Their job to change things, shift the pace, find something interesting, learn and unlearn!

The trouble with online stuff is we forget how powerful offline influencers still are. You can plot this on a continuum. At one end of the scale are the people who aren’t even online yet save email. At the other end are those people who spend most of their lives online. For those of us immersed in online activity, its easy to be consumed by it. Focusing all our efforts around online influencers. And, for us personally to be drawn into influencing online too. Online influencers with significant followers are rarely offline influencers too.

This will of course change. Our offline customers will increasingly participate in online activity and its our job to help them get there. We will all, in the next few years, gain equal status both in the physical and digital worlds. In the meantime we need to take some time out to consider how we help our offline influencers. Some questions to ponder:

1. Who are our offline and online influencers? Name them!

2. What is the real value, not perceived value, of our offline and online influencers?

3. How do we engage on a regular basis with our offline influencers and how do we make it work better?

4. How do we as a business, encourage and practically help offline influencers to start online stuff? This is not an option but an obligation. Its our responsibility.

5. How do we physically meet up with our top 25% of influencers online to cement the relationship?

Its important now to look at converging interactions between the offline and online worlds that are authentic, organic and synergised. Bringing the two sets of influencers together and connecting them could make a whole heap of difference to our businesses.

There is an increasing importance centring on the reputation of individuals within business entities and the need to ‘brand you.’ As I’ve said before people are replacing products and, like our products’ reputation, we will have to do that with our people.

Key executives will need to be known for something, though quite clearly not everything. Our people will have a high visibility offline and just as critical online. It’s one we can’t nor shouldn’t control but influence. There is a significant shift to individual reputation (some traditionalists might call this career management) but its more fundamental than that as it means working even more closely with the business than even before.

Can you see why the war for talent is going to be crucial? A knowledge based company’s reputation will not be dictated by its marketing team’s interpretation of the brands identity but it will be the sum of the reputation of the people involved in the brands evolvement.

Think John Terry and Tiger Woods. That has brought it home. Reputation damaged over night, well perhaps over several nights if the truth were known. This isn’t a bad thing. Its not another headache to contend with. It’s a great development. Transparency increases professionalism doesn’t it? Trust breeds loyalty and commitment doesn’t it? Influence shapes new things doesn’t it?

HR departments need to down tools and stop process managing and go and knock on the doors of their marketing colleagues to start banging heads together about how this is all going to work for the people they recruit and the company they work for.