"We're going to build this company from the customer back, not the company out." - ex-CEO Lou Gerstner on IBM's turnaround (via FusionBranding)
I was recounting the other day the story of Cisco's N+I show presentation.
The stage was a set showing a glimpse into the typical enterprise with an outside entrance, lobby waiting area, conference room and the security guards' station. CEO John Chambers was telling a security story from the typical organization's point of view, not Cisco's point of view.
He and the chief demonstation officer (his actual title!) were role-playing a visit to this particular enterprise and used it as an example to show how security must be looked at holistically. Now, Cisco itself does very little in terms of physical security - it's a networking company. For instance, the video surveillance cameras used on the set were from Sony, not Cisco. But they integrated into Cisco's gear so that the security team had an integrated dashboard of the system.
Anyway, my point is that Cisco looks at their customer's problems and solutions from the customer's perspective and in the customer's language. They explain the whole solution and then how Cisco fits into the full solution. Too many vendors just tell their side of the story and leave it as an exercise for the customer to figure out how and where the vendor fits into the whole puzzle. With many complex sales this exercise is time-consuming and exasperating for the customer trying to piece it all together. If you help the customer understand how you fit into the entire solution, maybe they'll fit you in on their purchase order.
And with technology products, or what the book Momentum terms 'digital products', it's highly unlikely you are providing the whole kit and caboodle - even if you are Larry Ellison. Digital products don't stand alone but are part of a larger ecosystem, or value chain.
This is not intended to be a shameless self-promotion piece - not that that is taboo - but I'd like to share an 'experiment' I'll be conducting with a client in the spirit of sharing - and feedback is always appreciated. I believe in open source knowledge, so no reason to keep my behind-the-scenes thinking secret. My big issue is having enough bandwidth to convey it in a readable form. (This is an aside, but client may not do justice to explaining our relationship; I think the lines between 'permanent' employees, consultants, contractors and other 'outsiders' is getting really blurry.)
Anyway, they have products that accelerate Web applications and document-sharing in general, but particularly focusing on distributed enterprises with remote offices. Of course, ensuring acceptable end-user response times rather than sitting at the screen waiting and waiting after you click and simplifying I.T. is only one of many issues facing an enterprise with distributed offices. So we are taking a customer-centric and rather broad look at distributed team productivity and trends in distributed enterprise and inviting fresh voices - bloggers, experts, authors, industry peers, customers, etc. - to participate and contribute on the blog.
Take a look at the Project TeamTheme description (it launches Sept 13th) and let me know what you think. Forward it on to others that you think may be able to contribute or are interested in corporate blogging initiatives. We're not worried about keeping this a secret. And I don't obsess about "spoiling" the launch.
There's probably questions that I've heard come up recently. This is meant to be open to anyone and everyone interested in the subject matter of distributed enterprises and effective distributed teams and everyone choses their level of participation. While I doubt that media and analysts will be contributing posts or participating in Q&A interviews, they're certainly welcome to. The face-to-face media and analyst tour is subsequent and related to another announcement, but it's another opportunity to reiterate what's available on the blog and that it's our preferred information channel to them. (We'll even include a handy and short how-to subscribe via Bloglines guide as an informal survey revealed most did not subscribe to feeds now.)
It's not a full-fledged community site (at least not yet, we'll see what emerges), but I've been thinking more about those as a 'platform for participation' as well. For instance, tech vendors whom need to build a thriving ecosystem with their partners and third-party developers. Or in order to do some participatory and conversational marketing with customers. Or to do some educational evangelizing around a passionate subject area - perhaps even to change the world.
I just ran across Bryght the other day (via Steve Rubel) and this looks like an excellent technology platform to create a low-cost and full-fledged community. Take a look yourself. I spent some time on the phone with Roland Tanglao and it looks like a no-brainer for organizations with limited I.T. resources. You'll grok it much better if you take a look at UrbanVancouver and Doc's IT Garage to get a sense of what a blog-plus community might look like.
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