The New Enterprise
by AxelS • May 26, 2010 • General • 1 Comment
The “new enterprise” as I call it is a network of highly engaged individuals or groups of individuals that may constitute the most successful organizationism in the future – actually organization + organism is organizationism. However it will be quite challenging to build the first of such “new enterprises” as many potential customers may require an organization they used to deal with: a big company. Only time will tell how this part of the business shift evolves. Here is an article from Gary Hamel “Three forces that will transform management” @ the McKinsey Blog that I highly recommend reading.
Let me share some vision for a structure where innovative leaders may create a company in the following way:
1) Innovation
Creative customers provide requirements, people watching a market identify opportunities, social media monitoring provides added research and accidental information flow inspires the core team of the new enterprise to model and later build new products.
2) Development
Developing a prototype with some connected organizations (not employees), picking the best talents out there.
3) Crowd Sourcing
Giving the product to the market for tests and feedback. Crowd based product evaluation and vetting. The crowd becomes the best product managers.
4) Feedback
Refining the product with the development teams and further feedback cycles. The users are testers and the Q+A team. The primary benefits to them: A lower cost product – but more importantly the product they want!
5) Sales
With the maturity of the product, identifying business partners who want to introduce the product to their customers, friends, networks – some may be as commercially oriented as manufacturers reps, yet with all their energy and enthusiasm some may be just friends and contacts in the social networks. In this very model there is no employed sales force.
6) Social Marketing
Then further broadening the market through the social web by providing platforms for the early adopters and advocates who like what they see and spread the word. In this model there is no marketing department, no marketing employees. Maybe one person helping orchestrate the social platforms and discussions.
7) Production
Like in many cases already today, production is done by outsourced production companies. Smaller more flexible units may emerge to build parts in better quality with more motivated talents.
8) Management
Management is the new challenge. Managing such a company requires not only a new way of thinking but an understanding of the changing buying behavior, the shifts in our society and the rapidly growing desire for more personal recognition and freedom.
9) Overhead
Such a company shrinks to a nucleus of maybe a 2-100 people. A traditional business equivalent in size may have 100 times more employees.
10) Strategy
Innovation is now part of the core fabric of such a company, not business process automation, sales, marketing… The new enterprise is actually “just” an innovator not a producer or seller or provider.
We are actually building such a product with such a company: Xeesm
True ;) Social media is certainly a big enabler for the “New Enterprise”, and it is also a mentally inspiring evolution in our society that goes hand in hand with the new enterprise development. And maybe the other way around: The new thinking in business is more and more about doing the best – not the biggest.