strategyThis is the second post of a multi-post series covering the discussion between SOCIALtality founder and 20-year Fidelity-enterprise veteran, Wendy Troupe and myself.  The topics of our discussions were around Social Media, the emerging Enterprise 2.0 movement and the issues facing companies contemplating adoption.  Yesterday we addressed why enterprise 2.0 market predictions vary so greatly.  Today we are going to address why companies are so quick to adopt tools yet are lagging behind developing strategies.

Question 2: Why do you think companies are quicker to adopt a tool rather than develop a clear strategy for leveraging Enterprise 2.0 capabilities?

My response:

A tool is much easier to adopt than a strategy.  With a tool you simply “turn it on” and see what happens.  A strategy requires a lot more work and is much more complicated.  When developing a strategy you need to consider various departments, use cases, and methods of adoption (among other things).  A proof of concept is much easier to demonstrate with a tool then it is with a strategy.  Companies can implement a tool with basic high level educational components in a short amount of time and see if it gets wide organizational adoption.  A lot of software solutions actually bundle in strategy with their platforms to help make this happen.

This is akin to companies that are starting to use social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn.  Those companies don’t start off with a strategy but instead focus on the platforms and the numbers of followers and fans they get.  Then what?  They have no idea how to make this a part of their process in say, sales or marketing and are stuck with justifying the return on their investment because they didn’t think things through properly at the outset.  To compensate many companies have shifted their measures of success from true ROI (aka dollars and cents) to things such as engagement, traffic, eyeballs, and follower count.  Engagement is crucial yes, but it is not ROI.

I was reading a presentation on Enterprise 2.0 by Aaron Julius Kim and there was a great quote in there that said, “A fool with a tool is still a fool.”  I think that sentiment applies to a lot of companies trying to shift into Enterprise 2.0.  They purchase these tools but still aren’t sure where they’re headed.  Just because you have a tool doesn’t mean you’re going to succeed in anything.

Finally, I also think it’s tough to price a strategy.  If you use a tool like SocialText, you know exactly what it’s going to cost and exactly what you’re going to get.  If you purchase an enterprise-level strategy, the cost is going to vary and you’re not sure ultimately what you’re getting or how many people will participate.  Strategies involve many uncertain factors and at the end of the day, even if you have a solid strategy created you are still going to have to dish out the cost for the tool to make it happen.

Wendy Troupe:

Exactly.  Tools provide a context and framework for an organization. I think companies start with a particular problem they’re trying to solve and search for a tool for that specific issue. Without a specific strategic roadmap, companies apply tools to specific problems and new, unexpected behaviors then develop around tools.

Much like the what we’re developing here at SOCIALtality.  Our offering is designed to help companies pinpoint specific issues, but the data and measurement delivery covers so many facets of an organization that ultimately it provides a holistic view of performance beyond the primary issues it was initially adopted to address.  A tool brought in for a specific purpose can ultimately drive a full-scale strategic shift.

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