I’ve been talking to a lot of very big companies lately about how they can participate in social media; what the viable business models are; and the futility of trying to tightly control a corporate message.
And what stands out above all, from company to company, is that the competitive nature of big companies keeps them from innovating, and often, from joining the online conversation in a meaningful way.
Not only does one division compete with another, but marketing competes with PR, and customer service competes with sales. In many cases, the marketing director of one division has never met the marketing director of another division in the same company!
How can a company whose own people don’t even know what others in the company are doing ever excel in community development?
To get something, you have to give something. But in big companies, people fear for their jobs. They are forced, by the corporate system, not to collaborate with other departments. And many times, that means that two departments will be working — and spending money on — a similar system but not know it.
Cooperation IS the sea change. Fear is no longer the kind of aphrodisiac it once was in the business world. Will cooperation ever become a reality for publicly traded companies? God, I hope so. We all have much to gain when it does.
Why Big Corporations Aren’t Creative
BL Ochman | November 27, 2006 | Permanent Link | Comments (5) | TrackBack (
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Great post. My experience with many corporations as PR clients is that they are also often declining to participate due to fear of risk of what employees and outsiders may say. As you rightly point out, though, the idea of control is futile. A majority of large corporations aren’t even regularly monitoring what is being said about them. Corporations in health care and certain financial services are also concerned about regulatory risk.
I’m going to challenge your observation B.L. — I think many companies are realizing social media is here to stay. Most are groping for the best way to make it happen. They’re definitely fearful, I think you’re dead-on there. It makes sense since they have always had message control (or the illusion of it), and now they don’t. But this is changing. Case in point, I’m speaking at a conference of accounting firms next week, and the two topics of greatest interest: how they can use podcasting and blogging to grow revenues. As the leaders in each industry take the plunge, more will follow I’m sure.
Jeff: You misunderstood rather challenged my observation.
I didn’t say big companies aren’t interested in entering social media. I help them enter this space all the time. I said that the fact that their own divisions are unaware of what their other divisions are doing, that people in one area of the company compete with another is what keeps true collaboration from happening.
Few companies are leaders anymore. Innovations scares them to mediocrity. You can’t really blame them. It’s easy to fall behind if your resources are limited (as most companies’ are.) Most people in management would rather see the projects/ products on which they are working improve gradually. It’s low-risk. Allocating great employees to work on high-risk projects isn’t an idea they love.
Consumers are the ones that can truly challenge them. If consumers demand more, companies will be forced to innovate to stay competitive. Pretty simplistic, but it could work.
Thanks for clarifying B.L. I think one of the other things that keeps larger companies from innovating is their fairly large infrastructure of people set up to block innovation: namely, Legal, and sometimes, HR and IT. To your point, it’s kind of hard to consider sharing ideas in a blog or podcast when your first thought is, “Will Legal ever let us do this,” and your second thought is “And if so, will IT ever get it done?”