No spoons
This article is not about corporate social networks not having ROI. If it were not there, it is unlikely that this market would show such steady growth. But, on the other hand, would corporate social networks be more common if more attention was paid to non-financial criteria for achieving business goals? And what are these criteria? Read on.
In business, there is always a high level of competition. Whatever you start to do, most likely you already have competitors. For every Microsoft there is a IBM, for every Google there is a Yandex. Therefore, quite often sales are reduced to the promise that the thing needed by the customer can be done more efficiently. If a customer drinks five cups of coffee a day, he can be made so that he can drink six or even seven cups of coffee a day for the same money. Thus, efficiency is a characteristic of how expediently or efficiently the company's resources are used to obtain the expected results. And that same ROI, equal to Profit divided by Nested Capital, is an indicator of efficiency.
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But this is a characteristic of the normal, regular functioning of the organization. What happens when 1998, 2008 or 2014 comes? If I did not survive, was I effective? In this situation, there are two other parameters - stability and adaptability. Sustainability - the ability to get the expected results in changing conditions without changing the way they are received, these are reversible changes in the organization. Adaptability - the ability to get the expected results in changing conditions with a change in the way they are received, these are irreversible changes in the organization. Resilience and adaptability reflect the ability to survive in changing conditions, these are two strategies to respond to change.
So, we can distinguish three groups of management criteria: efficiency, sustainability and adaptability of the organization. (Read more about the management triangle in the wonderful article by Vladimir Ananin, " Does business always really need efficiency? ", I strongly advise you to read it along with comments, the drawing came from the same place).
These criteria can be the criteria for assessing the positive impact on the business of information technology, and corporate social networks in particular. Absolutization of one of the three considered parties is extreme and risky for business. Efficiency describes normal activities in normal conditions, stability and adaptability - in abnormal conditions (in the Western environment, focused not on solving problems, but on the realization of opportunities, adaptations are called innovations).
By the way, try to answer yourself the question - what is your organization, which model does it implement for itself, sustainability or adaptability? The classic example of a “sustainable” organization is to reduce the number of projects, leaving 20% ​​of the most important ones, and dismiss 20% of employees in the hope that the sanctions will run out and oil will rise in price, return the deleted projects to your list and hire new personnel to do this. An organization that is no longer trying to be sustainable, but is on the path of adaptation, goes through much more diverse changes. Signs of such a situation may be the active involvement of business consultants, new leadership’s views on business development, the rapid exchange of information within the organization across all levels, the accumulation and implementation of new ideas.
So a corporate social network is a solution that can increase the organization's adaptability and support change management. And not at the expense of the organizational structure and processes, but primarily due to the fuller use of the potential of its employees and the creation of a new organizational culture.
An organization must be efficient and effective in the short and long term (read more about this in the “ Managing Change ” book of my beloved Yitzhak Adizes). We will not go deep into the term “effectiveness”, we will only say that this is the degree of compliance of the result of the system’s operation with the requirements and expectations of the consumer of this result. That is, the customer must receive not seven cups of tea, but seven cups of coffee. So, efficiency in the long term is the company's ability to change in the future so as to bring the maximum result at minimum cost.
Imagine a chair with four legs. If one leg of the chair is sawed off, it will lose stability and cease to perform its main function, in its network it will cease to be a chair, because it is mechanistic. And now look at your hand. If you break a finger, will the hand remain? Of course, because between the fingers there is an internal relationship, and the rest of the fingers will be able to cope with the functions of the broken. And the hand, although it will have fewer opportunities, but it will still act like a hand.
So, the corporate social network just allows you to realize the relationship between the individual employees of the organization, it integrates them, it makes the organization effective in the long term.
How long? Not a quarter or even a fiscal year. But the problem is that in the current business culture we perceive more of the American business model, the efficiency in a few years is of little interest to us, we need to close the current year and get a bonus for it. And it turns out that the profound effect of integration, which gives the corporate social network, the domestic big business is not in demand. (This is very clearly seen in comparison with the Japanese business culture , in which the long-term perspective is even more substantial than the short-term one.)
***
Conclusion. According to the personal observations of the author, corporate social networks are ordered mainly by HR directors or internal communications directors, because they can show short-term effectiveness in the normal operation of an organization. But it is possible that corporate social network brings more value when it makes an organization more adaptive, innovative, integrated. In an ever changing and unstable world, this is becoming a very significant increase in ROI.
Vladimir Ivanitsa
viva@supereon.ru
Approach number 1. Control triangle.
In business, there is always a high level of competition. Whatever you start to do, most likely you already have competitors. For every Microsoft there is a IBM, for every Google there is a Yandex. Therefore, quite often sales are reduced to the promise that the thing needed by the customer can be done more efficiently. If a customer drinks five cups of coffee a day, he can be made so that he can drink six or even seven cups of coffee a day for the same money. Thus, efficiency is a characteristic of how expediently or efficiently the company's resources are used to obtain the expected results. And that same ROI, equal to Profit divided by Nested Capital, is an indicator of efficiency.
')
But this is a characteristic of the normal, regular functioning of the organization. What happens when 1998, 2008 or 2014 comes? If I did not survive, was I effective? In this situation, there are two other parameters - stability and adaptability. Sustainability - the ability to get the expected results in changing conditions without changing the way they are received, these are reversible changes in the organization. Adaptability - the ability to get the expected results in changing conditions with a change in the way they are received, these are irreversible changes in the organization. Resilience and adaptability reflect the ability to survive in changing conditions, these are two strategies to respond to change.
So, we can distinguish three groups of management criteria: efficiency, sustainability and adaptability of the organization. (Read more about the management triangle in the wonderful article by Vladimir Ananin, " Does business always really need efficiency? ", I strongly advise you to read it along with comments, the drawing came from the same place).
These criteria can be the criteria for assessing the positive impact on the business of information technology, and corporate social networks in particular. Absolutization of one of the three considered parties is extreme and risky for business. Efficiency describes normal activities in normal conditions, stability and adaptability - in abnormal conditions (in the Western environment, focused not on solving problems, but on the realization of opportunities, adaptations are called innovations).
By the way, try to answer yourself the question - what is your organization, which model does it implement for itself, sustainability or adaptability? The classic example of a “sustainable” organization is to reduce the number of projects, leaving 20% ​​of the most important ones, and dismiss 20% of employees in the hope that the sanctions will run out and oil will rise in price, return the deleted projects to your list and hire new personnel to do this. An organization that is no longer trying to be sustainable, but is on the path of adaptation, goes through much more diverse changes. Signs of such a situation may be the active involvement of business consultants, new leadership’s views on business development, the rapid exchange of information within the organization across all levels, the accumulation and implementation of new ideas.
So a corporate social network is a solution that can increase the organization's adaptability and support change management. And not at the expense of the organizational structure and processes, but primarily due to the fuller use of the potential of its employees and the creation of a new organizational culture.
Approach number 2. Integration or efficiency in the long term.
An organization must be efficient and effective in the short and long term (read more about this in the “ Managing Change ” book of my beloved Yitzhak Adizes). We will not go deep into the term “effectiveness”, we will only say that this is the degree of compliance of the result of the system’s operation with the requirements and expectations of the consumer of this result. That is, the customer must receive not seven cups of tea, but seven cups of coffee. So, efficiency in the long term is the company's ability to change in the future so as to bring the maximum result at minimum cost.
Imagine a chair with four legs. If one leg of the chair is sawed off, it will lose stability and cease to perform its main function, in its network it will cease to be a chair, because it is mechanistic. And now look at your hand. If you break a finger, will the hand remain? Of course, because between the fingers there is an internal relationship, and the rest of the fingers will be able to cope with the functions of the broken. And the hand, although it will have fewer opportunities, but it will still act like a hand.
So, the corporate social network just allows you to realize the relationship between the individual employees of the organization, it integrates them, it makes the organization effective in the long term.
How long? Not a quarter or even a fiscal year. But the problem is that in the current business culture we perceive more of the American business model, the efficiency in a few years is of little interest to us, we need to close the current year and get a bonus for it. And it turns out that the profound effect of integration, which gives the corporate social network, the domestic big business is not in demand. (This is very clearly seen in comparison with the Japanese business culture , in which the long-term perspective is even more substantial than the short-term one.)
***
Conclusion. According to the personal observations of the author, corporate social networks are ordered mainly by HR directors or internal communications directors, because they can show short-term effectiveness in the normal operation of an organization. But it is possible that corporate social network brings more value when it makes an organization more adaptive, innovative, integrated. In an ever changing and unstable world, this is becoming a very significant increase in ROI.
Vladimir Ivanitsa
viva@supereon.ru
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/292458/
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