Martin Thomas, author of Crowd Surfing and Loose

Loose: The Future of Business is Letting Go Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing

What’s Wrong With These Pictures?

Loose Drivers
Chaos, complexity & need for speed
Emergence of new, informal organisational models
New generations emerging at top and bottom of corporate hierarchy
New technology
Failure of tight

1.Chaos, Complexity & Need for Speed
Macro-economic meltdown
Socio political upheaval
New patterns of consumer behaviour
New expectations
New technology
Defies rational analysis & neat, simple solutions

2. Emergence of new, informal organisational models
Capable of delivering political, social or commercial change … without structure or formal leadership
Underlines deficiencies of tight, bureaucratic structures that have to deal with them
* McKinsey 2010

3. New Generations
Emerging at top and bottom of corporate hierarchy
Gen X in the Boardroom with a post-Boomer mindset
Gen Y entering the workplace with new expectations
Demanding new ways of working

4. New Technology
Social media driving new behaviours & expectations
Dramatizing institutions’ structural, operational & cultural weaknesses
The Connected Consumer meets the Disconnected Corporation

5. Failure of Tight
Illusion of control
Growth of auditing, risk assessment, compliance, consulting, reporting, planning & forecasting
Delusion of control
Distortion of priorities
Huge bureaucratic & cost burden
Inability to respond to real world

Emergence of Looser Ways of Thinking
Economists discover Behavioural Economics
Business Schools embrace critical & creative thinking
Politicians talk of “a post bureaucratic age” & introduce Big Society
Conventional political parties challenged by informal movements e.g. The Tea Party

Thriving by Loosening Up
Five simple operational & cultural traits of successful organisations
Trusting
Open
Agile
Informal
Collaborative

Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply
Organisations & people that struggle with this new world
Hierarchical
Bureaucratic
Process oriented
Distrustful

Trusting
Bedrock of strong internal culture
Allows shared responsibility & real time decision making
The best company rulebook ever written?

Trusting
No scripts
No time limits
Devolved decision-making

Open
Transparency & honesty non negotiable
Capable of transforming reputations

Openness for Commercial Advantage “ Empower consumers” “ Open culture” “ Creative collaboration”

Agile
Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time
Limitations of excessive faith in longer-term planning
Speed more important than absolute accuracy

Why most institutions struggle
Not configured to work in real time, in terms of resources, structure or culture
One hour Ten Minutes * Critical response time for responding to negative comments

Informal
NPD: Living life in Beta
Design: Messy vitality
Creativity: Authenticity more important than production values

Informal Creativity

Informality in the Workplace
Emphasis on freedom & trust
Encouragement of creativity & individual responsibility
“ We’re giving people the latitude to go off & do their own thing. We trust them to do their regular jobs & to experiment, innovate & have fun” Microsoft Snr Mgr, quoted in Business Strategy Review

Collaborative
Tapping into spirit of collective self expression
Opening up new business models

Community Commerce
Self-sustaining creative community
Members submit designs => 80,000+ submissions
Opportunity to pre test beta versions
Community votes => 800+ designs
Designers receive $2,500 + marketing advice + retain IP
No professional designers, no salesforce, no distribution, no market research, no advertising => $30m revenues … high margins

Community Commerce
People-powered mobile network (from O2)
Members receive points for recruiting new people, making suggestions & solving problems => converted into cash
20% actively involved
Aim that 25% of members will get half of cost of calls returned to them for contribution to community
Plans to involve community in pricing & marketing decisions
Not reliant on call centres, expensive marketing & product support

Formula for Collaborative Success
Ensuring strategic focus
Publicity as bi-product not sole objective
Planning – who, what & how?
Obama’s 100
Devolving control to community
Continuous feedback loops
Anticipating subversion
Bieber in North Korea
Managing IP rights

Why PR People Should Thrive in This New World
Used to operating in close to real time
Strategically & creatively flexible
Comfortable exercising judgement
Benefit from removal of financial barriers to entry
Creative production
(Technology based) planning & evaluation

www.crowdsurfing.net @crowdsurfing

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Martin Thomas, author of Crowd Surfing and Loose

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