SOCIAL NETWORKING OR SOCIAL NOTWORKING

The rising popularity of social networking and social media leaves me with intriguing questions. There is something apt about a social networking website winning a popularity contest. On March 17th, 2010, Financial Times reported that social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more hits than the search engine. Facebook’s membership has crossed 400 million (430.2million, as per comScore) in February 2010 (when it celebrated its sixth birthday). US users spent nearly six-and a-half hours on Facebook compared with fewer than two-and-a-half hours on Google. What does the rising popularity of social networking mean for business? How should companies convert all such users’ time to their advantage? Is it a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable? What does the advent and the (near) ubiquitous presence of blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, LinkedIn, Orkut, Twitter, etc? What do these ‘social’ innovations signify? While some argue that they undermine the social fabric of a society, many epitomize them as harbingers of the end of corporate imperialism. The several ‘social’ media segments – there are various types of online social media from social networks of friends and professionals to microblogging services, to video sharing sites, with informal online network of friends (Facebook, Orkut, QQ), artists (MySpace), visual junkies (YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, Daily Motion for Videos and Flickr, Picasa and Snapfish for photos) and professionals (LinkedIn) – point out to a proliferation and consolidation (either sequentially or simultaneously) in social media segments. Every country has its cliques, whether based on education, social background or spiritual beliefs. In Spain, Italy and Latin America as well as France, business people speak of the influence of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic lay order which supports a number of business schools. America has its Ivy League alumni groups and Rotary Clubs. Chinese business people often rely on guanxi, or personal connections. How then the (online) social networks are different from the old-style networks?
The social media environment in emerging markets too is heating up. A recent blogworks survey indicates that the blog and social media (SM) environment is evolving rapidly and India is no exception to this. The survey reveals that the SM credibility is on the increase: 90% believe that blogs and SM platforms have an impact on business and marketing; 90% believe that buzz and word of mouth are top deliverables from SM activities;65% think SM can deliver insights and over 46% hope to create better products and services through SM activities. How should companies look at social networking sites – complementary or competitive threats? Experts advocate that the companies articulate and adopt a unique social media strategy to tap into the growing popularity of social media. How should companies go about chalking out social media strategy? What are the critical success factors for getting the power and potential of social media platform right? However, many believe that Web 2.0 has resulted in “Enterprise 2.0”, a term coined to describe efforts to bring technologies such as social networks and blogs into the workplace. However, according to Robert Half Technology’s survey, the executives’ biggest concern was that social networking would lead to social notworking, with employees using the sites to chat with friends instead of doing their jobs. Some bosses also fretted that the sites would be used to leak sensitive corporate information. How should companies draw lines between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable ‘corporate social behavior’? The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals. They face a public that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bullying and online transgressions.

Executive Brief

Executive Brief

Case studies have become a powerful instructive lifeline for business schools. Management education has changed because of them, which even helped globalize it. Many more changes are also sweeping in (culled from experiences):

• Internet has a gold mine of information that, if channeled properly, can grow into rich knowledge. This trend has even altered the role of a teacher - from a knowledge provider to a learning facilitator
• Students are seeking more than classroom learning. Just analysing case facts and figures is no longer making classes come alive
• Not every faculty can work out a case study as it must be. It requires strenuous hard-work and disciplined training.
• Business schools can shape the best talent but can't get them to teach. Teaching doesn't seem to fit in as a lucrative job

Closely observing these pertinent changes have got us, at Icfai Business School Case Development Centre (IBS CDC), thinking as always. Solutions were hard to come by, but we got around this dilemma too. Months of shrewd thinking and careful testing created a novel product, Executive Brief.

Executive Brief is by nature a video presentation. It recounts dilemmas faced by an executive, who can be an entrepreneur, manager, VP, CEO, etc. These dilemmas can either be retrospective or futuristic. Of course, business schools have to instill valued corporate virtues in their students.

Their multimedia edge can take learning to the next level, seizing student's fleeting attention for quite some time. That's not to say that they can replace case studies. But Executive Briefs can become nice add-ons to student's learning, as case studies are. This, we strongly feel, after we tested them out and got a glowing response from students as well as the faculty. And if the executive is around when the Executive Brief is played out, nothing like that. Running through some of these Briefs, one can feel the joy in using - and learning from - this powerful pedagogical tool. This product tries to speak to the students in their language - the language of videos (YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter!!!).