Epilogue

All organizations change and evolve. The speed at which they move depends on the industry and the nature of the business. Change is constant for businesses that wish to survive the procession of innovative technologies, workforce evolution, and changes in the marketplace. Throughout this book, we have provided the raw material for making a successful transition to social business, providing the background, foundational concepts, and organizing principles for typical organizations to begin making the transformation strategically. The good news is that it's no longer an act of faith. Social business successes of well-known, market-leading organizations offer compelling evidence of the returns on this next evolution of business. So too are the performance improvement numbers and return on investment established in studies and research efforts of social business approaches, as explored in Part One of this book. The implication of social business is that we are at the beginning of a new generation of enterprise that fundamentally operates better and creates significantly improved value to the world.

Yet even as the journey toward social business nears its first decade, many organizations have only begun their journey, and often in rather limited ways. This might seem surprising, given the benefits already known, the precedent by many industry leading firms, and ready access to techniques and tools. What, then, is holding companies back?

Several things, it turns out, and addressing these will be the central mission for social business transformation efforts. Social business entails deep changes in both strategic thinking and operational reality. This is often referred to as “changing one's DNA,” and it can be difficult, yet, as difficult things often are, it is more than rewarding enough to make the attempt. Social Business by Design comes down to this one proposition: if companies can change the way they fundamentally work, a whole new set of benefits and opportunities is possible. Will you be the one to lead your organization toward social business? The way forward is literally in your hands.

Nevertheless, it turns out that there are a few classic yet unusually stubborn barriers that prevent innovations like social business from making rapid headway in the typical organization. Unless these barriers are largely overcome, it's unlikely that a company will move toward social business in a way that will make a competitive difference or sustainable contribution to the bottom line. In fact, the obstacles we identify are going to be some of the primary barriers to organizations as they make the transition to a social business. The call to action, to become a social business by design, means rallying the organization to change itself in unprecedented ways. Some companies are doing this now. Will yours be among them? Given the high impact that successful transformation to social business can have, it's likely that the future of your company depends on it.

The mind-sets behind major organizational obstacles to making the move to social business can be summarized:

• Not invented here. The tenets of social business are a foreign concept, especially in companies with closed, closely held cultures that are highly self-contained and don't value outside innovation.
• The “boat” is too big to steer. The larger the company, the argument goes, the more difficult it is to change direction and do something new in a widespread way. Any major change would require too much expense or time.
• A strong, distinct culture. Companies with well-established, defined internal cultures can be high performers, yet the culture itself can often act as an immune system that throws out foreign invaders, such as new ideas that might threaten the culture.
• Domination of short-term thinking. Some companies are naturally crisis driven or highly reactive in nature, particularly to financial performance windows, putting them on a treadmill that prevents systematic, well-orchestrated change.

These fixed mind-sets are obstacles to all kinds of innovation and new ideas, not just social business. Although the solutions to overcoming these barriers will be as different as the nature of the individual companies trying to implement change, the solutions will all share key traits in common. First, they will be decentralized efforts with well-defined identities and objectives. They will also focus on constructive outcomes, discovered by engaging and listening to their ecosystems (customers, partners, and marketplace). Research has shown that the “immortals,” companies that have lasted over at least one hundred years of constant change, consistently conduct business in a manner highly supportive of change and innovation.¹ We can learn from those that have changed over and over again, and we also know that social business can be successfully adopted, but only if the tenets are employed in a way that overcomes these natural, yet formidable, obstacles. Ultimately this requires making the first and most important step.

At the Dachis Group, we believe that social business is a natural, inevitable new way of working that taps into what makes us human and produces our best work with the broadest possible benefits to all participants. The network (the global Internet or your company network) now makes this readily possible for the first time in history, and it makes social business global frictionless and the easiest way to work—that is, if we can figure out how to escape the well-worn ruts of the old ways of working. This then is the signature challenge and call to action of the social business era. It's also your challenge as you proceed forward: as technology creates a widening gap between the early adopters and late arrivals, the only shortcut is to boldly push aside the outdated ways of doing business and openly cocreate new social businesses with solutions that drive change, both international and emergent.

Social business requires a minor revolution in thought and a steady evolution of cooperative action, but only if the initial and most critical step is confidently made with as little compromise as possible: everyone is allowed to participate.