Not so "Social".Media.

             “Man is a social animal. You know what does that mean? We all need friends. It is fun to interact with people, you get to learn new things…” No, No. This is not some dialogue from “me too” novel of undergrad kid. I was in second standard when my parents got a complaint that I stay aloof and do not mix with other students. After the above little pep talk, well, I decided to make an effort to be a “people person”. And, guess what now I just enjoy talking to people (even if they don’t feel the same). I have 738 friends on Facebook and 25 followers on twitter. Wait, this is not how I was supposed to tell this story.

                               So, the story begins in 2005. I was in junior college, and someone told me about Orkut. Till then my internet usage was limited to surfing Wikipedia (yah, right!), and sending email to cousins in US (asking for Harry Potter original copy & I love NYC T shirts). But now I was able to “script” with my friends whom I practically met everyday. “Orkutting” was the new term I had learnt. For me it was the coolest thing until…until Facebook happened. Now it was all about “Liking” and “posting”. “Social networking site” was the buzzword. Though I didn’t understand the purpose of networking with the friends I already knew or random profiles raising apprehensions. Still… C’mon, now I could just update my status and let people know "I was watching movie" or  "I am feeling blue",  I could collect points in Farmville, take “Which Friends character are you?” quizzes, I could brag about new haircut or make others jealous by updating status like “ With the coolest gang @ most happening place”. I mean seriously how else would I have learnt all these things if not for Facebook. People were also bragging about twitter handles, but this was a small bunch then and nobody really knew what purpose twitter solved apart from the fact that it was “cool” to have a twitter handle. Now they were trimming their FB status messages and twitting.

            It was until I started working when I was exposed to this complete spectrum of social networking sites, Linkedin, Blogspot, Youtube, forums. Facebook also had new improved functionality; using free time in office (strictly avoiding the word wasting or killing) and catching up with long lost friends(who were working in the same city). Also I started writing my poems and short stories on a blog and hoped that some random stranger would stumble upon this link and read. (It is definitely less desperate than begging your friends to read and appreciate your writing)     

                          By this time I thought I knew all that is to be known about this “social media” until marketing @spjimr (#spjimr?) happened.Connecting with admissions committee for queries and getting to know your batch mates before joining; these online forums and my dear old friend Facebook showed their true power.  And then one fine day…bam! Lightning struck. I have started studying subjects like Integrated Marketing communication and Social Media Marketing. Believe me, my “e-world” is completely changing now. I can, not only Google something but also find out its search trend over the years across geographies. There are statistical parameters to measure Facebook activity. Right from helping me select a cup of coffee (Consumer behavior analysis though tweets and likes) to conveying my random thoughts to the random e-world out there, Twitter can do it all! This social media is like this powerful tool or like a completely new world of immense possibilities. Google is coming up with “Glass” device. You can look at a person through this glass and you can literally get a “social media print” of a person and know everything about him/her. They claim this will make conversations with strangers interesting. (Yah, right?! Like we are always hoping to talk to random people on the street about their pet dog or a latest fashion purchase). Now that I think about this whole “social media” journey, I think it also in a way  has practically shaped the “social behavior” of our generation. Liking, preferences, lingos, the way we interact with people, everything. And this is THE next big thing, a way forward.             

                                      But I personally feel at times that I am standing at the cross roads, more like a highway and a small lane you can say. The highway, where I  am learning all about the power of social media, how it’s turning the business model, how it is becoming a critical part of IMC…in short how it is changing the whole world, as we know it. On the other side there is this “people ...actual people lover” me standing in the lane, lane connecting to the past, to much simpler world of my childhood. I know, that farther I will go on the highway, more I will be disconnected from this simpler, “real” world, I will miss interacting with people personally, the whole thrill in the mystery of not knowing about certain people you see or coloring stories for fun about people you meet will be lost. I will miss observing human behavior, interacting and finding new things about people, I will miss normal hangouts with friends where “uploading pictures on FB” and “checking in “ is not the purpose of the meet. I will probably be one of those few carrying a hard cover paper book walking alongside kindles. But then, this highway is THE road to future. Choice is easy. Glass there is more than half full.

And who knows one day, I will pass on the wisdom to the next generation, “ Man is social (media) animal”

Ushering in People-archy!

                          It was a time and not long ago when “business of business was to do business, when money was the only driving factor and margins were sacred, when dept of hierarchy was worshiped and an employee thinking out of the box was ignored,when company was the supreme entity and customer was just a source of income. And then, in this era of “pure business”, few rebellions were born. They broke all the dogmas and talked about values. They uttered the taboo words-“worshiping the customers". They talked about not just technical but people skills. Business world was going through a new paradigm shift where values and organization culture was given a due credit of success.

Enterprise today has entered into this new era centred on “people”, “idea” and “values”. From experiential retailing to participative decision making, from customers’ feelings to employees’ breakthrough ideas, it’s all about people. This path breaking transition is still in progress. This decade has seen an authority ladders going down and organizations becoming flatter. “Innovation” is the new key to success and “People first” is the new mantra. With so much changing so fast, what does tomorrow hold for us?  How will tomorrow’s enterprise be run? 

                              I guess the future lies in understanding the true definition of business; it is not about money making by the sole owner or an entity, it is about profit or gain for each and every internal and external stake holder connected to that business. And this gain need not be just monetary always. To achieve this wider objective, enterprise should include all the stake holders in the organizational process. And equally encourage them to contribute towards this objective. Well, the evolving leadership and governance styles and company policies today are very well doing that. Then what is that we expect from tomorrow?  We expect this “people” focus to become more intense, the aspect of culture and organizational values to become much stronger, binding the employees and customers together with this non tangible entity called enterprise.

                             With creating a free and fun work environment to facilitate genesis of new ideas, doing away with formal cubical structures and bringing in bean bag culture, giving employees’ power to choose their carrier path, profile and working style, companies like Google has already started the dawn of this tomorrow.

                        Why do start ups take an accelerating growth path under favourable conditions? Why a person works more passionately for a work which incorporates his/her own opinions and ideas? It’s the sense of ownership, the sense that “I care for this organization and its mine” which drives people to work passionately rather than any monitory, power or carrier growth rewards.

          Giving employees a participation in organizational process to much higher extent, grooming them and assigning a mentor if required, transparency  and aligning individual values to organizational culture as a whole can very well be some of the ways of future “best business governance” practices.

                       Future of management is right here, in our hands. We know our theories and frameworks. We have laid enough structures and designed strategies. It is time to put all these basics into a whole new dimension...dimension of incorporating this very important “human” factor, which will run and direct the future of enterprises. Organizations’ destination might be the monitory objectives and the headlights leading there may be all the strategies but the wheels driving till there are “the people”.

People- archy is here!