Creating Crowd Value: Taking the Next Step Beyond the Social Enterprise

by David Coleman

As a business leader you're probably just starting to contend with social networks in your business and often find them to be of questionable value. The "social enterprise" is being touted as the next big thing: the new way to do business and a "social" way to do business. But the next big thing in collaboration is crowds, not the social enterprise. Social is only a new method of connecting and discovering information; it does not enable and guide action or have an outcome or result. Business is about delivering results and for that you need a crowd. In this Executive Report, I define a crowd as a network of people that has business value and drives an outcome, task, or goal. Understanding how crowds can add value to your business and making sure your business does not get disintermediated (the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain) by a crowd-based business is the focus of this report.