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Is the future mob rule?
The rapid decentralization of expertise with the growth of business & social networks across the Internet is creating monumental change for businesses. These knowledge networks can be powerful tools in the hands of those who know how to access and harness them effectively. Members of these networks - who have "been there, done that" - can be tapped for their diverse sets of knowledge and experiences to solve business problems. We call this crowdsourcing (i). Traditionally management consultants have relied on centralized knowledge but this paradigm is changing. Leveraging these vast pools of decentralized expertise and bring business issue solutions to your doorstep - more effectively, more quickly and more economically then has ever been possible. Let's talk about unlocking the potential of crowdsourcing, getting thousands of talented people to work for you and achieve goals not possible with a fixed staff, whether internal or outsourced to a traditional service firm. To leverage crowdsourcing, you have to throw out traditional conventions:
Diversify - Your customers probably represent a diverse swath of the population. Chances are the senior management of your company does not. We're not talking about ethnicity of course; we're talking about diversity of life experience, knowledge and problem solving. All three of these of virtues can best be described by the intervention of a young boy during the building the Niagara suspension bridge in 1847. It seems the engineers on the project were out of ideas on how to get the first line strung between the US and Canada. The 800 foot gorge under Niagara Falls could not traversed by boat (the typical method), other ideas included: shooting arrows with lines attached, rockets, cannons, etc. In the end it was a steel worker who suggested a kite contest to deliver the line. The bridge company accepted the contest idea, and a fifteen year-old boy by the name of Homan Walsh won the contest by landing his kite on the opposite side. This successful, crowdsourced project cost the bridge company a grand total of $10. This of course is not a dig on engineers; it is an example of how crowdsourcing can tap a wider range of ideas, experience and perspective, and uncovering more opportunity than looking simply looking within. No expert would consider using a toy to solve a million dollar problem, and thankfully, no kid would consider a million dollar solution when there are perfectly good toys around!
Incentivise - Successful crowdsourcing is like a mini economy. People always do better when there is something of value at stake. Consider sales forecasting. Every company does it and the forecasts are almost always wrong. Why? The practice is often limited to a select few individuals in the organization who directly benefit from increased sales. What if you gathered a diverse set of individuals from around the company who each had some perspective on the forecast at hand, and then you offered rewards for the most accurate predictions. Hewlett-Packard did just that, (ii) by forming a group of employees from all around the company and incentivising them to accurately predict printer sales. During three years of this experiment, the diverse team outperformed traditional sales predictions 6 out of 8 times. Drug marker Eli Lilly used the same strategy to successfully predict clinical trial outcomes.
Stop Meeting - When was the last time you came out of a meeting surprised by its outcome, or, having learned anything truly insightful? Probably a long time ago. The fact is that most organizations use meetings to build consensus, rather than to explore and develop new ideas. In the social network, everyone's opinion matters. There is no reason to hold back for fear of political reprisal because there is no organization to protect. In crowdsourced projects, meetings are held sparingly, special attention is paid to prevent team members from 'flocking' and to make sure they are bringing original thought to the table. Without meetings to hide in, non-performers can be quickly weeded out. Remember, without a fixed staff, talent is all that matters.
Filter - Fact, Joe DiMaggio was not unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cecil B. DeMille never won an academy award for any of his films. Think about that for a minute. Both Joe DiMaggio and Cecil B. DeMille, icons of their professions, were not fully recognized for it. In these two instances, some very bad votes did not get filtered out. In a fixed staff model, teams work on multiple projects over time learning what they need along the way. The solutions these teams offer up to complete projects are limited by the group's learning curve. Crowdsourced projects start with many experts, there is no learning curve, and solutions come pouring in. There is no need to filter solutions as in the fixed-staff world because there you have so few options. With crowdsourcing you access many more options than typically with fixed staff alone. This is why advanced filtering methodologies need to be employed to keep the team on track. You want to keep Joe and Cecil and get rid of opinions that will steer you wrong.
Harnessing the power of business networking and crowdsourcing to the benefit of our customers. We break down the barriers to information flow and tap new business realities to deliver superior solutions to problems. Some of the critical realities we have observed, and our business addresses, include these:
- Quality information is no longer the sole domain of multi-national powerbrokers. Some of the most valuable information to change our world in the last ten years has come from collective knowledge, shared over the internet via social / business networks:
- Individuals sharing information over the Internet, not large news services, broke the Enron scandal, Monica Lewinski scandal, Jason Blair New York Times scandal, supposed falsification of Bush's military records (Dan Rather), and the Donald Rumsfeld resignation.
- Linux is quietly displacing Microsoft with an operating system that is free, has no development staff, and no marketing strategy.
- The web browser Firefox is developed in an "open source" environment, meaning everyone can contribute to it. Firefox is currently the #2 Browser - without a fulltime development staff or formal marketing campaign.
- My Space and You Tube are two of the most valuable properties on the web, both relying on customers (not staff) for 100% of their content.
- Google gives away the most expensive real estate on its search pages, and much of its software. Google uses other web sites to determine search ranking, not a complicated internal process.
- The very idea of work is changing. Employees cut off from pensions and rich benefit packages are finding other ways to create financial security in the form of consulting and starting small businesses. Others are simply forced out in the prime of their careers.
- Many of those in the workforce suffer from presenteeism (iii). They attend work but do not fully contribute, either because they feel detached from the corporate political agenda, or are underemployed and looking for a challenge outside of work.
What does all this mean? Is the future mob rule? No! We see these phenomena as all linked together. The really good stuff, the next big thing, the defining idea was always in the hands of the individual, but the individual never had such a powerful voice than exists with today's business and social networks.
Now large organizations are starting to feel the pressure of networking groups that have broader knowledge than fixed staff model companies, and are not bound to the same economic model as large multi-nationals. How does a Microsoft or an NBC compete with Linux or YouTube whose members are global, smart and work for the glory of recognition? They increasingly can't, and the model must change.
And change it will. Crowdsourcing is powered by the collective knowledge of many thousands of talented people. They can be called upon at a moment's notice to provide you with the expertise you need to meet the challenges you face. We believe management consulting can be greatly improved through the adoption of more flexible, open source or crowdsource models, such as the software and consumer media verticals already benefit from.
Skeptical? Just consider the following comparisons between Traditional Business Consulting and Crowdsourcing:
Traditional Business Consulting | Crowdsourcing |
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How do we do this? There is a huge pool of executive talent that is not tied to one consulting house, company or organization. Hundreds of experienced senior-level managers are members of selective, national business networks. They share their savvy and know-how with each other. They can also share it with you.
The networks we work with consist of seasoned executives, who must meet high salary and position criteria (Directors, VPs and General Managers). These networks require referrals for members to join, so not just anyone can get in. We do not work with rank-and-file middle managers or junior staffers. These networks also have databases where we can prescreen members' credentials.
We work regularly with these knowledge networks. We know how to navigate them and tap their expertise. We put our own experience to work to frame your issues and get to the points that matter. We summarize your critical needs, post the right questions to our networks, and access the most qualified people. We vet their responses and credentials, and then connect you to one or more key people who can really help.
What business leaders really need is the simple truth - the one that solves their problem. Wouldn't it be great to just be able to access the right senior executives who don't have to re-learn your business. They just provide the right answers that you need.
It's simple, effective and efficient!
i Howe, Jeff. The Rise of Crowdsourcing. Wired Magazine issue 14.06, June 2006
ii Totty, Michael. How to Decide? Create a Market. The Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2006
iii Rubenstein, Sarah. Companies Tackle Worker Maladies; Faced With Weak Output, More Firms Aim to Treat On-the-Job Aches, Pains. Wall Street Journal. January, 2005.
