Operational Barriers to SocialBiz Success

I hosted a webinar for Awareness, Inc. back in December 2009 about operational barriers to social business success.  Christine Major provides a great summary on her blog that includes the Twitter stream of commentary.

I began the webinar by characterizing social business.

Characteristics of Social Business

1. People-centric (employees, customers, business partners)
2. Transparent processes
3. Culture of trust
4. Egalitarian (everyone participates and has a voice)
5. Self-organizing networks
6. Two-way, unstructured information exchange
7. Events are orchestrated, not controlled

What I found in my research at IDC is that many large organizations maintain a hierarchical, command and control management model that is at direct odds with social business.  Traditional corporate culture often supports business operations that act as barriers to social business transformation.  These internal barriers are what many businesses will have to overcome in order to realize the full potential of participating in social media.  (Full webinar recording below)

Ten Operational Barriers to Social Business

1. Organizational silos
2. Command and control management
3. Top-down, one-way communication channels
4. Social activities not integrated into work flow
5. Employees measured on individual performance
6. Competitive culture
7. No guidelines or training for social media
8. No methods for measuring social value
9. No executive sponsor for social initiatives
10. No role models for social media initiatives (peers with experience and expertise)

Here is the full webinar posted by Awareness, Inc.  Thanks @cmajor and @bostonmike.

I’d like your feedback.

Did I miss anything?

I’d also like to hear from you about the biggest challenge your business is facing today with social initiatives.