Attention CEO's: There's something in the water

Imagine. The water in the office becomes contaminated & everyone starts taking ill.

• The sales team stop engaging clients & closing deals
• The recruiting team miss key interviews & critical appointments delayed
• Key marketing campaigns are postponed, impacting forecasts & client events
• Key training not completed, causing compliance challenges.
• Nobody is manning the reception desk

Then - when everyone returns to work, the focus is on short term overdue tasks rather than strategic activities like key training, planning & collaboration. Basically every part of the organisation is impacted when something as basic as water goes wrong.

For those of us in North Dublin on boil notice at the moment, these are genuine fears we have right now! But in modern business, are there new elements that like water are impacting every facet of our business that we are unaware of? Are there opportunities that we're missing through our traditional but ultimately myopic approach to business?

Social Media is changing the way we do business forever - it's that newcomer that perhaps you thought was a short term fad but has found it's way into every aspect of your organisation. If this is news to you, please take a deep breath & take a seat.

Jeff Weiner, through his vision to create the world's first economic graph has a data source so rich and insightful that it's helping solve some of the world's biggest challenges such as labor displacement due to war. Facebook are connecting like minded people with each other regardless of where they are in the world, creating friendships that would have been otherwise impossible. Newer platforms like TikTok and Discord are engaging our kids at unbelievable rates & are surely the future in how people communicate and collaborate.

What does this mean for your business?

• Your clients are forming impressions of your business & your staff through their social media profiles profiles. They're researching your products and services & asking their networks for their advice before & make decisions before talking to your sales team
• Your competitors are finding smart ways to get the right messaging to the right clients & talent influencing their decision making process in every innovative ways. They're also using social data to make decisions e.g. where should we open our next sales office to attract available sales talent.
• Your staff are finding ways to educate themselves online & take control of their careers through sharing their skills and experiences online. The wisdom of in person training vs e-learning is no longer a debate & e-learning is often the primary method for up-skilling.
• This huge influence across your business is already happening at pace & scale. In the past it was just face to face interactions where information like this flowed, now its going viral, globally. Impressions been formed, decision made - All this before anyone walks into your newly renovated reception area!

The good news: with challenge comes HUGE opportunity - opportunity to modernize and take control of what's in the water in well thought out strategy across Sales, Marketing, Talent Acquisition & Learning/ Development. Unlike water, social media provides insightful data, tools and processes to effectively take control of every aspect of unlocking the potential for your business. More information