While DMI (please forgive me, Michael Beirut ;-) just held its first conference on “Empowered Innovation” the next European conference titled “Design Leadership” to be held in Amsterdam/NL from March 29-31, 2006 is already on its way.
In particular I’m proud that DMI invited me for running a Leadership Forum called: “Blogging for Design Leadership: What Corporate PR can’t say!”. The Leadership Forum Sessions are a recently added extension to the classical conference speeches held by keynote speakers. In contrast the Leadership Forum sessions rather emphasize the dialogue with a smaller group and are held parallel to other sessions. My main goal for this session is to discuss the opportunities that arise from sharing process knowledge (both via internal blogs as well as public blogs) and what to keep in mind when you enter the blogosphere with your company.
On one hand I agree with my former MBA student Oliver Thylmann (now founder of a web-startup with a focus on online performance marketing solutions) that “Blogging will loose the hype”:
“You will stop seeing reports that company x now does this blog thing. It will stop to be news and it will become something of a part of the marketing/media mix. This will when the growth will really take of, when not everything will be called blogging for the heck of it. The general idea of being open in your communication, allowing feedback, starting conversations, posts being displayed with newest first, attracting niches, … all this will become very important. …”
On the other I’ve had many conversations with a broad range of international business people about blogs. And unfortunately so far not too many did really grasp the considerable impact blogs might have within your organization as well as their impact on external (authentic) communication.
Therefore I’m driven by the following scenario: Imagine reading a diary say your own recordings from many years ago or the diary of a contemporary witness. Beside being interested in the” What” referring to events and facts, the “Why” issues reflecting on motives are usually far more interesting. By the same token blogging goes beyond telling your department or the public “What” you do. Blogs are about sharing the “Why” resulting in a win-win scenario for you and your audience.
If you find the time come and join the European Design Management community in Amsterdam. In case you have already registered and plan to join my session feel free to drop me a note on your questions and issues you’d like to have addressed. I’m looking forward to hearing from you :-)
Oliver Thylmann Says:
December 14th, 2005 at 19:51Visit Oliver Thylmann
Great great point. The “Why” part is what sets companies apart because it’s audience understands why something was done, which is very powerful. This is why this is different from standard market where you shove your feature list at somebody and hope they believe. With blogs you can make them believe if what you do is the right thing. Again going back to the idea that blogging is helping companies make the right decisions.
Michael Says:
December 14th, 2005 at 22:01Visit Michael
“Why” is where it’s at! Why moves the conversation to the issue of “meaning”. And as Hugh Macleod says on one of his business cards - there is an infinite market for meaning (www.gapingvoid.com).
Why also opens the door to zombie-free markets filled with depth of passion vs. a mind numbing chatter about features as Oliver suggests.
Why is messy. For that reason it will frighten those who long for the good old days of marketing monologues vs. blog inspired market dialogues. But it is how the human meets the business to create a human business model. And it is coming and even now is.
I only wish I could be there in March to watch Ralf in action!
Ralf Beuker Says:
December 14th, 2005 at 22:04Visit Ralf Beuker
Oliver, Michael, thanks for the kind and highly appreciated comments from experts like you! Best, Ralf.
Hans Henrik Says:
December 19th, 2005 at 10:29Visit Hans Henrik
Hi all
Interesting discussion - I finished a Master last year in Management Development - my thesis was about how to use weblogs as catalysts for radical innovation. So I have lots and lots of opinions on what weblogs can and cant be used for :-)
One point that I think was made very clear by Johnnie Moore at CPH127 was about thriving conversation - http://www.cph127.com/cph127/2005/09/thriving_design.html
I was very much inspired by the article mentioned.
Having said that a weblog is only a tool - one among hundreds….
We need to remember that it’s not about technology, its about people - mindset’s :-)
All the best
Hans Henrik