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Entire contents © 2012-2013 by Christopher S. Rollyson

Guidance for Firms:

Building a Social Business Advisory Practice

Advisory & Services Firm Social Business Adoption 2012

Executive Briefing

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Executive Briefing

Overview: Guidance for Firms–Building a Social Business Advisory Practice

• Research survey analyzes advisory firms in a new way: – Firms' ability to serve clients who want to transform their

organizations with social business– 12 metrics rank social business Practice & Leadership of

Strategy, Enterprise I.T., Analyst, Big Four, Pureplay and Agency (MAP*) firms—against peers & overall

• The survey explicitly serves advisory firms:– Metrics educate firm executives about social business

competencies and practices– Rankings enable useful comparisons of diverse firm types

• Contents of this Executive Briefing:– Background summarizes design principles, mission, methods and definitions– Rankings compare firms' Overall, Practice and Leadership scores– Interpreting Results discusses firm rankings and capabilities in terms of clients'

use cases and positions in social business life cycle – Using Results offers explicit guidance for using rankings and building social

business practices

2* Marketing/Advertising/PR

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Executive Briefing

Background: Research Survey Design Principles

• Social business uses social technologies for collaboration, so it differs from social media, which focuses on marketing/promotion.

• Web-style emergent collaboration enables unprecedented productivity.• Organizations are not designed to enable emergent collaboration, so they

must transform business processes & culture to survive, medium/long-term.• Organizations must develop native social business skills; stakeholders

increasing prefer and support organizations that collaborate with them.• Social business success is based on relating, which requires higher order

skills than promoting; relating enables trust, sharing and collaboration.• Advisory firms' competencies are relevant to social business, but firms are

just perceiving the potential; they are exploring how to meet the market.• Advisory firms will have to get more "social" to be competent and credible.

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Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Background: Research Survey on Advisory Firm Social Business

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• Mission– Educate clients and firms about the importance of social business

Practice in firms' ability to guide clients' social business-led transformation– Introduce metrics for social business that distinguish it from social media– Highlight the need for organizational change to unlock value from social business

• Method– Designed metrics to measure firms' capabilities in advising clients on social

business-led transformation of organizations– Created assessment workflow and use case in which a client team evaluates

advisory firms for their ability to advise on social business-led transformation– Selected firms based on public commitment to social business as transformation– Applied workflow and metrics to evaluate firms' main domains, linked social

presences, and related public data– Analyzed data, and created Overall, Practice and Leadership rankings– Interpreted rankings and wrote advisories for clients and firms

• Definitions– Leadership rankings show firms' commitment as reflected by public content– Practice rankings emphasize firms' social business practices

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Rankings: Top10 Overall

Definition• Overall combines Practice and

Leadership scores.• Practice weighted more heavily.• General indication of firms' all-

around investment in social business as transformation.

• High Overall doesn't necessarily mean best advisors to other firms.

Analysis• Dell, Forrester & Salesforce best

practitioners and understanding of social business transformation.

• Pureplays' strong scores due to Practice.• Analysts' and Enterprise I.T.'s strong

scores due to Leadership.• Top scores only reached two thirds

possible points, so room to grow.5

Dell Forrester Salesforce Accenture IBM SideraWorks Dachis IDC Gartner Infosys SxD Possible

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4646464851525354626668

See the list of firms and categories:http://tinyurl.com/homesbadpt13

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Executive Briefing

Rankings: Top10 Practice

Definition• Compares completeness of firms'

social business practices/services and their use of social technologies.

• Practice metrics:– Practice Definition, Social Business

Life Cycle, Sociality, Point of View, Leader Blog, Interactivity and Personability

Analysis• Pureplays, Enterprise I.T. & Strategy

firms score highest in Practice.• Enterprise I.T. focus on pull-through

for legacy products/services.• Pureplays focus on social business

advice.• Strategy firms understand

enterprise transformation.6

Dell Dachis Sidera SxD Forrester Salesforce Altimeter ConstRG CapG McKinsey Booz BCG AT Kearney Edelman Possible

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2525252525252828

373740404343

See the list of firms and categories:http://tinyurl.com/homesbadpt13

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Executive Briefing

Rankings: Top10 Leadership

Definition• Shows firms' understanding of and

investment in social business as transformation.

• Leadership metrics:– Momentum, Collaboration, Case

Study, Tools, Firm Posts, Influence• Leadership can be a false indicator

for ability to advise organizations.

Analysis• Enterprise I.T., Analysts & Big Four

score highest in Leadership.• Leadership scales in traditional way:

thought leadership and marketing.• Leaders also monetize most easily:

– Enterprise I.T.: legacy pull-through– Analysts: research products– Big Four: risk management

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IBM Accenture Forrester Gartner IDC Deloitte Dell Salesforce Infosys E&Y Possible

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20242525262627

2932

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See the list of firms and categories:http://tinyurl.com/homesbadpt13

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Interpreting Results: Social Business Life Cycle

Analysis• Each phase of the life cycle requires

different competencies.• Advisors map to different phases of

the life cycle.• Clients have to hire complementary

advisors in 2013; none cover it all.• Analysts are limited to Feasibility

and minimal Strategy.

• MAP* is between Strategy & Pilot, can't fully cover any phase of the life cycle.

• Strategy and Big Four firms can cover Feasibility, much of Strategy and part of Integrate, but little/none in Pilot or Scale.

• Enterprise I.T. and Pureplays fully cover Pilot, part of Strategy and Scale.

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Big Four

Analysts

S o c i a l B u s i n e s s L i f e C y c l eFeasibility Strategy Pilot Scale Integrate

Enterprise I.T.

Pureplays

Strategy MAP

* Marketing/Advertising/PR

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Interpreting Results: Client Social Business Use Cases

• Fix the Fire Drill—an external event raises social business priority: The business gets embarrassed, a competitor has a major social media win, or a business deal gets affected. Leadership wants to “fix it,” so it doesn’t repeat. Strong focus on Strategy and mentoring in Pilot.

• Upgrade Social Media—the business has been practicing social media for 1-4 years and has seen promotional results but few real business returns. It wants to reevaluate efforts before investing further. Requires strong focus on Strategy and mentoring in Pilot.

• Catch the Leaders—businesses with conservative cultures have avoided social technologies; now they worry about being left behind. They want to mitigate risks while moving aggressively to outperform leaders across the life cycle. Strong focus on Strategy, and mentoring in Pilot and Scale.

• Herd the Cats—leaders want to use strategy across brands to provide a keel that resonates with corporate strategy; they also want a social business “center of excellence” to serve several brands. Requires due diligence during Feasibility, strong focus on Strategy, and mentoring in Pilot and Scale.

• Transform the Enterprise—management wants to restructure the business, so it evaluates social business as an enabler. Due diligence in Feasibility, strong focus on Strategy, mentoring in Pilot and strong guidance in Scale & Integrate.

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Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Interpreting Results: Social Business Use Cases

Analysis• Fix Fire Drill and Upgrade Social

Media are usually more tactical and don’t require Feasibility, but they do require Strategy and Pilot.

• Catch Leaders has a controlled sense of urgency, aims to outperform rivals by executing better.

• Catch Leaders, Herd Cats and Transform Enterprise are more strategic and address more phases of the life cycle.

• Fix Fire Drill and Upgrade Social Media will eventually extend to Scale and Integrate, which are out of scope for these use cases.

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S o c i a l B u s i n e s s L i f e C y c l eFeasibility Strategy Pilot Scale Integrate

Fix Fire Dril l

Upgrade Social Media

Catch Leaders

Herd Cats

Transform Enterprise

➡ This paper has in-depth descriptions of use cases & how they work

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Using Results: Social Business Use Cases & Firms

Analysis• Select the use case that best fits

your competencies to start building.• Doing strategy is more macro in

Feasibility, more micro in Strategy.

• Strategy recommends pilots, so Analyst, Strategy & Big Four firms have limited ability in social business strategy.

• Practice ratings vital in Pilot & Scale.

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Fix Fire Dril l

Upgrade Social Media

Catch Leaders

Herd Cats

Transform Enterprise

Big Four

Analysts

S o c i a l B u s i n e s s L i f e C y c l eFeasibility Strategy Pilot Scale Integrate

Enterprise I.T.

Pureplays

Strategy MAP

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Using Results: Guidance for Firms [General]

12* Marketing/Advertising/PR

Your firm is likely evaluating social business for your own use, as a potential service offering or both. You can use rankings as toolsto build your capabilities to meet growing demand for social businesswhile gracefully avoiding the deflating demand for social media.• Study this survey’s Strategy, Big Four, Enterprise I.T., Analyst, Pureplay and

MAP reports via its home page. Learn how the rankings and metrics work. Note that all include separate advice for firms and clients.

• Social business has a strong defensive aspect: when my clients have opened continuous, spontaneous communication with stakeholders, they have seen emerging market developments affecting their legacy businesses. Offensively, they can launch new offers and make legacy offers more relevant.

• Examine the Social Business Life Cycle. What parts of the life cycle are most relevant to your firm and related practices? You can start and expand.

• Evaluate your partners’/principals’ "social" presences. Who is already having substantial interactions with a professional-yet-personal demeanor? Start with a few people; motivation and skill counts more than position in your hierarchy.

• Choose one or more visionary partners as champions who need not be strong social business practitioners (although that helps); they should understand and commit to its value proposition to clients and your firm.

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Using Results: Guidance for Firms [Practice]

13* Marketing/Advertising/PR

Use Practice metrics to study IBM, Accenture, McKinsey, AT Kearney,Dell, Deloitte & Dachis; compare your firm to theirs: 1) how they use social technologies; 2) their social business service offerings.• IBM has many presences & thought leadership on social business transformation.• Dell leads in integrating forums and client/customer voice into its main domain.• Accenture has the best description of its social business services.• Deloitte has a nice mix of social business services and thought leadership,

but it drops the ball in relating; this is the rule for firms, not the exception.• Dachis has an “approachable/professional” persona and an active blog.• AT Kearney features little social business content and no services, but it's

best in class in personability; leading partners show that they understand social business transformation, and they are approachable yet credible. They are the only Strategy firm that has significantly dropped “firmspeak."

• McKinsey has invested in social business thought leadership for years, and its “The Social Economy” is best in class. Read it. Thoroughly. Note the transformation argument, rationale and call to action.

• Learn from firms' weaknesses. Most lose points because they don't address the Social Business Life Cycle, services are scattershot, and they have minimal leaders relating online and thus no credibility. Most cling to firmspeak.

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Using Results: Guidance for Firms [Leadership]

14* Marketing/Advertising/PR

Use Leadership metrics for guidance in how to communicate and project your point of view on social business—and how you relate to adoption. • Firms that project Leadership ahead of their ability to deliver (Practice) lose

credibility with astute clients/prospects. Most firms that led the survey in Leadership had woefully scant descriptions of their social business services.

• Practice trumps Leadership because it delivers; firms need to show their competence through their partners' and principals' online interactions.

• Watch Analyst firms, especially Forrester, Constellation Research and Altimeter. Although they do not field substantial transformation services, they understand the social business value proposition, and all use social technologies very well.

• Leadership should be less important to you until you have a strategy for your firm’s social business services.

➡Read detailed advice for advisory firm types in category reports (over)

Guidance for Firms: Building a Social Business Advisory Practice3/15/13

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Using Results: Action Steps

• Get reports on the research survey microsite:– http://tinyurl.com/homesbadpt13– Executive summary expands this briefing– Category reports for Strategy, Big Four, Analyst,

Agency, Enterprise I.T., Pureplay offer more detailed interpretation and guidance

– More on survey design: http://tinyurl.com/prevsbadpt13• Order individual firm analyses or research surveys:

– I advise firms and organizations on maturing their social business practices

Related thought leadership• The Social Channel shows how social business is

driving global social, political and economic change:– http://socialchannel.biz

• Learn from social business videos and case studies:– http://www.socialbusinessservices.biz/resources/

Contact• http://rollyson.net• http://about.me/csrollyson• iphone - chris@rollyson.net• iphone +1.312.925.1549• skype/IM - csrollyson