How can existing distribution chain members stay connected and become master of their own destiny? A week ago I had the honour to be invited as key note speaker at the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA) for the Unbound Book summit. The theme was the future of (e)books and its’ distribution chain. A huge topic that [...]

Last week, the California- based fashion brand Volga Verdi announced “for the first time in history” to offer its customers discounts depending on the number of friends, followers or fans they have on popular social networks.The more online friends you have, the more discount you get.  For example if you have over 200 followers on Twitter, [...]

Remember those days when we still lived in caves? When we used to go out hunting or berry picking with our tight knit little community of cavemen. Those were the days. Did you ever wonder how many people these groups consisted of? We did. Why? Because we like to talk about communities. That’s why we [...]

Opening up without a strong inner compass is a recipe for permanent stress

Decision making comes in many forms. One can easily see the difference between a decision that you make yourself, and a decision that must be made by a group. In the latter example, many people are not quite happy with the outcome, some even not at all, and only a few are getting the outcome [...]

Before you answer this question, we should ask ourselves what status ‘Twittering’ really is. I’d like to call it a tool to update your status. Twitter or Facebook starts with updating your status. The basic idea of a status update is to share others what you are doing, what you are thinking of, or any [...]

Most people have joined one or more social networks nowadays. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter: many people have found a way to use them to their advantage. They know how to create value out of it by participating, or even just by observation. People feel comfortable by doing that. Participating and joining discussions with their peers, known [...]

Power, creativity and controversy: these are three keywords for yielding more results from innovation communities. However, it is not just simply more power, more creativity and more controversy that a community needs… Or is it? Some time ago I was researching an employee-driven innovation community (EDI). The community was developed for the purpose of optimizing [...]

Needless to say that crowdsourcing with customers is getting big and that many companies are attempting to emulate lighthouse examples as MyStarbucksIdea and Dell Ideastorm. Obviously this is easier said than done. Many initiatives founder after the initial excitement. What makes MyStarbucksIdea work?

In an earlier post I introduced the term Communitize, signifying the trend where traditional company codes and structures are gradually submerged in a constant flow of community-driven exchange and collaboration, defying organizational divisions and boundaries. Communitizing enables organizations to absorb and harness the collective wisdom of their constituencies, increasing their capacity for change and innovation. [...]