Book Review: 'A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive' by Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt

How and why Rebel Heretics will thrive in the Social Age

I agree with Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt: “No one knows what the future of social, or its impact on business, will really be. No one — yet — understands its full potential.” That was no doubt said about the printing press as well as steam power and telephonics, later about the Internet and then the Web, and now about social media. In one of his several books, Frank Feather quoted a teacher who suggested that “a liquid always assumes the shape of its container.” I think that’s generally true but if we view the social media as a container, we still do not know its nature extent as new capabilities and applications seem to be revealed each day.

These are among the subject areas that Coiné and Babbitt explore that are of greatest interest to me:

o The major differences between the Industrial Age and the Social Age: Implications and probable consequences

o What an “amplifier” is and why it “only gets louder”

o “Rogue Tweeters” and why they are “way past ugly”

o The Evolution of Social Recruiting (Chapter 4)

o Determining the ROI of social recruiting

o How and why engagement always has been and continues to be a “top-down leadership issue”

o Determining the ROI of a “community”

o The “perfect” killer app

o Why workers perform better in “flat” organizations

o The causes and effects of “the death of large”

o How and why to flatten hierarchies

o The nature, extent, and potentialities of the “OPEN Challenge”

o Creating or increasing demand with social media

o Social media and analytics

o The unique and compelling significance of “Rebel Heretics”

As indicated earlier, I really do agree with Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt: “No one knows what the future of social, or its impact on business, will really be. No one — yet — understands its full potential.” That said, I remain convinced that leaders in almost any organization, whatever its size and nature may be, can derive substantial value from the information, insights, and counsel they provide if (HUGE “if”) they proceed in a timely manner to formulate a game plan based on whatever is most relevant among the material in this book. That done, they must implement the game plan with sufficient resources and a shared sense of urgency.

My own opinion is that social media comprise the first “wave” of what will soon become a “tsunami” of information, of course, but also of new applications, disruptive innovations, in addition to threats and perils as well as unprecedented opportunities as organizations struggle to leverage that information to maximum advantage. In essence, the organizational challenge is survive during this latest process of natural selection…or perish.

Editor's note: This review was written by Robert Morris and has been published with his permission. Like what you read? Subscribe to the SFRB's free daily email notice so you can be up-to-date on our latest articles. Scroll up this page to the sign-up field on your right.