Re-Inventing Collaboration: CRM as Social Technology

But is it?

The systems we use to manage our relationships eventually transform into the systems we use to collaborate with those relationships.

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Engaging Veterans with CRM

If you’re into using technology to engage people in a mission, you’ve gotta check out this very impressive video. This is a friend, Sam Dorman describing a project he worked on with the folks at Biro Creative and Etherios for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). It’s a very sophisticated front-end website that’s built on top of IAVA’s Salesforce.com database. The goal of this ...

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Batman Complicates the Netflix-Facebook Relationship

Managing a relationship between Netflix and Facebook was already complicated enough – but now Batman’s come in and mucked everything up. Under a just announced deal, Warner Bros. will be making selected movies available for digital rental on each film’s respective Facebook page. The Warner-Facebook relationship starts today with “The Dark Knight.” That’s right, you’ll be watching movies on Facebook. Holy ...

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“Thick Value” Looks Like a Carpet to Me

When companies deliver goods and services that truly leave the world better off, that’s “thick value.” That means creating real economic value; not simply capturing it from customers or suppliers, but genuinely making everyone better off. “Thick value” isn’t my idea. It’s something that Umair Haque talks about in his new book “The New Capitalist Manifesto.” I just experienced “thick ...

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What American Idol Teaches Us About Customer Engagement

You’re probably too cool to watch American Idol, right? I’m not. I think it’s a brilliant show that also has something to teach organizations about engaging their stakeholders. Contestants sing their hearts out every night and some of the performances are truly touching. Check out Jacob Lusk pouring his heart out in the video clip below. He literally breaks down ...

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The Divine Right of Capital – A Summary

The Divine Right of Capital

To fix capitalism, it helps to first have a good diagnosis of the problems. Start here.

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Netflix’s Tricky Dance with Facebook

Netflix is going to get more social, with deeper integration with Facebook - and it's going to be a tricky dance. Don't get me wrong; Netflix has to do this to stay competitive. It just needs to be very careful about how it negotiates the service's points of interaction with Facebook's social graph. As our shared movie viewing experience deteriorates with the proliferation of digital devices, people are going to look for other ways to connect socially through movies. So getting this social layer right truly is important for Netflix.

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If Companies are People, Where’s Their Soul?

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

The U.S. Constitution is the foundation of our political system, but to find its spirit, we must look to the Declaration of Independence. When our nation struggles with difficult questions, it is this document that serves as a North Star to keep us on course with our founding vision. One such question that we wrestle with today is whether our Constitution provides ...

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Why Facebook Needs to (Really) Open Up its IPO

In Mark We Trust

Facebook users invest massive time, energy and social capital in building the underlying value of this service, so what would it look like to really open the company's IPO in ways that helped its user build a fuller sense of equity?

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How Crowd Sourcing Can Save Lives

When someone has a heart attack, every second counts. Speed treatment, and you save lives. That’s why the new iPhone app just released by the San Ramon Valley Fire Department is so interesting. The new iPhone app, called Fire Department, acts like a “crowd sourced emergency response” app and it shows a lot of promise for connecting everyday people like you and ...

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