Crowdsourcing gains credibility - Alert Given More Say
One of the lynch pins for the distribution of a firms reputation is the empowerment of stakeholders. In an earlier post I outline an argument regarding "inert" and "alert" stakeholders
and the tactics they can use with regards to an organizations performance. The point I focused on is how the organization needed the alert to inform them of what needed fixing while the inert paid for the changes.
With the adoption of "crowdsourcing" by more firms they tickled with the upside of the alert, but as you read about the survey also think about those instances where the the organization or firm commits a lapse. My point is once you acknowledge and give stakeholders more say - they will use it. That's where a reputation strategy comes in.
A new survey by leading senior marketing executives networking group MENG suggests that business is increasingly looking towards external collaborations as the source for new ideas and innovation.
62% of senior marketers questioned rated crowdsourcing and collaboration as either effective or highly effective, compared to 73% who said the same of internal research and development (R&D), and 63% for employee contributions (workplace innovation).
Most intriguing of all, only a measly 54% rated the use of traditional consulting firms and professional services firms as an effective source for new ideas.
The main pillars for crowdsourcing are:
- Self select / self organisation
- Meritocracy’s
- Open-source development (Linux, Wikipedia, Google open API etc.)
- Customer service via mass collaboration
These findings are great news for the practitioners and followers of crowdsourcing and the open-source movement, however, what it doesn’t highlight is the reasons underpinning this shift. A need for greater democracy is clear in emerging markets, but pressure to follow the example of such leading lights as IBM, Lego and Dell is perhaps going to lead to as many poor imitations as good.
For business to capitalise on the wisdom of the crowd, the right environment must be created. Business needs to be aware of the great challenges of the mechanisms of sharing & distributing co-created value (reward), be it of a social, emotional or financial measure.
Crowdsourcing gains credibility | dub
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