In my previous blog posts I have
so far covered how different types of organisations can benefit from social
technology using McKinsey’s 10 value levers. Since this week’s blog post is
directed at the professional service sector, why not take a look at how McKinsey use social technology themselves? This week I will
especially focus on how blogging, twittering and using wikis support the
company business.
Who is McKinsey?
The McKinsey & Company Inc.
was initially founded in Chicago in 1926 and is today one of the world’s most
prestigious management consulting companies serving some of the world’s largest
corporations. Being a well renounced company McKinsey also has high expectations
of its employees. A famous saying from the McKinsey office is “If you can make it here – you can make it
anywhere”. This of cause also makes the company a top priority for graduates
all over the world and has helped build the company image and global profile.
Knowledge sharing at McKinsey
Being a widespread global company
the risk of “reinventing the wheel” has during the latest decade reinforced the
concept of knowledge sharing at McKinsey and the company has therefore
established knowledge management centres and networks globally in order to
source specialist knowledge and share the emergent findings through the company network. Even though the specific used platforms are unknown these actions are, however,
a good example of how McKinsey benefit from using social technology in intra- and inter organisational
collaboration and communication (number 9 of the 10 McKinsey Value levers)
Besides the internal and external company network McKinsey also uses blogging to share knowledge. McKinsey has in fact established a wiki where both current and former employees can publicise their blogs in order to increase knowledge sharing on the latest technology or just improve their work relations.
In terms of
sharing knowledge with the public McKinsey also uses RSS feeds, Pod casts, YouTube, not
to mention Facebook and Twitter where respectively
more than 73.000 friends and 25.000 followers regularly receives status updates
and tweets from the company i.e. regarding new research and publications. One of McKinseys latest initiatives also include a new app for iPad offering several tools to share knowledge and stay connected with users.
Finally McKinsey also upholds a company page on Wikipedia where everything from the company history to clients and company criticism is publicised and regularly updated.
Finally McKinsey also upholds a company page on Wikipedia where everything from the company history to clients and company criticism is publicised and regularly updated.
Conclusion
Like the other companies that I
have previously discussed in terms of social technology McKinsey also seems to
benefit from using social technology. The most striking difference comparing
the former evaluated organisations with McKinsey is perhaps the shift from B2C
to B2B which defiantly affects the way that the social technology tools are
used. Nevertheless I still believe that the above-mentioned proves that a
social service organisation like McKinsey can also benefit from the use of
social technology.
References
McKinsey
The McKinsey & Company Inc.
A famous saying
the companynetwork
McKinsey Value levers
publicise their blogs in order to increaseknowledge sharing
app for iPad
RSS feeds
Pod casts
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
References
McKinsey
The McKinsey & Company Inc.
A famous saying
the companynetwork
McKinsey Value levers
publicise their blogs in order to increaseknowledge sharing
app for iPad
RSS feeds
Pod casts
YouTube
Your remark about moving from B2C to B2B seems quite important. While it's not the main theme of this post, I'm sure more companies and professions could gain greater insight and knowledge through intranet-like sources (such as wikis and blog posts). It seems quite relevant that the Dilbert comic you posted would approach the real issue that companies have with sharing their knowledge. Do you think companies would gain more or less from sharing their information with other companies within the same industry?
ReplyDeleteHi Djcoonan
DeleteThanks for stopping by.
Yes I defiantly had the same thoughts doing my blog post. Even though every network expert on the planet might agree that sharing knowledge i.e. through wikis, blogging or intranets is the future I still think that many companies hold back due to fear of “sharing too much”, being exploited and loosing competitive advantages. Ha ha you gotta love Dilbert he says it all :-)
In relation to your question I think that some of the problematic comes down to the balance of power between the companies. I recall reading a case about LEGO going into collaboration (In terms of outsourcing) with another larger plastic moulding company hoping to share technical knowledge. The collaboration was a total failure as the larger company sucked all the knowledge out of LEGO it needed and not returned the favour. So I think a balanced power relationship might be a good starting point and then build up trust through: you give me something I need – I give you something you need and so on. However, being in the same industry is defiantly a deal breaker so maybe companies should perhaps start looking a bit beyond the natural boundaries of their own industry or perhaps start sharing knowledge through their own supply chain – in this way my answer is defiantly YES I think the potential gain is huge if companies can build up the right relationships :-) Ha ha I can go on and on…I love this specific subject <3
You are right Lise about competitive advantage but I believe organisations and even individuals should adapt this concept of cross-organisational knowledge sharing as it has its benefits such as benchmarking with other organisations and staging areas for new ideas and innovative solutions..the success of this, the participants need to develop a culture of give and take.....just an opinion though..
Deletewww.chiugookoli.wordpress.com ---- my blog :)
Hi
DeleteYes we are definitely agreeing on that companies as well as individuals should engage in knowledge sharing as the benefits are so wide spread. Maybe the future generations of business leaders will embrace the knowledge sharing even more, like you say culture is definitely a big part of the roadblock…
Hi Lise,
DeleteI agree with you that over information sharing can create 'fear' and hold back the organisations to reconsider their social media activities. From my findings, I notice that the organisations can limit the levels of accessibility in several ways from the use of its social media channels. These might include on how the organisations provide internal links to its information, how they define ranges of their information to be 'open' to the public and how they apply the use of authority within their published information. In terms of co-creation either for products/services, I think that it might give the organisations a hard time to decide on which information should be released to the public as well as gaining participants' attentions.
About your post, I find that McKinsey uses its social technologies effectively (e.g. reusing its generated content on either its official website or its Youtube channel within its Twitter’s posts). Also, I like the idea that the organisation engage its audience through available device platforms, such as tablets and smartphones.
Nice post, Lise :)
Hi Sarun
DeleteThanks for stopping by, think you raise some interesting points and agree that companies today have some crucial decisions to make before jumping on the knowledge-sharing-train :-) thanks for your feedback!
Hi Lise! Another great post you have here :) That's really interesting to know more about McKinsey and Company, I never would have even thought to see how they are doing personally as an organisation. I took a look at their twitter page and noticed they have even brought out a new iPad app- do you think that would mainly be for external users or internal users as well? There social media pages are quite formal in terms of the content that they post, but relatable in the way they discuss it all, I think that is a really effective approach. Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time I would really appreciate it if you had a look at my latest blog post:http://brittanysmith2013.wordpress.com/ :)
Hi Brittany
DeleteDidn’t notice that they offered the app but definitely that that this tool could be important in terms of connecting with both internal and external users :-) Yes I also thinks that the formal approach fits McKinsey and their work as a highly skilled and professional company well. But thanks for letting my know about this decided to update my post and include a small video about the app thanks to you :-)
Hi!
ReplyDeleteGreat post :)
So this is the McKinsey we've been using for enterprise 2.0.
Well, I must say that McKinsey would have an advantage here, which is that they really know what they are doing. In other words, they share the knowledge about using social technology, and they also do the theory they made. So it will convience the readers more, don't you think? :D
by the way, mind to take a look at mine?
http://delleee1902.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/how-adobe-use-social-media.html
cheers!
Hi
DeleteYes, I totally agree with you that the readers should definitely be more convinced when the company also uses social media tools themselves. Think the message would have been a bit hollow if McKinsey didn’t practice their own recommendations . But think McKinsey managed to make the most of it. Thanks for stopping by
Hey there, very clever look at how the company itself is using it's own value levers! I find that their allowance of former employees to blog for them very interesting, as you would think there are many risks involved. I guess that clearly demonstrates their effectiveness on the social stage.
ReplyDeleteWhat other value levers do you think they leverage well?
sammacgregor.wordpress.com
Hi
DeleteI must say that I have the same thoughts regarding McKinsey having both present and former employees’ blogging the same place but I guess the potential benefits have been evaluated more significant than the risks. Another value lever that McKinsey also benefit from is i.e. “using social technology for marketing communication/interaction”. But I actually believe that one of the most important value levers of McKinsey’s social strategy is the opportunity to brand itself towards new employees. An important value lever that I think McKinsey failed to emphasise in their own framework…
Another very interesting blog post, writing about McKinsey itself is a quite surprising choice in itself :) I think nowadays more and more organisations are adopting a similar knowledge sharing mechanism in form of intranet wikis and such. It can be even argued that this is becoming the de-facto norm to document internal processes and to create various other types of documentation, especially in agile organisations where requirements can be quite flexible and change a lot. Allowing former employees to contribute is an especially bold move, it would be actually interesting to see some statistics on the effectiveness of that measure.
ReplyDeleteHi
DeleteI think you are right that this type of knowledge sharing fits the profile of the agile companies to a large extend. I think that the reputation of the McKinsey brand is so strong that just being engaged in the McKinsey network, even though you might be a former employee, is still an important part of branding your own professional profile. In terms of effectiveness I guess some key numbers could be a nice insight but that would properly require a whole new study - so here is an idea for you McKinsey :-)