The Company as Wiki by Best Buy’s Brad Anderson

A couple of months back I put together a short blog post (The Company as Wiki by Best Buy) on how Best Buy was eventually embracing social software and how they were telling their story in an amazing YouTube video in a little bit less than five minutes. Well, earlier on this week, and thanks to a bunch of tweets from Paul Thornton, I bumped into an extended version of that same video clip, but this time around with an extended interview with Brad Anderson, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Best Buy and who retired in June 2009, and Peter Hirshberg.

The interview was recorded in September at Zeitgeist 2008 and you will be able to find the direct link to it over here. I would want to keep things short in this blog post, so you have got a chance to go through the entire session which lasts for a little less than 29 minutes. But it will be worth it, I can assure you that, specially if you would want to find out plenty more on how their social networking initiatives are getting along…

However, I wouldn’t want to let you go without a few annotations I think would be worth while going through so that you can have a quick glimpse of what you are about to watch and listen to. They are in no particular order, nor priority. Simply some of what I think were the most interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring ideas exchanged during the interview with Brad. So, without much further ado, here are some of the thoughts of what you will find over at "Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy at Zeitgeist ’08":

• The next generation of leaders would need to start learning, and rather quickly!, how to let things go, i.e. control, ideas, etc. and start thinking their job is more that one of a facilitator than one of command and control.
• Is Middle Management really threatened by the emergence of social software within the corporate firewall? Most folks would tell you so; I still believe it’s quite the opposite!
• How is Best Buy being affected by the younger generations entering the workplace? Is there such a significant impact?
• Looks like some of the social software initiatives I talked about previously, like Loop Market (Idea generation), Tag Trade, Blueshirtnation (BSN), etc. are as healthy as ever!
• Traditional hierarchical structures are changing tremendously right as we speak, as social software is helping executives and regular employees interact with one another at the same level. And so it happens with the rest of the management line!
• Storytelling used rather heavily with a business purpose: learning from one another by sharing their stories is probably as powerful as it gets!
• Building up your brand through enhancing customer loyalty … as well as through improving the overall employee loyalty. Keeping your employees happy will help you keep your customers happy, too!
• Align your social software initiatives with your own corporate values and live by them all the way through!
• Improve the overall customer experience by encouraging active participation in nurturing healthy business relationships with your prosumers.
• The world is mobile. Let’s progress further with that idea. There is no way back!

And, finally, at the end of the day, and as quick wrap-up of this blog posts, a final thought that permeates throughout the video clip itself: it’s all about having fun at work, while getting the job done, something that a few years back, if you ask me, was unimaginable. Today, however, it’s a reality. A reality that comes through to us thanks to social software. A reality that will stay with us for a while. For a long while!

Thus the sooner we all realise about that and embrace its full potential to transform the corporate world of the 21st century as we know it, the much better for all of us. Don’t you think?

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Best Buy, Blueshirtnation, BSN, Wikis, Loop Marketplace, Tag Trade, Geek Squad, Business Value, Values, Business Values, Customers, Clients, Paula Thornton, Brad Anderson, CEOs, Chairmen, Peter Hirshberg, Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist08, Leaders 2.0, Leadership 2.0, Command and Control, Facilitation, Middle Management, Management, Change Management, Generational Workforce, Hierarchical Structures, Storytelling, Narrative, Sharing Stories, Customer Loyalty, Attrition Rates, Happiness, Employee Loyalty, Customer Experience, Mobile, Mobility, Mobile 2.0, Fun at Work, Fun, Plat at Work, Serious Play, Productivity 2.0