-- How a social business approach led to breakthrough innovation

BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As the business world continues to innovate and move faster and faster, social technologies are changing the way businesses communicate and engage with internal and external constituencies. This dramatic change alters both the structure of organizations and the opportunities they choose to pursue.  A critical factor in whether companies will succeed in this new networked age is the way in which executives support, invest in and adopt social technologies themselves.  While a great deal of progress has been made in the social business space, executives still vary widely in their perspective, expectations and use of social tools, making progress inconsistent and unpredictable across organizations.  

"One of the biggest challenges for the social business and community teams with whom we work is helping their executive stakeholders understand the opportunities and challenges that new communications technologies present," said Rachel Happe, co-founder of The Community Roundtable. "The Social Executive research is one of the best ways we can help those teams and give them a framework for educating executives."

The Community Roundtable is pleased to release the first installment of The Social Executive research, a case study of UBM, which illustrates one company's journey in establishing an internal social network. This case study looks at the highlights of their implementation, the perspectives of key senior executives and the groundbreaking innovation made possible by a networked communications structure.  The case study illustrates the importance of both executive leadership and engagement, covering CEO David Levin's early decisions and his personal use of social tools. Those decisions helped to unify the organization's culture and make collaboration and employee engagement easier and more prevalent ultimately leading to innovations that would not have been possible otherwise.  

"At UBM, our business has always been about community so taking this approach made sense and the results speak for themselves," said Levin.

The Community Roundtable's The Social Executive research seeks to better understand executive perceptions of social technologies, how social approaches fit strategic business priorities and how executives engage personally.  This research is being conducted through one-on-one interviews with a wide range of executives representing companies like Deloitte, Ford, Alcoa, Motorola, Deutsche Bank, SAP, The U.S. State Department, Aetna, Axa, BASF, Del Monte, Aon Hewitt, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and many more.  Many of these executives are true believers in the power of social tools, others are taking a wait to see approach and still others remain skeptical.  Through the words of these interviewees, The Social Executive research is designed to help social business teams make progress in their organizations by articulating an executive's social journey. This research is also intended to help the market develop to its full potential by giving vendors and service providers a better understanding of how to position the business value of social to executives at different stages of adoption.

The CR's research agenda strives to ensure the success of community and social business leaders by exploring topics that will enable them to educate their organizations. In addition to The Social Executive research, The CR's 2013 State of Community Management research will collect community and community management performance data and we are actively soliciting both participants and research partners.

The Community Roundtable provides strategic, tactical and professional development programs for community and social business leaders through online training, a membership based peer to peer network , advisory services  for organizations in all stages of their online community and social business development, and through  groundbreaking research  reports.  Serving more than 80 companies worldwide with their online business community planning, strategy and execution challenges.