I attended my sons graduation at University of Pennsylvania this week, and the President of the school, Ann Gutmann, announced that the old model of leadership and governance was outdated and needed to be overhauled.

In her speech to the graduating class of 2012, she noted that when the printing press was invented 500+ years ago, it wasn’t old society plus printing, it was a new age. She went on to say, when she grew up, TVs revolutionized our (parents in the audience) world. Once again she noted, it wasn’t TV plus what existed, it became the world of TV. Today, she noted the world is social (1.5 billion subscribers) and mobile (more cell phones than sanitary facilities). The result, it’s not the age of social plus what existed, it is the social age.

Her conclusion – its time for a new model of leadership, governance and government. It’s time for leaders to accept our social reality and become the ‘collaboration generation’ and leave our baby boom label behind! Sounds look good advice to me.

Is your business underperforming? Are you taking too much risk without realizing it? Are you generating lower returns than you would like? Take this simple survey and find out how social, mobile and cloud technologies are impacting your decisions and financial results.

OpenMatters, together with The Conference Board, the publisher of the Leading Bureau of Indicators is sponsoring this study.

Why now you ask?

Research from large consulting firms like Mckinsey, PWC and Deloitte indicate that most boards, leaders and managers are ill equipped to deal with today’s digital realities. Companies like Best Buy, Kodak, and Borders. along with many more., are not aligning their investment decisions with those of their customers, employees and investors requirements. The result, they are underperforming their own expectations and are falling prey to new companies – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and Apple – as they fall further behind the times.

Learn where you stand in understanding your social risk profile and what you can do about when we publish the results from this survey.

Brian Dunn, The CEO of Best Buy, resigned this week. The reasons are clear on the face of it – Best Buy, like Borders, Circuit City, Blockbuster, Tower Records – you name the company – couldn’t withstand the onslaught of social and mobile networks.

Critics said Best Buy, which dominated electronics the physical retailing world of this industry for much of the past two decades, wasn’t moving swiftly enough to counter the emergence of consumers armed with smartphones, who use the company’s large stores as showrooms for merchandise that they then purchased on line.

Despite the CNBC documentary less than 2 months earlier about the return of the big box, when Brian said he was sticking with his big box approach to retailing, it was clear in the end, the buying on-line is faster, better and cheaper for many of us. More importantly, competitors, such as amazon aren’t burdened with the added cost of operating stores, and Apple, just delivers an amazing shopping experience in person that Best Buy doesn’t understand.

The real question for all physical retailers is can they avoid the same fate of these companies if they don’t embrace social, mobile and cloud technologies?  I don’t think so unless they deliver an in store experience that parallels Apple.

Like the old expression goes – it’s all about location, location, location. And today’s location is On-line!   The question for all retailers is:  what are you doing to meet your customers where they are, not where you are? Happy retailing!

Barry Libert appointed as strategic advisor to Panos Panay, Chairman and CEO of Sonicbids in February, 2012 to help firm become leading social media music software and services company.   

Facebook is poised to go public next week and a lot of attention has been focused on their $96 billion valuation and 900 million customers.  However, what few realize is that those 900 million people are also employees.    What does that mean?  Simply: here comes the social and mobile employee with the same aspirations and technologies as empowered consumers.

Recent research by Forrester shows that consumerization of the enterprise is quickly becoming reality – both inside and outside organizations.  In fact, nearly 50% of companies surveyed found that employees are bringing their own technologies to work  (iMac, iPads, and iPhones) without regard to costs and IT policy.   This BYOD (bring your own device) to work program has a number of benefits:

1. It enables employees to be more productive;
2. It saves organizations money; and
3. It brings today’s newer consumer technologies into the workplace .

However, these benefits also come with risks.

Employees will now be able to more easily store their data in the cloud, move seamlessly  move from one company to another with their knowledge, and share what they have learned with employees at other companies – including competitors – without oversight or intervention.  In essence, employees are fast becoming customers of the company  for which they work, and in time they will demand what customers are now demanding – respect and a voice in what their company does (and how it does it).   Further, they may even seek new recognition and reward systems as the crowd sourcing movement takes hold.  Think Apple’s developer community –  where the developers receive 70% of the revenues from what they co-create and deliver – and you get the picture.

The bottom line:  the cat is out of the hat.

With the continued explosion of social, mobile and cloud technologies,  there is no turning back.   Employees are starting to come together, not through unions (as they did in the industrial age), but through social, mobile and cloud networks.  The next step;  they will demand more for their contributions.  The problem is leaders are just getting the hang of empowered consumers.  What will they do when employees demand similar treatment? Only the future will tell.

Here are two facts that might seem unrelated: 1) Most Americans now have a Facebook profile or use a Smart Phone (probably Apple or Android); and 2) Over the past two years, one of the most pressing problems in the country has been the debate over the future of healthcare.

What if I told you leveraging the first will help us fix the second? Read on for the solution.

While the financial markets continue to soar higher (they are now at almost the same level they were before the great recession of 2008), unemployment seems to be stuck at or above 8%. At the same time, the technology market appears to be reliving the booming years of the Internet of a decade ago – only this time with real revenues, cash flows, and earnings. More importantly two front-runners, Apple and Facebook, power the ascent. Apple sports the world’s largest market valuation and has more cash on hand than many countries have in their treasury and Facebook is the third fastest growing nation – with 900 Million customers (members) and reaching the size of China and India in sheer size. But in many ways, Facebook and Apple have more power given their global and electronic reach.

So Why do I think connecting healthcare (as one of the largest sector of our economy) and social and mobile networks might help solve this sticky problem – simple? By harnessing the power of 900 million people worldwide, along with today’s mobile and cloud technologies, we can create a new and more appropriate solution to our healthcare issues – one that adds patients and their knowledge of, and personal experiences with, diffiult diseases to the doctor and researcher mix.

This past week’s article about the continued deterioration of the healthcare relationship between doctors and their patients in Newsweek is proof that the healthcare system is broken. Whether you are a believer in Obamacare or not, is not the question. We need to  find a new approach to this industry if we intend to make a true dent in the problem at hand. My recommendation: use today’s digital technologies and  social networks to connect everyone with a dreaded disease (Alzheimers, ALS, Failed Back surgeries) with anyone who has a potential solution – be it a doctor, researcher or patient.

If we want to fix what ails us as patients, let alone reduce the cost and burdens on the health care industry – it is time for the health care leaders to tap into the wisdom of crowds – nearly billion people around the world with a social profile – and create a vibrant and growing social network of caregivers, doctors, researchers, patients, and insurers. Think CAREBOOK — a healthcare version of Facebook — and you get the picture.

It’s time that we use today’s social, mobile and cloud technologies to find the cure to our health system and who better than to drive this change than all of us! Its time for crowdsourcing healthcare’s wellness. Its time for CROWDCARE.

Its clear.  Facebook is gobbling up customers at an astounding rate – they now have 900 million – and Apple is eating the mobile world – with a valuation that is bigger than most industries with more cash on hand than many national governements.

What does that mean to you as a leader?

Simple – new risks and potential rewards for your organization are emerging at rates not seen before from the social and mobile revolutionaries.

However, boards of directors and corporate leaders don’t fully understand the reach and richness of these 2 companies, let alone their social and mobile siblings. In addition, they aren’t up to date on these new technologies and what they enable customers, employees, partners and investors to do as they connect and share information in real time. This spells real trouble for many countries (beyond the middle east), industries (newspaper and others) and companies (Kodak, Blockbuster, Borders are just the beginning) that have not yet embraced today’s digital realities.

Too many boards are digitally deficient and underestimate the power of social, mobile and cloud technologies. According to Price Waterhouse Coopers — 81% of boards are ill equipped to deal with today’s risks. The answer: boards need to attract and retain digital directors and leaders to their ranks and bolster their knowledge in this area, social networks will fundamentally disrupt their businesses and industries creating massive risks that they will not be able to mitigate. To get started, below are the 7 rules that appeared in my article published by Knowledge @ Wharton:

1. Build and foster your employee and customer social networks.
2. Recruit corporate directors who understand today’s technologies.
3. Implement open, collaborative processes to innovate and grow.
4. Require directors and executives to embrace today’s technologies.
5. Measure and manage what matters to insure success.
6. Make business personal. After all, it is the social age.
7. Implement recognition systems that motivate all your stakeholders.

With Facebook going public, LinkedIn hitting new all-time highs and Apple driving every market with their mobile devices, leaders, managers and boards need a steady and decisive knowledge of today’s technology realities, and the growing power of social and mobile networks. Get started today, before these trends eat your organization’s lunch. My guess, they have started eating some of it already for breakfast.

PR Newswire Press Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/social–mobile-networks-are-eating-the-world-141805783.html

I recently spoke to several hundred Fortune 500 Business professionals at the Warrillow Summit in Las Vegas. Below you will find a ten minute clip of the highlights from this keynote. During the video, you’ll hear me talk about:

• SCORE – or the construct we use for becoming a “WE” company
• Examples of well known companies that are using “WE” to improve their top and bottom lines
• Five steps on how to get started with “WE”

Recently, I had the chance to be on the radio show, Mind Your Own Business. In that interview, we discussed the evolution, or should I say ‘revolution,’ of social media since I co-founded one of Mzinga’s predecessor companies in 2001. Mzinga was founded on a simple premise that my wife kept telling me — businesses and government leaders needed to be better listeners if they wanted their organizations and employees, customers and citizens to achieve their true potential.

During the last ten years, a lot has happened in social media, most of which I never would have imagined. I never anticipated that Facebook would have 550 million users, or that Twitter would surpass 200 million. I never have imagined that social media would be used to ignite a revolution in Egypt. I could not have seen the importance of social media for fundraising during major crises, like Haiti. In fact, social media has done all that and more. On a global level, it has changed the way we interact with our friends and family members and now organizations and even governments are realizing it can, and will change, the balance of power between customers and companies and employees and employers.

To help you embrace this reality, I stand by my original thesis on which Mzinga was founded a decade ago – all great relationships (whether at home, in business or in government) start and end with authentic listening. When someone speaks, seek to listen and understand their point of view and then change to meet their needs.

I have noticed that there are three stages in the listening development:

1. Apprehension: What are my customers and employees going to say? Are they going to say things about our company, products, services, government that we don’t want to hear and if so, what will we do about it?

2. Appreciation: I am glad that we heard what our customers, employees and citizens have to sayI now know what they truly think and can begin to formulate a plan. By joining the conversation, we are now part of the ‘water cooler’ conversations and ‘feedback loops’ and

3. Enlightenment: We have changed what we do and how we do it, and as a result, our actions are more aligned with those that we cherish (friends and family) and those we seek to serve (customers and citizens) and who serve us (employees and tax payers).

True listening is both an art and a science. But in the end, as Carl Jung, the famous philosopher once said – ‘we learn through others.’ Listening is the only way to accomplish that.

Last summer, I revisited some important business lessons as I observed the experiences of my two sons, Michael and Adam, and Alexa Scorda to, my social media sidekick. Although they were just starting either their college or professional careers, we discussed many times over the lessons that I had learned in my 30 years since I graduated (I can’t believe it was that long ago):

Work hard and train hard because there are no shortcuts to success.

Love the work you do or else work just becomes work.

Help others help themselves if you want to achieve true greatness.

Looking back at the last 10 months with Alexa, my BFF at Mzinga, I know for a fact that Alexa has internalized these lessons and more. Working side by side with me, she’s seen the amount of work it takes to build a business, the type of passion needed to persevere, and the fundamental principle that we all must “give to get.” She has also learned the hard lessons of this economy and the difficult decisions leaders must make to build and sustain their companies during good and bad times.

Afew months ago, Alexa came into my office to deliver the message that she wasresigning from Mzinga. The news wasn’t asurprise because I could tell there was something weighing heavily on hermind. She expressed her desire to pursue her life’s dreams, to enjoy every moment of work (given how much there was ofit), and to fundamentally change the world in the process.

Having talked to my sons and other young professional’s of Alexa’s age (she’s 22), I am finding that Alexa’s sentiments aren’t unique. The question is, what canbusiness leaders of my generation do today to help these young professionals be successful and achieve their dreams — not just become cogs in the world offinance, consulting, or today’s definition of industry?

I recently conducted a webinar with Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital, and we discussed this idea of workforce management as it relates to the rise of the Millennial generation. There are tons of young, brilliant minds out there like Alexa’s and my two sons who are eager to work hard, yet they’refinding themselves completely lost within the enterprise or worse, unsatisfied, under appreciated and under utilized. Given this reality, how do we adapt our organizations to meet theirneeds and in the process, turn their passions into profits and productivity gains?

Working with Alexa, I learned the following:

1. Mentorship is a two way street: Every traditional leader today can benefit by hiring an assistant who is proficient in today’ssocial technologies. Working with Alexa,she helped me expand my presence across multiple social platforms, and forcedme to stick to a regular blogging and twitter schedule. The secret to social media buy-in at theexecutive level is really to have a digital native work side-by-side andreverse mentor leaders on these new tools.

2. The best business intelligence can be gleaned in the most unexpected places: I learned a lot about Mzinga from my conversations with Alexa. She often had insight into the way the company was functioning and the culture that was developing around the water cooler. AsI’ve said many times, social interactions are the future of business intelligence (both online and offline). Having a role in and ear to those ‘grass root’ conversations is critical to success into day’s connected society.

3. You can’t buy loyalty, you have to earn it: Any leader who thinks that a salary can create loyalty amongst their employees is wrong. Any leader whothinks that a price point on a product can establish loyalty with customers isalso wrong. Loyalty is based on honest, authentic and transparent two-way communications. I’ve invested an endless amount of hours mentoring as well as listening to Alexa, AND I know that thedividends that I earned will continue to pay dividends well past her last daywith us.

In the end, we can choose to look at young professionals as inexperienced,untrained people with little skills other than texting and writing on eachother’s walls. But in my book, theypossess the skills that every company and every leader needs as they expand their social capabilities and build social networks that will help the minnovate, serve customers and market their products and services. In short, if we want to be successful asleaders today, we need to listen to them, learn from them, and be mentored bythem. Together, we will find ourselves building better, more connected and more social enterprises.