Last week I had a chance to attend the IBM Innovation in Action summit that was hosted as a webinar. Don Tapscott and an assortment of IBM strategy gurus talked on various dimensions of business innovation that impact all social enterprises. The top guy for IBM Canada delivered a session on the next 5 big things that will impact us in the next 5 years. Don Tapscott ran through material familiar to Wikinomics readers. I liked the virtual Exhibition Hall where you could 'walk' around and chat with various IBM people who were managing the booths. I had a good conversation with Brian Eatock at the Enterprise of the Future booth. We talked about the future of business relationships given the range of digital communications tools available today. I suggested that the next big thing might be Customer Intelligence Management (CIM) where we learn how to better tap into the collective knowledge not only in our own networks or organizations but across the digital matrix. I think personal relationships built through face-to-face will remain critical despite the other tools available.
In my office we did a small experiment to see who we sent the most emails to over the last six months. Turns out that a high percentage of our email communication is with people who are in close physical proximity as we work on projects, give updates, send questions or share interesting things we come across. Even outside of business, a majority of the most-called numbers tend to be with people that we cross paths with regularly. Brian and I might cross paths somewhere but for now, these kinds of virtual connections, like passing contact at real-time trade show, can only go so far without other more enriched communications encounters.
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