 Subtraction by Omission
If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a big fan of the magazine, BusinessWeek.
One of the things I like about this publication is the editors'
commitment to staying ahead of technology while keeping it relevant to
the average businessperson (something Business 2.0 also does well.) This week however, I'm going to lob a little bit of criticism BW's way, based on the focus of last week's technology section titled, CEO Guide to Technology.
The
focus of the section is mainly on Web 2.0 tools and technologies that
are changing the enterprise landscape. Why the section caught my eye in
the first place was due to the inclusion of several community/social
network related articles.
Because I work for a company that
makes a living out of helping other businesses leverage community and
social networking tools to deliver value to their customers, I am
generally in favor of well-known publications dedicating ink to the
topic. However, the collection of articles in BusinessWeek
miss the mark in their attempt to provide a primer to the C-level
suite. I'm not saying that the topics they cover aren't important or
valuable, but rather that the writers/editors have created a kind of
"subtraction by ommission" on the topic of community.
To give
you an example of what I mean, if I were to write several blog posts
about my former company, Fidelity Investments, I wouldn't talk about
the architecture of the building I worked in. I wouldn't tell you that
walls were all rich colors and that the coffee was free. What I would
tell you is that we were a financial services company that was
dedicated to bringing value to our customers in a multi-channel
environment. In many ways, BusinessWeek's guide to technology for CEOs focused on the architecture and free coffee.
The reason BusinessWeek's
"subtraction by ommission" worries me is that I've worked with a lot of
C-level executives in the past, and while they've all been incredibly
bright people, many of them extract their latest thinking from leading
publications. So if these publications, like BusinessWeek, are
focusing on the peripheral elements of community, and social networking
-- the architecture and the free coffee -- they are ultimately sending
a message that says, "these technologies are cool but aren't core to
your business."
Who knows, maybe I'm overanalyzing this. In the
PR circles, there is an old saying that goes something like, "Say
whatever you want to say about me. Just be sure to spell my name
right." For now, only time will tell...
Thu, Sep 14 2006 |
