eBay’s going social. Its protagonists are building the next generation social platform called the HUB, to increase employee engagement, collaboration and effectiveness. It is instructive to follow the evolution of their strategy in response to the growing chorus of eBay employees who were demanding social tools, or had already snuck them in.

On first impression, Ramin Mobasseri eBay’s Enterprise Portals Solutions Manager and Maarten Sundman a SharePoint Architect and Developer appear to be an unlikely team. Both men speak in different languages: Mobasseri ‘business’ and Sundman ‘tech’. Yet both were...

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They were not incompetent or anything; they had simply broken more pumps in the last year than any previous year the engineers could remember. Not the inexpensive kind, but the large 200 horsepower, $22,000 pumps used in geothermal power plants; each blew up in a  succession of preventable blunders. But then it got worse. They complained to management, suggested a solution, and management did nothing about it.

Details of the gross negligence still haven’t reached the Executives of Ormat (NYSE: OSA), which ironically, will serve as evidence for the purpose of this article.  That valuable, actionable information is being stockpiled and kept hidden from everyone else for a variety of selfish reasons. This fact stands as one of the...  Read the article

We were able to assemble a powerful cast of experts to give the rest of us advice on becoming a Social Business. But we did it with one catch.  We asked these 9 experts to do it in under 60 seconds.

Thank you Robert Lavigne for essentially doing all of the video, post production and graphics for these 9 videos.  He’s a phenomenal person. 

The Video is interactive. Meaning you can click on the profiles in the video in order to see their individual response.  Alternatively, you can follow the video links of each of our experts below. 

 

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Saddened by the loss of an individual who has brought great joy and anticipation back into our lives.  He’s the only individual I know of where millions of people tune into his product announcements.  He’s earned that level of attention by bringing to market products that create emotional bonds with the owner.   So, out of respect, I spent a few hours putting this tribute together for him. 

I appreciate everything he’s done for us.  

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Want to know what it might feel like if an airline actually treated its customers like friends? Not a superficial, phony performance marked by fake smiles and fake actors (think the aviation version of the Truman Show). But an airline that runs its business by listening, supporting and doing what’s best for its customers.

Instead, we’re subjected to dysfunctional relationships in a system that supports regular and repeated conflicts, which has led to apathy. Onboard and emblematically, no one pushes the flight attendant button anymore because we’re either accustomed to being ignored, or we’re met with a look that says "What’s your problem?" No wonder why our relationship with airlines is filled with so much emotional baggage.

 

In all my years as a business traveler, I have learned there are only a few airlines that could pass the “we’ve-got-better-customer-service-than-the-Department-of- Motor-Vehicles” test. The remainder, under the mantra of public safety, keep us locked up for hours languishing on planes sitting on tarmacs, often ignore our... Read the article