Basics of Business - Markets, Consumers,Employees and now Social Media

Some rules,cultures, fashions, trends are atavistic in nature.. But basics of markets, consumers continue to remain the same for many years/decades. This thought got further strengthened while reading this all time classic book The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition.This is a must read book as it does not create any template or framework for success. On the other hand it just wakes the organization from its long hibernation and illusions about markets, marketing, employees, consumers. Any business  leader who wants to:

• Put an end to "Business as Usual" in the new economy 
• Focus on Markets and not just marketing

should grab a copy of this book. Some of the most important prophesies includes:

• Markets are conversations
• Markets consists of human beings and not demographic sectors
• In  both internetworked markets and intranetworked markets, people are speaking to each other in a powerful way
• Markets are getting smarter,more informed and more organized that companies.
• Companies need to realize that markets are laughing.At them!!
• Companies need to lighten up  and take them less seriously. Need to get their sense of humor.
• Companies must ask themselves, where their corporate culture ends. If it ends before the community begins then they will have no market
• Human communities are based on discourse- on human speech about human concerns
• Companies use intranets for  top down communications. Employees find ways to avoid it. Healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word
• Markets want companies to talk
• You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention - Consumers

The book has about 95 such prophesies.Companies can no longer afford " Fort Business" - creating a iron walls between consumers, companies and its employees. They have 2 choices.. Continue to lock themselves up in supposedly fortified towers or open up to the radical new world and join the conversations with consumers and employees.

The huge popularity and adoption of social media is making sure that organizations open up to both their consumers and employees.The social media platform lends itself for a paradigm shift in how companies approach consumers and employees: move from "attention seeking" to "understanding intent" and addressing them appropriately.

Internet and Social Media platforms are not just here to stay but will continue to force organizations to break away from the traditional top down "Business as Usual" approach to a much more fundamental approach which involves human conversations to address human concerns.After all human conversation is the true language of commerce..