It’s all too easy to focus on who’s buying your product instead of who’s making it. But creating an internal social village isn’t just good fun–it’s good business.

Capital is only one key resource of an organization and is by no means the scarcest one. The scarcest resource in any organization is performing people. — Peter Drucker

Today’s hottest growth companies become tomorrow’s failures all the time. Many organizations that start with the right product at the right time believe the music will never stop. But of course it does. They become serial optimists and fall victim to what Clay Christensen, author of several popular books, calls the Innovators Dilemma, or they become incumbents who are unwilling to cannibalize their cash cows.
The smart companies, companies like 3M, IBM, Google, Intel, and Starbucks, understand that they need to remain adaptive and focus their attention on creating an innovative culture with internal systems to support it.

Dion Hinchcliffe of the Dachis Group asked the question likely troubling most executives, “How can employees and managers best adapt to today’s changing and increasingly social workplace?” This has become a central question as organizations look at social computing as a new primary channel, both among their workers and for their customers and business partners.

According to Hinchcliffe: “While we often see traditional areas within companies–such as corporate communications, human resources, or the intranet team–being tasked with making the initial foray into internal social media, many business leaders I talk with are already looking beyond ‘old school’ functions and trying to think through the broader implications as organizations become more social. They are also getting a sense that there is something unique and different about a social workforce.”

via Social Media Isn’t Just For Your Customers–It’s For Your Employees, Too | Fast Company.