Lecture Notes: Control in Companies

Key Themes

Loss of Control:
- Companies are losing control over customers and employees.
- Disconnect between management teams and staff.
- Survey results: 27% of bosses believe employees are inspired, but only 4% of employees agree.

Brand Identity:
- A brand is defined by others’ perceptions when the company is not present.
- Hyper-connectivity and transparency allow companies to engage continuously with their audience.

Empower Employees and Customers:
- Collaborate on ideas and content.
- Example: Radiohead’s pay-as-you-like model for their album "In Rainbows".
- Anton Berg’s chocolate store turned transactions into meaningful interactions.
- Microsoft Kinect: Shifted from fighting hackers to embracing the community.
- Patagonia’s campaign promoting second-hand purchases and anti-consumerism.
Employee Empowerment:
- Research shows happier, productive employees when they have control (e.g., Semco Group, Hulu, Netflix).
Limited Control:
- With standardization, create meaningful experiences to counter choice overload.
- Examples: Nextpedition’s surprise trips, KLM’s surprise gifts, Interflora’s flowers for Twitter users having a bad day.

Altruistic Tasks: Boosts productivity by doing good for others.
- Example: Frog’s internal speed meet sessions to enhance social interactions.

Companies should be humble, vulnerable, and human.
Sustainable Value Proposition: Staying true to company identity amid transparency.
Quote from Alonzo King: "What's interesting about you is you."
Importance of openness balanced with selectivity.
- Jennifer Egan: "A smile is a door that is half open and half closed."