Barry Libert is the co-CEO of Mzinga. He is also the co-author of WE ARE SMARTER THAN ME: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business (look for One Degree’s review later this week!) Drawing on their own research and the insights from an enormous community of more than 4,000 people, Barry and co-author Jon Spector wrote about what works, and what doesn’t, when you are building community into your decision making and business processes, and how to profit from the wisdom of crowds.
One Degree asked Barry Libert Five Questions about building a successful community, how crowdsourcing can lead to profitability and how businesses need to adapt to this new collaborative environment.
One Degree: How did the book get started?
Well the book got started for me in 1995, when my wife and I were sort of talking about what was wrong with business. And the answer she had was, “Businesses don’t care.” … The bottom line was that they gave “lip service”, she used to say, to employees, to customers and to investors, but really leaders didn’t have a real relationship with their people and with their customers … And her analogy was, “Can you imagine going to a party, Barry and you didn’t know the names of your relatives? That’s business.”
And I really thought about how business leaders didn’t care about relationships and that’s why the original book title was: “My Wife’s Right”. Because she was arguing that in a world in which people did care, profoundly care, businesses would be far more successful.
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