I think we are heading for more trouble, well some brands both big and small. We’ve spent the last fifty or so years (perhaps more) encouraging several generations of customers to demand more and more even when they didn’t need it. Now those demands are outstripping businesses ability to meet it.

Overnight, technology, people and economics have collided to create a new market, a new desire, a new need. No longer can we control and exploit customers. We can’t keep them on the threshold of our businesses and carry on with a transactional relationship. We have to invite them in to fully participate in what we are doing.

Like it’s employees/managers, customers are just as important stakeholders as the owners of the business. The word ‘shareholder’ will have a very different meaning in the future.

Business in the past was valued on it’s financial performance, it still is. Increasingly, it will also be based on influence, followers and fans. If we own something we try to protect it. In fact, we can become over protective. For years we have been conditioned to think that we own stuff at work; our team, our customers, our products. Tesco thinks it owns it’s suppliers!

This over exuberance can be detrimental, if not a tad delusional. We can spend lots of money defending something that we actually don’t own. The future, we know, will be based on the value of our relationships with our fellow humans. You can only part own a relationship. You will only part own a product as we collaborate more, you have never owned your people, especially in a war for talent. And customers just ain’t buying that ‘priviledge’ thing anymore.

You don’t own the buildings you work in, you probably don’t own that car you drive and your company probably only lease that computer and mobile you use. We need to shift our mentality from one of ownership to partnership. That way we can work positively on the things that really are meaningful and rationally focus our efforts.

It’s easy to get trapped into doing everything. After initial start up, you’ll get dragged into all sorts, particularly if you can’t say no! Then it gets all messy and complicated, something us humans have turned into an art form. Cut to the chase, keep focused on building value and concentrate on these five aspects:

1. A proven track record. It builds reputation

2. Develop word of mouth mechanisms that reinforce your track record. Keep marketing costs low by adopting this strategy. Creates credibility.

3. Continuously grow your skill base, knowledge and understanding. Become an influencer in your area of expertise.

4. Let your character come through, it’s the only unique thing you have.

5. Identify what you are really good at and thrust yourself into that.

Refresh it, change it, reinvent it occasionally but never stop working on them.

It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of movement and we can all be forgiven for thinking that our business is changing, doing new stuff and improving results, when in fact, it’s not. You’re just going round in circles, embedded in what I call ‘revolving door’ syndrome.

Take a look at the new Bailey’s advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjW4iFuO-WU They have added a ‘coffee’ alternative to their product range under the pretense that it’s product development but it just feels like a desperate attempt to compete with new entrants to the market. Its false, this isn’t change, it’s just messing about.

Many companies are guilty of ‘re arranging the deck chairs on the Titantic.’ Look carefully at you business, as each month and year passes, are you just revolving or are you truly evolving?

Yep little old me, because of the web, social media and technology has a voice. I perhaps have a lot to thank Tim Berners-Lee for! I have a voice that can not only be heard around the world but its one a few people are interested in listening too. How cool is that? Not only that, but it allows me to converse with the likes of Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Patrick Dixon, Colin Shaw and Trey Pennington.

Ten years ago this would have been impossible. I’d have had to go the traditional route, through a publisher, or, turned up to the ‘guru gigs’ and been that annoying person who hands out business cards to everyone and anyone.

I look around me a lot, it’s the fascinating part of my job, being able to observe. I spot a lot of people who have lost their own voice and thereby, to some degree, their individuality. They’ve adopted their corporate BS speak hook line and sinker which is as attractive as a fish wife in a small tin room.

This ‘groundswell’ of change in how we communicate can be seen as a threat or an opportunity. Small businesses have the distinct of advantage of seeing it only as an opportunity. They tend to be set up for this change far better than corporate businesses. They tend to have more intimate relationships with their customers and staff, so making the jump is more like a hop and a skip really.

Who would have thought it 20 years ago? There were inclinations of what was about to happen 10 years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto more than hinted at it. Now that it’s upon us why do some people still not get it? The world is a changing and we better get to grips with it as soon as possible. If you are not already, you need to be understanding social media and crowdsourcing like there is no tomorrow.

People from around the world are gathering in places to converse on subjects they are commonly interested in. They share information, collaborate on projects and trade knowledge for little or no money. They will probably never meet face to face but trust, respect and a genuine relationship is formed sincerely.

Everyone now has a vehicle to explore their latent talent. That same vehicle can provide an audience for that skill whether it be creative, specialised knowledge innovative new products or a craft. The barriers to entry are almost non existent.

And, what that brings is the ability for people to find their own voices again, often for the first time in a work environment. Without the constraint of corporate speak and culture, people are conversing with all sorts of people. Barriers are breaking down. Language is losing its spin.

The web, social media and the crowd doesn’t care what qualifications you have, whether you went to Harvard or Cambridge or Exeter. It couldn’t give a damn the colour of your skin, where you were brought up or what gender you are. The traditional pre conditions of working with certain people is evapourating except, of course, quality.

People in old school company structures are bored. Sick of being suffocated in a contradictory world of systems and procedures where the work is about money and position. People are banging on the door of their prison, sorry office and asking to be let out. To be free to contribute and do something meaningful and different.

These tools, some newer than others do not, in fact isolate us, far from it. It does the opposite by allowing us to share and colloborate on levels and in numbers never seen before and, hell, this is just the beginning. It means huge changes for every business, and I mean every business. Old, traditional models don’t need scrapping overnight but they will need to be very soon.

It has huge implications. There is a new meaning to outsourcing, competition, teams, the way you use talent, intellectual property, business models, innovation, marketing, customer service, leadership, motivation, inspiration the list goes on. We are not talking about little changes in practice here but significant, huge shoves. Burying your head in the sand won’t make it go away.