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Where cases come from

Halley Suitt has just published a HBS case on weblogging. I hate to say this since she runs such a good blog, but it looks from the abstract like yet another piece of hack fiction which will be pored over by students hoping for insight into the exciting world of blogging / business. It's at times like this that I'm sure case studies aren't the answer.

Ahha, I've just noticed that it's also published in the Harvard Business Review, I'll add a more informed comment when I've read it (I'd link, but HBR online is subscription only).

Right. Reading over, here goes It is indeed another of the short stories the case editors at Harvard are so in love with. Our protagonist bounces from encounter to encounter with varying individuals who outline their views on the issue. In this case the issue is a blogger who's postings have had a serious impact on the sales of surgical gloves. Now I may be wrong here, but in all honesty I can't think of examples where bloggers have sold that kind of product in significant numbers.

Over at bloggerheads Tim has been trying this kind of thing for ages, and while he's made blogs an effective PR tool I'm not sure he's doing that well on the box shifting front. I know this blog is responsible for a few applicants to SBS and for reassuring many more potential MBA's about either the institution or MBA's in general, but I'm no more than an incidental benefit to the general marketing round here. I can shoot my mouth off all I like (Hell, I did, the least complementary bits of this post were quoted in an interview with the Times, no less) but it didn't make much difference.

Blogs are useful tools, good for building and sustaining relationships. That's why politicians and writers like them. They're not adverts though. If enough bloggers get together they might be able to shift something but not in the way described in the case.

Anyway, that's by the by. The real issue addressed is whether or not you want to keep bloggers in your organisation or turf them out. I'd love to keep them in, for a good company the best marketing you can do is to rip the lid off your organisation and show it's guts to the outside world. It may not shift a lot of product, but it's better for hiring new staff, keeping an eye on your company culture or speeding internal communication. For a bad company marketing of any kind is rarely the cure.

What you'd need of course would be company guidelines on writing about work for any employee who wants to do so. These need not be onerous - just the usual. Don't discuss confidential information, make clear that you're not official, don't badmouth clients or say things about co-workers you wouldn't say to their faces unless you're prepared to face the consequences. I'm rambling now. Maybe I'll tidy this post up later, and possibly ask Halley for a comment or two.


Fresh from Harvard Business Review

I'm not sure what point Rageboy is trying to make here, but it's pretty funny none the less.


Red Carnation Day
One of the nicer traditions at Oxford is of colour coding your exams with carnations (flowers worn in your buttonhole). Traditionally it's a white carnation for the first one, pink ones for the ones in the middle and a red one for the end. Ignoring the fact I've got a thirty minute SBP presentation to get through today is a red carnation day - the final walk in, sit down, write stuff examination.

It's a twelve page case on Clark's shoes and their 1990's turnaround. Not a lot of finance here, but plenty for the marketing, strategy and operations ideas to go to work on. Since 3PM yesterday the class have been discussing this, kicking round ideas and putting their brains to work. Unless I've missed something none of us are all that worried about this though.

Anyway, it's a red carnation day and I've got to finish putting my bow tie on. See you all on the other side.


Playing catch up

I've been a bit remiss on the updates in the last few days. Things to tell you about...

The entertaining five a side football game at Templeton (great little pitch)
The final presentation of our SBP work to Cisco (went OK, client happy, some job prospects...)
The impending case study exam (no-one can bring themselves to revise seriously)

Mostly though these last few days have been about realising that it's nearly over. We've got dress codes and itineraries for the end of year ceremony, the yearbook is at the printers and pretty soon the class of 2002-3 will be all grown up and out in the real world.

I guess that means this blog is pretty near finished too. Really must start work on a new one...


 
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