If ever you want to observe efficiency in process, work in an accounting firm. They are in the business of managing and advising customers about their money, and they make a lot in the process. To do this they have to be efficient, and they are, but these days in the world of social technology just being efficient is not enough to retain a competitive edge. You now need to be efficient, dynamic, liquid, adaptable, connected insert buzzword etc. So how does a professional accounting firm do this?
The CEO insights blog consists of posts from the upper tier employees of PwC globally. At the time of writing this the front page of the blog included posts from global chairmen, senior partners, partners and Chief economists from Australia, UK, Brazil and China. The subject matter ranges from recruitment and retention and CEO development to mobile advertising and digital strategy.
One of the more interesting posts is by Evandro Carreras, a PwC partner from Brazil, entitled Brazilian Resistance - it’s not just about football. This post makes a clever analogy between Brazil’s recent world cup loss, and resilience in business, with an emphasis on being prepared for the worst and planning for the best.
What really struck me about this post is the personality it illustrated. It is evident in the post that Evandro is passionate about football, as I imagine most Brazilians are, which he is able to share. He includes details of Brazils failed attempt to become world champions and how this has affected the nation's psyche. He intelligently links within the content through keyword hyperlinks to PwC resources discussing innovation and resilience in business.
The blog allows upper management to connect with employees and prospective clients.
Their audience can get in contact with the author through a web form or through the comment functionality of the blog. Having the the functionality to comment allows both clients and employees to post feedback or ask for further clarification on posts.
Chen and Fu (2012) discuss the role of blog comments as an important part of advertising. They state that “The quality of online customer comments affects customer information processing” which means that the better the quality of comments on the blog, the more persuasive the blog becomes when used as an advertising tool. Their study concluded that high quality customer comments are a valuable asset to any blog but can be outweighed by high quality negative comments which is a trade off that each organisation has to consider.
I believe that PwC has aired too far on the side of caution when it comes to comments as each comment submitted is subject to approval by the author. This means that employee or client alike must wait for the the author to read their comment, decide if they like it and the agree to have it published on the original post. I see 2 problems with this censorship process.
First of all, having the author as the only person to approve means that if they do not check their blog account messages or alerts for some time, the comment can lay dormant until it is checked. It also means that if the author alone reads a comment and decides they don’t like it, they don’t have to publish it. The comment could provide valuable constructive feedback which the author may not want to acknowledge. Having more than one person able to approve comments would make the process much more transparent and productive.
Disinterest from commentors due to being censored is also another issue that I feel should be addressed. I believe that users are less likely to comment if their comments are subject to approval, and their comments are less likely to engage in constructive dialogue. I accept that PwC is running a corporate blog and they want to keep things professional, however I think letting people have a bit of freedom might increase their meagre comment rate. How many internet trolls would seek out a corporate blog detailing partners views of business issues?
The second function is Enterprise wide communication. The blog allows high ranking employees to post about areas in which they specialise in. A good example is a post on mobile advertising by partner Colin Light who specialises in commercial and technological strategies in digital media. Over time the blog will accumulate a large knowledge base that can be accessed by both employee and customers alike.The blog helps the organisation catalogue its intrinsic knowledge on a wide variety of subjects through a platform that allows for interaction and user classification.
It will also help the organisation as a whole identify talent in specialised areas, which makes the blog a valuable organisational tool. Partners are able to showcase their expertise publicly and on record. If their skill set is needed elsewhere, it easily identified, reviewed and able to be allocated.
I think PwC have come up with great resource for better connecting the organisation both internally and externally. As a former accountant who became frustrated with the lack of communication within a top firm, it's great to see things starting to change.
Meet PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers)
PwC defines itself as a Professional Services Network, with 184,000 employees across 157 countries making it one of the largest in the world. Its Australian arm offers Audit Assurance, Private client services, advisory and Tax & Legal services to range of industries including Government, Healthcare, Retail, Energy, Natural Resources and Technology to name a few. PWC is part of the revered accounting “Big Four” firms consisting of itself, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte. One Social Technology that PWC has embraced with gusto is that of the blog. The organisation has a large network of informational blogs but one that is being prominently advertised on their homepage is the CEO insights blog. This blog is a great tool for PwC to connect its upper management with the wider community including its employees and customers. In the McKinsey’s report entitled, The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, one of the key areas for value creation within an organisation is making information exchanges and interactions more efficient and effective. A blog is a great way to harness this potential value and maximise the impact.PwC Ceo Insight Blog.
The Pro’s
The Con’s
What the Blog Achieves
In the context of McKinsey’s value levers, the PwC blog leverages value in 2 main organisational functions. The first is Marketing and Sales. The blog has the potential to glean insights from customers in the comments section and through direct contact with the author, whilst providing a differentiating marketing and sales tool through humanising the corporate big wigs. The blog also provides PwC with a platform for marketing and communication. It allows the firm to show customer's what the firm is capable of and what knowledge they possess. For a potential corporate client this would be a deciding factor when looking to do business with a firm.The second function is Enterprise wide communication. The blog allows high ranking employees to post about areas in which they specialise in. A good example is a post on mobile advertising by partner Colin Light who specialises in commercial and technological strategies in digital media. Over time the blog will accumulate a large knowledge base that can be accessed by both employee and customers alike.The blog helps the organisation catalogue its intrinsic knowledge on a wide variety of subjects through a platform that allows for interaction and user classification.
It will also help the organisation as a whole identify talent in specialised areas, which makes the blog a valuable organisational tool. Partners are able to showcase their expertise publicly and on record. If their skill set is needed elsewhere, it easily identified, reviewed and able to be allocated.
I think PwC have come up with great resource for better connecting the organisation both internally and externally. As a former accountant who became frustrated with the lack of communication within a top firm, it's great to see things starting to change.
Really enjoyed reading this! Especially the part about how personal the blog is - in my post (http://janmariniak.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/how-to-gartner-support-blogs-as.html) I also highlight how valuable such vivid elements are. I also agree with you that they might be too overcautious with the commenting system, even though I also understand that they try to be as professional as possible. And who knows - maybe Deloitte has hired professional spammers?!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked my post Jan. I thought that instead of vetting comments before they are posted, they could just monitor newly posted comment and delete them retrospectively. I would hope that other professional services firms would be above posting nuisance comments on rivals blogs hahaha
ReplyDeleteHi Jesse, really nice post dude....I would be glad to find one nice example soon...Till then if you can visit my blog and give me some suggestions...
ReplyDeletehttp://hardikamangukia.blogspot.com.au
Hi Jesse,
ReplyDeleteI too wrote about PwC but from an internal perspective. It was good to be able to link that with the information from your blog to give an overall view of how they are maximising social technologies from both sides!