Although he is primarily talking about branding in regards to selling to consumers, any company interested in building momentum in a post-advertising world should consider adapting this strategy. It appears that the idea of the necessity of branding is waining. So what replaces it? Simple – sophisticated, personalized and most of all, two-way, interaction with customers. Listening to customers, and incorporating what they say back into your products, services, and organizational structure. Through this dialog, align the organization with what the market wants. Technology has only recently made this possible.

A couple days ago, I blogged about why I think it’s neat-o for enterprises to try to open a dialog with their customers. In my opinion, progressive organizations that talk to (and listen) to their customers will get paid back by fervent communities that support and advocate their products. Most of the enterprise hasn’t yet realized this quite yet. But, a tremendous advantage could certainly stand to be had by say, a consulting company, that was brash enough to start creating a dialog with clients. A way to get started would to build a public, client-driven social network, blog or wiki.

Combine this strategy with the principals of open, transparent organizations – such as open source methodologies, and you have the outline of a model for the future of professional service organizations.

[Umar Haquie post via Atlassian's Jeff Walker, who seems to share my taste in WordPress themes.]

Feel free to comment, even if you aren’t the Professor.

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Greetings Professor McAfee,

First off, let me start by stating that my colleague Jay and I are avid readers of your blog and like-minded E2 technologists. It has proven to be an excellent source of information and full of insightful comments.

Jay and I began our foray into Enterprise 2.0 in late 2006 by standing up a COTS enterprise wiki application on an old laptop in the basement of my home. After a year’s worth of trials and tribulations, an ornery IT department, and a forgiving group of 1000 pilot users, we are on the verge of going live to 17,000. I can say in all honesty that we are beginning to realize the critical mass necessary to transform to the transparent enterprise. While this pilot phase has been exciting, I believe the impending innovation possibilities will surprise even the most savvy technology consultants.

Additionally, the interest from our clients, both government and commercial, has increased exponentially. The market is still shaking itself out but at the very least, it can be said without doubt that change is afoot. In response to this, a small group of consultants who have steeped themselves in the Enterprise (Web) 2.0 market space, have banded together to develop specific “solutions” for prospective clients. Traditionally, these sorts of solutions would provide professional services around the software implementations, with the bread and butter of this business model being ERP, HR, and other enterprise software. In thinking of our experience implementing the wiki, and my understanding of professional services organizations, I wanted to ask your thoughts on the following question:

Do you think there is room for professional services in the implementation of Enterprise 2.0 software?

I ask this question due mostly in part to my perception of the nature of these technologies. Typically they are emergent, relatively easy to implement, virally adopted, and drive their own change management efforts. Thus traditional consultant type activities such as business requirements definition, process mapping, change management, etc are relatively moot. Not to sound like a money grubbing consultant, but do you see any possible affects on the traditional professional services business models as Enterprise 2.0 technologies become more widespread?

UPDATE 

Looks like Professor McAfee responded…