Web 2.0 and the Social Network

The Supply Chain Management profession has made incredible strides since the early 90s when I became involved in sourcing. We went from being an overhead organization to a bottom line contributor. We went from “shopping” and “order fulfillment” to strategic sourcing. We went from price to total cost. We went from an order taker to team facilitator. During this time we also moved into an online world that didn’t exist for baby boomers and Generation Xers growing up. We went from a generation that started without desktop computers, voicemail, email or cellphones to a generation that multi-tasks and sets up meetings through texting and keeps up to date through IM. We went from a generation of big business making promises to consumers to a generation that is four times more apt to believe a complete stranger’s testimony than a corporation’s advertisement.With these changing times, we need to adapt our supply chains to support the needs of this generation. Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 as the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content. Columbia University found that about five to seven degrees of separation are sufficient for connecting any two people through e-mail. Therefore, as the new generation of supply chain professionals seeks to find new supply sources, develop new RFPs and contract terms, and create logistics optimization models, they are more likely to turn to their extended social network than to their manager or the person one cube over. This new generation of supply chain professionals recognizes that new ideas and opportunities are brought to them through a network with weak ties to individuals outside the main network.More open networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties. In other words, a group of individuals who only do things with each other already share the same knowledge and opportunities. A group of individuals with connections to other social worlds is likely to have access to a wider range of information. For individual success, it is better to have connections to a variety of networks rather than many connections within a single network. Similarly, individuals can exercise influence or act as brokers within their social networks by bridging two networks that are not directly linked (called filling structural holes). (Scott, John. 1991. Social Network Analysis. London: Sage).From choosing an employer to choosing a supplier, Millennials are more apt to go to Facebook, Youtube, mySpace or LinkedIn in addition to going to a supplier’s site in order to get information. Hypothetically, let’s say I am considering contracting with a company called Unisys. I can connect with over 8,000 people to discuss Unisys through Facebook, I can view more than 30 videos on YouTube and connect with two and a half pages of groups on MySpace. By the way, I also have over 50 pages of listings on LinkedIn of people with Unisys experience I can reach out to, the first 8 pages only 1-3 connections away from me.Even as little as 2 years ago, I might only do a Google search in addition to looking them up on Hoover’s for a prospective company or person I was scheduled to meet. I “googled” him/her became my verb to demonstrate I had checked someone out in cyberspace. Now I am not complete without actively googling, facebooking, youtubing, myspacing and linking, let alone checking out the links on de.licio.us and seeing if they are listed in Wikipedia.So, as we seek to attract and retain Millenials, we need to be ready for a generation of people that think, network and seek information from sources that never would occur to “old-school” sourcing professionals. And, that salesperson who is seeking a signed contract or the “alliance manager” assigned to my account had better be sure they aren’t tagged in any inappropriate pictures and their online persona matches my expectations of my supplier.