Business Who’s Who?

One of the good things about blogs and social networking, is the fact that people share ideas, news and suggestions through comments and other interactions – and in the process, give information about their own plans, products and services. Today’s article is based on a similar interaction – thanks to Brent Halliburton, who shared his thoughts on business models, and about his own plans with Cogmap.

Cogmap is an intriguing experiment in business focused networking. If you’ve ever had to interact with a large organization, most of your time is spent trying to find out who you should be talking to, and who else you’re missing out. Whether you’re interviewing for a position, trying to sell something or source from them, or get any kind of interaction going, there’s often more than one person from the organization involved. Even as an insider, it’s sometimes hard enough to find out who is involved in the activity – if you’re an outsider, you either need a great dose of luck, or a lot of time before you get to know who makes the decisions, and who can help you to get a foot in the door.

Here’s where Cogmap is focused – building a map of the organization, in terms of who’s who. The initial part is more like a conventional organization chart; Brent calls it the organization chart wiki, a tool that uses the power of the network to help you figure it out. With diverse viewpoints from external salespeople, recruiters, networkers and employees, this could build a 360 degree view of the organization and its members.

This could be a powerful resource for an enterprise; most organizations spend huge amounts setting up their organizational people resources including directories, organization charts, employee information and systems. Getting it on a community based model could reduce the costs and increase the accuracy in a significant way; and provides a possible business model for a vendor who can deliver this kind of service.

Of course, there’s the other side of the dilemma. Most large companies aren’t comfortable with the idea of having such information being freely accessible; employee privacy issues, official PR lines, or even just spam / nuisance calls – leave alone the huge opportunity for recruitment consultants or other companies to poach key personnel. The second negative incentive – as a salesperson or networker who’s come to a position of strength through knowing who the right people in the organization are to tap for your daily bread, are you going to share it with all the world? Leave alone helping the competition, you’re going to wonder whether it’ll impact your existing relationships negatively.

This is something to watch – will the collective win element outweigh the individual loss, or are we going to find that selfishness triumphs? Stay tuned.