Joe and I had a drink with Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, on Monday night. Arriving in a splendid old-fashioned bow-tie, Scott's at the heart of some of the big change going on at Ford, to communicate the company's story more openly.
Scott - aka @scottmonty on Twitter - is building quite a name for himself. @amydoesdesign, a design student at the University of Cincinnati cut to the point this weekend:
"Oh my god, you meeting Scott Monty is way more interesting than meeting J Mays [Ford's design boss]."
We talked about the challenge of getting 200,000 employees comfortable sharing more about what they do, and bringing to life what the organisation is about and how it's changing.
Scott's confident he can drive a change in how Ford communicates online. "Even if we get only one percent of our employee population doing this, that's 2,000 people - on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, discussion forums. We'll have an army of influencers from inside the company that will be able to share their own perspective on Ford. And put a human face on the company at the same time."
You can see a video of part of our chat below (in the super-low-light Dearborn Inn bar).
We talked about the tendency of young talent to be forced to leave behind the dynamic communication and collaboration tools of their college and personal lives when they arrive at a big corporation. Scott was adamant that these people shouldn't have to compromise how they communicate, just because they work at Ford.
"We're not necessarily competing with GM or Toyota for talent. We're competing with Google, with Oracle, with some of the best technology companies in the world. This has become a standard of working conditions. People want access to their Facebook pages, their favourite YouTube videos, their AIM accounts that allow them to communicate and stay connected."
If we don't do that from an enterprise structure, whether it's creating our own internally or allowing them to access it externally, it's going to be a huge problem.
He also stressed "it's not just a young person's game". And then Caroline arrived with our food. We'll pick up on that point next time we see him.
Ford's overall change theme is "Drive One". Somehow I can't help think that getting one percent of staff quickly onto Twitter would deliver radical change. Today, when we meet a Ford engineer or designer we walk away without a business card. The PR person is the funnel for communication. If Scott gets his way, maybe that will change.
Related reading:
Scott Monty on Ford's approach to social media
Posted by Mark Charmer. Mark is founder of The Movement Design Bureau, a global think tank. Video filmed in the Golden Eagle Lounge. Dearborn Inn, Michigan. 20 April 2009.
it is similar to the steps required to eat an elephant, just one piece at the time.
I would have to say that 1% is a great start, but then increase that to 5% then 10% and next the world... ok so the whole company...
Posted by: david | July 15, 2009 at 05:03 PM