Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business

by Josh Bernoff, Ted Schadler

Is Your Company EMPOWERED for Success?
You know it’s happening within your organization. Your people, armed with cheap, accessible technology, are connecting with customers and building innovative new solutions. But who are these creative problem-solvers? How can you be one? And just as important—how can you lead them?

We call them HEROes: highly empowered and resourceful operatives. Your company needs them because in the age of Twitter, iPhones, Facebook, YouTube, and an ever-evolving torrent of Web information, your customers now come to the table armed with more data and access than ever before, and in many cases, your company is overmatched.

In Empowered, Forrester’s Josh Bernoff—coauthor of the pioneering book Groundswell—and Ted Schadler explain how to transform your company by unleashing the mighty force of these HEROes. Like John Bernier and Ben Hedrington at Best Buy, who built an army of 2,500 tweeting employees to reach out to customers online. Or Ross Inglis, who tapped into Internet computing resources to open an entirely new customer channel for Thomson Reuters. Or John Stadick, who equipped 600 sales staff with iPhones and boosted profits at his construction rental company.

The truth is, one in three of your information workers already use easily accessible technologies that your company does not sanction. Empowered gives you a prescription for embracing this covert innovation. At the heart of a HERO-powered business is a new pact between these critical employees, company managers, and the IT department: HEROes build new solutions to meet customer needs, management sets clear rules while encouraging more experimentation, and IT expands its role to both support and secure these solutions.

Fueled by data from Forrester Research, Empowered is packed with the business tools and information necessary to move your organization several steps ahead of the competition:

Genres: Business, Leadership, Social Media, Nonfiction, Management, Self Help, Reference

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2010

Reviews

[Katherine Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read business book. Josh really starts to tackle what the internal structure of a company needs to be in order to support successful use of social media. Or scratch that, he tackles what the internal structure of a company needs to be to be successful in today's market of connected consumers.

[Divyesh Sheth · Rating 4 out of 5]

old book but still relevant

This is a book written 15 years ago, so lot of the technology and business world has changed significantly. The lessons imparted by book have not. Let your employees experiment. Provide them with management and IT support. Solve customer problems and see your business grow.

[FH · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too weak. A lot of 'musts', but not practical counsel. I would not recommend it.

[Bill Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good business book with a bunch of great examples about how the power of consumers is increasing and how to give your employees the power to adapt.

[Leonardo Alfonseca · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was bland and I did not think it was too useful in terms of application of the concepts.

[Keith Swenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you responsible for the success of business in today's market? Is it important for people to know about you and your product? Is it important for you to know what your customers are thinking? Is your reputation a factor in your business?

If "yes", then "empowered" is a "must-read" because it highlights the dangers of web 2.0, as well as the benefits if you are wise enough to prepare for it. Ignore it at your own peril. To be completely honest with you: I can't really say yes to all the above. Still, I found "empowered" engaging and illuminating about how social media is transforming the world and fundamentally changing the way that organizations interact withing themselves and with their customers.

Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler offer a collection of insights into adoption and use of social technology. I was most interested in the section of the book that covered how IBM Software Group VP wanted to teach sales teams to be more productive. He identified a motivation for change: Salespeople were frustrated by how much time they spent seeking people and information.

He appointed someone who started by identifying 100 people in the organization that already had a blog or used wikis, and were already familiar with the benefit and potential. From those 100 she hired 6 of them as full time staff to drive change. She leveraged the rest of the 100 as fans of the new way of doing business, and they became the core of an ambassador program of 1200 volunteers throughout the organization to help train and introduce the new technology to 400,000 employees. See my blog post that expands on this: http://social-biz.org/2011/01/09/stra...

They introduce a clever acronym “HERO” which stands for Highly Empowered Resourceful Operatives. Social technology makes these early adopters far more effective than they would have been in earlier years at spreading information and influencing opinion. The point of the book is to leverage the HEROs within your organization to make you more effective, and to respond quickly to HEROs outside the organization to make sure they are pleased with your service.

Felt it was good enough, I bought the earlier book "groundswell" by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff. I am hoping it will be as good.

[Andrew O'Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "Empowered" over the September 11-12 weekend. Although I was already familiar with many of the concepts through "Groundswell," the "boom boom pow" of this edition was the HERO Compact: IT, managers, and highly empowered and resourceful operatives (HEROes).

In the authors' words, "technology populism" is not a fad: employees (and their end customers) are mastering new aspects of technology every day. Left unchecked, this innovation could result in chaos. The authors correctly note that "it must align with corporate strategy . . . leadership has to communicate its goals and strategies more effectively or there will be a lot of wasted innovation."

Pulling disenfranchised, rogue and locked-down employees into the HERO employees quadrant (acting more resourceful and feeling more empowered) is more than just pop psychology: it's a value generator and competitive differentiator (especially with Customer Service, where less than one in five employees are HEROes).

Another telling statement: "innovation is about speed (fast, cheap experiments and high velocity), collaboration (feedback from across the organization; a business strategy: a way to improve the productivity of people and teams and accelerate the flow of information throughout the company), and systems (software that supports innovation).

The "aha" moment was showing how the groundswell technology trends of smart mobile devices, pervasive video, cloud computing services, and social technology empower and serve customers, and develop workers in the process. To quote the book and Malcolm Harkins, chief information security officer at Intel, we need to "run toward the risk so [we] can shape it" -- and resist the urge to treat these fundamental shifts in the way business is conducted as a fad or a dot-com-like "blip" in the Information Age.

As great as "Groundswell" was, this book has eclipsed it in terms of sheer business value. Read it, share it, put it into practice. Your customers are already doing so.

[Andrew O'Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "Empowered" over the September 11-12 weekend. Although I was already familiar with many of the concepts through "Groundswell," the "boom boom pow" of this edition was the HERO Compact: IT, managers, and highly empowered and resourceful operatives (HEROes).

In the authors' words, "technology populism" is not a fad: employees (and their end customers) are mastering new aspects of technology every day. Left unchecked, this innovation could result in chaos. The authors correctly note that "it must align with corporate strategy . . . leadership has to communicate its goals and strategies more effectively or there will be a lot of wasted innovation."

Pulling disenfranchised, rogue and locked-down employees into the HERO employees quadrant (acting more resourceful and feeling more empowered) is more than just pop psychology: it's a value generator and competitive differentiator (especially with Customer Service, where less than one in five employees are HEROes).

Another telling statement: "innovation is about speed (fast, cheap experiments and high velocity), collaboration (feedback from across the organization; a business strategy: a way to improve the productivity of people and teams and accelerate the flow of information throughout the company), and systems (software that supports innovation).

The "aha" moment was showing how the groundswell technology trends of smart mobile devices, pervasive video, cloud computing services, and social technology empower and serve customers, and develop workers in the process. To quote the book and Malcolm Harkins, chief information security officer at Intel, we need to "run toward the risk so [we] can shape it" -- and resist the urge to treat these fundamental shifts in the way business is conducted as a fad or a dot-com-like "blip" in the Information Age.

As great as "Groundswell" was, this book has eclipsed it in terms of sheer business value. Read it, share it, put it into practice. Your customers are already doing so.

[Derrick Trimble · Rating 2 out of 5]

Companies that empower their staff to make decisions are companies that I like to be loyal to....hands down. You call or visit customer service and those empowered staff members deal with your problem or complaint with efficiency and a smile. I suspect they wear a smile mainly because they know they have the power to create a positive outcome for the customer.

The flip side are those companies that are stuck in their ways, don't care about the customer, or are focused on short, easy money at the expense of long-term customer loyalty. Bernoff and Schadler present a good argument for the highly empowered resourceful operative (HERO) against the backdrop of an empowered (informed and plugged in) consumer base. Their analysis of the empowered customer and the effectiveness of HERO oriented companies is without question a compelling proposition.

The reasons for the low rating are:

- this was essentially covered better in Groundswell
- the examples and case-studies are mainly of Fortune 500 type of companies and therefore hard to translate to small businesses
- the book doesn't create a compelling enough argument for companies that do not apply these principles. Virgin Mobile, for instance, a massive company in a massive brand could certainly benefit from a bit more HERO orientation and less money grabbing. Two negative experiences with Virgin Mobile have clinched my disdain
- the perspective is primarily of an American-centric company orientation. While their are numerous global companies, most examples used of their international collaboration are on internal communications. I have yet to see the empowered masses impact corporate behavior in the UK or European market.

Still looking.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Skip it. There are better books on customer service out there.

This one is all about "empowering" employees to use techno-fads to improve company processes and provide customer service. The overriding message of this book is "if you're not responding to social media complaints, then you may be the next 'United Breaks Guitars' social media debacle."

I'm tired of hearing about social media. The extent to which social media is transforming business has been blown way out of proportion. Most people on social media are squandering their time quoting inspirational phrases or trying to explain their lives in darkly mysterious but inevitably typo-ridden Facebook updates. Yes, they sometimes bitch about customer service problems, but since people in general instantly become the most dramatic ("WORST. RESTAURANT. EVER.") and cruel ("Your [sic] an idiot. Your mom should have aborted you.") versions of themselves on the internet, they have a serious credibility problem.

My being tired of hearing about social media is a fair complaint about this book, because the marketing for this book did not mention what a heavy focus it would have on social media. So the book I received was not really the book I was led to expect I was ordering.

***My complaint may seem strange based on the description of the book on Goodreads, which makes it clear that it's mostly about engaging with customers online. I bought it from a source where it was billed mostly as a book allowing front-line employees more authority and responsibility for solving customer problems and maintaining those relationships. It was some list of hot new business books, but I ordered it more than a year ago.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empowered is the sequel to Groundswell, the best-selling and groundbreaking book by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li of Forrester Research. This book is equally well-researched and informative, creating a new groundswell in its own little way.

Empowered tells you all you need to know about today's empowered consumer, and it explains how businesses can do worse than to empower their own staff to use social technology and the internet to provide support to and to build a relationship with both existing and potential customers.

Empowered was released in 2010, a couple of years later than its predecessor, and although three years is a long time in the age of the connected consumer, Empowered does well to stay fresh and relevant, even more so than Groundswell, which is still considered to be a breakout thought-leader in the social media 'space'.

Josh and Ted promise to teach you how to unleash your employees, energize your customers and transform your business, and the two authors don't disappoint. It's not too in-depth, either - there's a good balance between providing enough detail to help you to convince your CEO and keeping it short enough so that you can read it in a couple of days during your commute.

Overall, empowered comes highly recommended, from myself and from the hundreds of small and medium-sized business owners who've used these techniques to revolutionise the way they work.

[Steve Whiting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book on creating a more agile and responsive enterprise by empowering staff. It covers all the bases well - several times I read a chapter and thought "yes, but what about....", only to find that they covered that soon afterwards.

I'm not a fan of the tortured acronym HERO (which you will read many, many times by the end of the book), but otherwise it's an easy read and with a couple of minor reservations gives a great introduction. The reservations I have are (1) I think they could have covered the negative side of autonomous staff a bit more - I would have liked to have seen a case study of a major disaster and how the situation was or wasn't recovered and what lessons were learnt; there is some brief discussion in this area, but I think it needs more depth to counter the overwhelming positivity of the rest; and (2) I think they understate the difficulty of engaging existing staff into internal social media, and particularly they dismiss the use of anonymous postings too readily; in most cases, identity is paramount, but has the danger of supressing negative opinions which need to be surfaced somehow.

[Jennifer Fong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh Bernoff has done it again! Empowered is a fascinating look at how employees with great ideas in your organization can be encouraged to innovate and transform your business to better serve customers. As it says in the book, with the rise of social technologies, customer service is the new marketing. And by following the clearly-outlined process in this book, managers can work with employee innovators (HEROs, they're called in the book) and IT stakeholders to allow customers to be better served, so they talk about your business in positive ways online. I loved all the case studies and practical examples that show how this can work in the real world.

I'm a social media consultant. I was in a meeting with a client only yesterday, and I found myself referencing and pulling this book out multiple times, referencing the handy checklists, charts, and questions. My clients can't wait to get their own copies! Truly, this is a resource that every business person needs.

[Brenden Schaaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empowered highlights the phenomenon of information sharing and decentralized structures that the authors predict will be the wave of the future.  They argue that since customers are more empowered (consider the information consumers have now about nearly any product as compared to 20 years ago) that companies need to be as well.  For example, Best Buy is featured extensively in the book for their Twelpforce concept that has turned customer service into a proactive task and customer difficulty into an opportunity instead of a curse.  I loved reading this book but I’m guessing the challenge will be to get buy-in from the people that need to make the biggest changes: those entrenched in the IT department.  In my experience, IT policies can be terribly restrictive and I’m not sure how to get the ideas presented in Empowered into the hands of the people that need to change direction since, in a way, doing so is a threat to their existence.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his previous book Groundswell, Josh Bernoff defined strategies for engaging customers on Twitter, blogs and other online social technologies. Since then, a growing number of businesses have connected with their customers using these online tools. But what effect does that engagement have on companies? And what “management challenge” does this new trend present? In this book, Bernoff and his Forrester Research colleague Ted Schadler examine these pressing questions. With great precision and enthusiasm, they detail why and how companies should change the way they run to “unleash” their employees’ technological potential, so they can reach out to customers and solve their problems. getAbstract recommends Bernoff and Schadler’s book to all managers and marketing professionals. Its concepts and strategies are vital knowledge for modern businesses.

[Liz Licata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Empowered is focuses on a few things to improve your business:
1. Listen to your customers
2. Use social media, apps, etc. to connect with your customers
3. Encourage innovation in your company and make failure painless
4. Unite management, IT and employees to create an environment welcoming to innovative thinking.

The book was fairly well written and had decent ideas. However, the authors really loved the jargon they created in a previous book (that they constantly mentioned) and used it continuously. Speaking of self-reference, they only seemed to look at research that one of them had done with his company. In my opinion, that lowers their credibility.

All in all, the book was solidly in the “meh” category. I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t know already but the information itself wasn’t bad.

[Thomas Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a good follow up to Groundswell. Takes the ideas of customer focused support and engagement and extends the idea of empowering employees, customers and partners. Some of the case studies and citations are a bit funny in that they are dated and focus on companies that are currently having some troubles - Best Buy, Kodak, Dell. I enjoyed this book for many of the same reasons I enjoyed Groundswell, not only does Josh Bernoff explain a concept, he offers practical ways to adopt the practice.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a class I'm taking on social media at UCI. Great book. Answered most of the questions that Groundswell, Bernoff's first book created for me. This book was much better than Groundswell in my opinion. More time spent addressing the hard questions and less telling us what our problems were.

[Daniel Hooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book essentially describes a framework for (primarily large) businesses to allow innovation in the workplace, particularly with respect to social media and other freely available consumer technology. One to keep on your shelf if what you need to do is foster and support innovation in your workplace, but probably skippable for smaller teams who already "get it."

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book. Great concepts. HERO Highly Empowered Resourceful Operative. Gives examples on how social media helps control the conversation about your company. Gives examples where companies didn't respond through this media and had a lot of negative buzz generated and how some companies used it to generate good buzz and revitalize their company. A must read.

[Ayumi Takimoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

消費者の声の力が大きくなってきた今、アメリカでは社員に権限を持たせ、ソーシャルメディアを活用して直接消費者と対話させる企業が増えてきている。この本は一定の権限を持って消費者と直接対話していく社員(=HERO)を活躍させ、サポートする方法などが書かれている。
HEROの取り組みは自社商品やサービス・社員や店員・企業体質など全てに嘘偽りなく開示していくことが必要だと思った。大企業であればある程取り組むまでには大変だけど、これからの時代はより本質が問われていく事は間違いないと感じる。

[Vikram Chalana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Really matches what Winshuttle provides to our customers -- tools that empower people to make major improvements to how their company operates. Also ties in with Autonomy concept in Intrinsic Motivation from another book that I'm reading -- Drive.

[JD Evermore · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the title, I thought this would be more about empowering employees in the workplace, but it's really primarily about using technology to boost employee's ability to respond to customers. Still good stuff, just a lot more limited than I expected from the title.

[Guanxi]

T-Bone, you should read this. This is a collection of work driven by Forrester Research that gives a modern structure to the Innovation adoption curve. Bill Gates wrote Business at the Speed of Thought 10 years ago - these guys documented it in action.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable for the wealth of examples gathered in one place. Great resource for employees who want to innovate using social media but don't know whether or how to bring it to management's attention.

[Craig Thomler]

Excellent narrative containing many wonderful case studies.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it!

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly overwritten; a good summary of the opportunities & challenges which empowering customers, employees and partners provides.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt a little too long with examples that were overly extended. Good info, but there was just too much to the chapters.

[Davide · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to move safety in the social media jungle and know more about social business, you must read this book. It cannot be missing from your bookshelf