Internal Social Networks: Electronic Face-2-Face

Irwin D. Simon, Chairman, President, and CEO of Hain Celestial Group, could be the poster person for social corporate culture, at least based on an interview in the NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/business/20corner.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2 .



Given his comments in the article, however, I am betting that Hain Celestial Group uses social networks very sparingly internally.  Simon commented that he is “a big communicator by telephone and by person…I’m just big into communicating face-to-face, eye-to-eye and not through e-mail…we lose a sense of communication because everything is done electronically.”

I agree that personal communication is the gold standard.  It enables leaders to share their passion, to expand their vision, to grow.  But ongoing face-2-face communication with a broad and diverse group of employees is simply not feasible in a large organization. 

Hain Celestial reported a little over 2000 employees in June 2010.  How many of those employees ever actually talk to the CEO?  Communicating one-to-one with employees might be a high priority, but it’s not the only priority.  Establishing relationships with vendors and customers are also important for the CEO.  The FY2010 Hain Celestial annual report includes as one of its risk factors its dependence on the services of the CEO, and notes that “the loss of the services of Mr. Simon could harm our business.”

Internal social networks help create organizations that are not dependent on any single individual.  The team captain will always be important; leadership counts.  But the internal structures, culture and processes should both support the leader and enable the organization to operate without him/her. 

Internal social networks enable bigger organizations to maintain the open, engaged culture that Simon describes by:

·        expanding and enhancing the conversation 

·        enabling the CEO to engage with more people

·        forging stronger team bonds across a bigger team

·        opening doors and keeping them open

It’s about acknowledging and respecting that even the CEO doesn’t have all the answers.