We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business [Hardcover]

Barry Libert (Author), Jon Spector (Author), Don Tapscott (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2007

Wikinomics and The Wisdom of Crowds identified the phenomena of emerging social networks, but they do not confront how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds. WE ARE SMARTER THAN ME by Barry Libert and Jon Spector, Foreword by Wikinomics author Don Tapscott, is the first book to show anyone in business how to profit from the wisdom of crowds. Drawing on their own research and the insights from an enormous community of more than 4,000 people, Barry Libert and Jon Spector have written a book that reveals what works, and what doesn't, when you are building community into your decision making and business processes. In We Are Smarter Than Me, you will discover exactly how to use social networking and community in your business, driving better decision-making and greater profitability. The book shares powerful insights and new case studies from product development, manufacturing, marketing, customer service, finance, management, and beyond. You'll learn which business functions can best be accomplished or supported by communities; how to provide effective moderation, balance structure with independence, manage risk, define success, implement effective metrics, and much more. From tools and processes to culture and leadership, We Are Smarter than Me will help you transform the promise of social networking into a profitable reality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Best Books of 2007, Top 10 Editors Pick: Business" - Amazon.com, 2007

  

#1 on 800-CEO-READ's "Top 25 Monthly" Bestseller List, August 2008

 

"10 Books to Inspire Your Business for 2008", The Street.com, November 15, 2007

 

 

From the Back Cover

Wikinomics and The Wisdom of Crowds identified the phenomena of emerging social networks, but they do not confront how businesses can profit from the wisdom of crowds. WE ARE SMARTER THAN ME by Barry Libert and Jon Spector, Foreword by Wikinomics author Don Tapscott, is the first book to show anyone in business how to profit from the wisdom of crowds. Drawing on their own research and the insights from an enormous community of more than 4,000 people, Barry Libert and Jon Spector have written a book that reveals what works, and what doesn't, when you are building community into your decision making and business processes. In We Are Smarter Than Me, you will discover exactly how to use social networking and community in your business, driving better decision-making and greater profitability. The book shares powerful insights and new case studies from product development, manufacturing, marketing, customer service, finance, management, and beyond. You'll learn which business functions can best be accomplished or supported by communities; how to provide effective moderation, balance structure with independence, manage risk, define success, implement effective metrics, and much more. From tools and processes to culture and leadership, We Are Smarter than Me will help you transform the promise of social networking into a profitable reality.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing; 1 edition (October 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132244799
• ISBN-13: 978-0132244794
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barry Libert is a board member, social, mobile and big data technology investor, and strategic advisor to boards and their leaders seeking to create value using today's technologies. His portfolio companies (past and present) manage more than 15,000 corporate social networks (customer and employee), 350,000 experts, and 2 billion monthly interactions. He has also advised companies such as Microsoft, GE Healthcare, SunLife, Deloitte, ESPN and the US Army on how to use social and mobile technologies to drive growth and innovation.

Barry has authored five (5) books and more than a dozen (12) e-books on the value of social networking and crowdsourcing. He has co-authored more than 1100 articles that have appeared in the WSJ, Barrons, Businessweek, NYT, Institutional Investor, Financial Times and other leading periodicals. He has also been on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV. He has spoken at over 400 events to more than 30,000 people.

He is graduate of Tufts (BA) and Columbia Universities (MBA). He is happily married with two grown sons he adores.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars More scrapbook than book January 16, 2008

By Colin E. Manning

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's disturbing what passes for a book these days. This book is a disjointed collection of quotes, lists, and sundry clipart.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This should get you thinking in the right direction... November 9, 2007

By Thomas Duff HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Are you getting those "what's this Web 2.0 stuff" questions at work? Does the boss want to know why s/he should be considering how social networking can help the business? Barry Libert and Jon Spector can answer some of those questions in the book We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business. It's a bit "rah rah" in nature, and it actually failed in its initial goal. But this small volume should be more than enough to get your management thinking in the right direction...

Contents:
How We Got Here; Look What We Can Do; Go from R&D to R&WE; How May We Help We?; Customer, Sell Thyself; If We Build It, We Will Come; Welcome to the World Bank of We; Make Everyone a C-We-O; Lead from the Rear; Afterword - Join the Crowd; Company Index; Name Index; Subject Index; Acknowledgments

The general idea in We is that no one single person or organization can have all the right answers. It's only as you invite others into the conversation that you will make dramatic leaps in customer involvement and ownership. These invitations often show up these days in web sites using tools such as discussion forums, community volunteer help desks, wikis, etc. The "crowds" know more than you do, and they are often quite willing to be part of your success if you'll let them. Take Amazon.com for example... a huge differentiator is their customer review feature (of which this review will be part of as soon as I'm done). Why do people contribute their time and effort on reviews of items when it only serves to help Amazon sell more? Because people are passionate about what they like and dislike, and they want their voice to be heard. This "wisdom of the crowds" enables others to get a more complete view of a product, and that ability drives traffic and sales. The reviewer feels good, the buyer has a better experience, the manufacturer is happy (provided the review was a good one), and Amazon draws more traffic. This is but one example of many that are covered in the book, and its worth the small investment of time to go through the 150+ pages.

When I said the book failed in its initial goal, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The authors actually wanted this book to write itself using wikis and discussion forums for each chapter. The profits of the sales would then be donated to charities, with the contributors determining the percentage of what went where. The profit thing worked, but there still needed to be the traditional writer, editor, etc. in order to get everything to actually end up on the shelf. But even at that, the input of hundreds of participants does come through in the pages, and it's a prime example of the "we" being smarter than the "me".

I also thought the book was a bit on the "this is all great and wonderful, and you need to do it now!" side. Techies will not find details on how to make this all happen, nor will you get a lot of deep philosophical discussion on the academic value of this approach. The writing is emotional, and is meant to touch the reader at a level that calls for some type of response. If you give this to your management (or if you're management yourself), you should come away understanding what "crowdsourcing" is all about, as well as how it has worked in other companies and organizations. From there, you can take the next steps towards nailing down your own personal action plan...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Most People Are Smarter Than Me... November 3, 2007

By Wayne Turmel

Format:Hardcover

.. so it's good to know that there are many ways to capture the wisdom of audiences, co-workers and strangers who share a passion for whatever it is I'm doing. I'll take all the help I can get. In "We Are Smarter Than Me", Barry Libert and Jon Spector have put together a book that is both a primer in using social networks for businesses and individuals, and a prime example of what can be created by using them effectively.

While true "Web 2.0" geeks might find some of the examples a bit basic, most business people and civilians will be fascinated at how many examples fit their needs, and might even find the competition is ahead of them.

You can hear an interview with Barry Libert on The Cranky Middle Manager Show at http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/tpn_cmm_20071103_118.mp3