8/16/2023 0 Comments Insurgency from inside officeThe military’s experience fighting terrorism provides a useful guide to corporations learning how to manage customer insurgency. It takes a network to defeat a network became the new mantra for approaching counter-insurgency. military leaders realized we were fighting a type of enemy that would require fundamental changes in operations and strategy. As the post-9/11 conflicts grew in size and complexity, some U.S. The “super-empowered” label was originally applied to terrorists. No one knows about insurgency better than the military, especially after 9/11 when the military reinvented how it approaches insurgency. The third step is to understand the most effective strategies for countering insurgency. It is an act of advocacy rather than destruction. Are they fighting to improve the existing institution, or to replace it with a new one? Are they fighting to change the current leadership, or simply to influence the leaders’ decisions and actions? Unlike political insurgency, customer insurgency is often looking to improve the existing institution, rather than overthrow it. The second step is to understand the objectives of the insurgents. An effective strategy must therefore either prevent discontent in the first place, or prevent it from spreading to a wider population. This vision spreads from a small group of discontents to a broader population, fed by growing sense of empowerment and solidarity. The common thread is a shared vision for change. There are many different types of insurgencies, ranging from terrorism (such as the Taliban in Afghanistan) to non-violent resistance (such as Gandhi in colonial India). The first step is to understand the nature of insurgency. What does this mean for leaders? How can organizations adapt to consumers armed with inexpensive weapons of mass collaboration? With access to his own broadcasting channel, Dave Carroll became an insurgent - quickly outmaneuvering a much more powerful organization. Within a week “ United Breaks Guitars” had three million views (it’s more than 12 million now), and United had a PR crisis on its hands. After nine months of negotiating, he gave up on the usual channels, wrote a catchy song, and posted it on YouTube. Take the infamous example of the United baggage handlers who broke a passenger’s guitar. Insurgency doesn’t always come in the form of blowback from a big announcement. The result was a rapid, costly, and somewhat embarrassing retreat. In each case, executives had proudly announced what they thought was a bold step forward for their business, only to find they had stepped on a social landmine. In 2011, Netflix announced it would split into two businesses, then retreated after only three weeks. In 2010, Gap announced a brand new logo, then retreated after a week. In 2009, Tropicana brought out brand new packaging for their orange juice, then pulled it a few weeks later. If you want to know what it feels like to be on the other end of a customer insurgency, just ask Tropicana, Gap, or Netflix. It is a simple matter of the big and strong (but often too slow) being unable to manage, or even see, the small and weaker (but fast and agile) threat. We normally think of insurgency in a political context, but today’s digital technologies are creating a similar dynamic in business. The other has guided numerous companies through digital transformations, most recently as SVP of Communities and Networks at Sears Holdings.īy definition, an insurgency consists of a small and less-powerful force seeking to overturn the leadership of a much larger and more powerful institution. Navy SEAL for 15 years and helped lead counter-insurgency forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. We call this new dynamic “customer insurgency.” While this term may seem a bit dramatic, we don’t use it lightly or without experience. The result is a fundamental change that has put executive teams and board directors on high alert. No longer passive audiences, they can organize to overturn even the most strategic initiatives. But thanks to social and mobile technologies, consumers are now “hyper-connected and super-empowered,” to use Thomas Friedman’s memorable phrase. We don’t usually think of consumers as a threat to our business.
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