Articles of Interest - Executive Coaching Firm, Value of an Online Community, Internet Technology

The Ever-growing Value of an Online Community
Stephen P. Gallagher

For some time now, I have been studying how information and networks underlie what defines business boundaries, and drives competitive advantage. When providers and users of information can deal with each other directly, the way companies utilize their people, market their products, manage their information, and work with partners will all change. This digitization of information combined with advances in computing and communications now provides for the pooling, integration, and marshalling of resources to and from multiple providers and users. This will also have consequences for the way work is done and how value is created in every organization.

Being of service in an online community

As a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, I saw, for the first time, how the Internet gave the New York State Bar Association access to resources well beyond our traditional boundaries. Rather than using the Internet to merely convey information from one user to another, we began seeing how connecting companies and individuals into temporary alliances created greater knowledge - greater value for all parties on the network. As these temporary and flexible alliances become more common, "value shifts from entities that own intelligence to those that orchestrate the flow and combination of intelligence." This may change the way law firms choose to do business.
The magnitude of the tragedy of the World Trade Center created an atmosphere in the New York legal community where bar associations, the business community, and government entities joined forces to form alliance focusing on one thing - to help individuals and families affected by these terrorist attacks. It quickly became obvious to those of us trying to connect volunteers to victims that no single organization could act alone. The online community became an operational reality, because it enabled all parties to work together, continually sharing information, knowledge, and expertise.
Within hours of the first attack, the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Mass Disaster Response began working with the State Emergency Management Office and other federal and state entities to help staff the Disaster Service Assistance Centers set up to help victims and their families. "Legal TechAid," the electronic community started taking shape on Monday morning when lower Manhattan was just beginning to get back to work. Since NYSBA served as the central clearinghouse for all regional bar association assistance, "Legal TechAid" was just one of the online communities set up to help lawyers in need of temporary office space, computers or other office equipment.
Once we had "Legal TechAid" operational, we began to see a different kind of social relationship between our technology consultants, who made up the bulk of our volunteers. Where these individuals formerly competed for business, they were now going out of their way to help find solutions for people they would probably never meet. With the shift from geography to cyberspace, the old idea of autonomous, boundaried business enterprises gave way to the notion of multiple partners engaged in both formal and informal reciprocal relationships.

Renowned thinker and business trailblazer, Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls this new way of working, e-culture, because it derives from basic principles of community; shared identity, shared knowledge, and mutual contributions. It seemed clear to us that, having the ability to communicate directly with nearly anyone, anywhere, set this new e-culture apart from the more traditional business model. Participants in this online community quickly realized that working together enabled the group to create value beyond anything any individual could have created on his/her own. By including suppliers, and even competitors as alliance members in this extended community, we were able to create new value for those needing our assistance.

Community might seem a strange word to use in conjunction with the ever-expanding virtual world, but according to Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the community metaphor suggests a different attitude towards customers and users, namely, the customers have changed from passive members of an audience to more active members of a community. The volunteers who joined the "Legal TechAid" community did not join to receive information from the bar association. Rather, they joined the group to give something back to those in need. Being of service within the community becomes the driving force.
I hope this begins to show you how the Internet can offer you and your firm new kinds of organizational intelligence that will create new opportunities for you to serve the public. Since so many individuals are now connected by networks, many law firms will be joining together to combine their capabilities and resources into these temporary alliances. Best of luck with this new e-culture. ~

Stephen P. Gallagher was director of the Law Office Economics and Management Department for the New York State Bar Association. He currently president of LeadershipCoach.us. He is a member of the ABA LPM Practice Management Advisors Committee and Seize the Future III Task Force. sgallagher@LeadershipCoach.us.

[1] See Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster. Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy. (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing 2000).

[1] See Mohanbir Sawhney and Deval Parikh. "Where Value Lives in a Networked World," Harvard Business Review, (January 2001), p.82.

[1] See Rosabeth Moss Kanter, e-Volve: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow. (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001).
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