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

by Barry Libert, Jon Spector

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.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management

156 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2007

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Urgh. I can't remember why I picked this one up and it's going back to the library unfinished.

The plural of anecdote is not data.

Ok, fine, it's not a science book. Even so, the puns with 'we' (e.g. C-We-O) and the pervasive clip art are unbearable.

To be fair, my biggest complaint is that this is mostly a marketing book and that's not what I was hoping for.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long term "smart" client who is gifted in sales and marketing was asking about social networking, blogs, etc. That led me to investigate it myself, as a technology company owner. This was my first book on the subject. Goodbooks.com is my first real experience with the concept. I belong to other sites, just not as actively.

Drawing on their social networking ideas and research, authors Barry Libert and Jon Spector drew upon more than 4,000 people to help write a book on how to make money from the wisdom of crowds.

Writing a book is hard enough, but coordinating the contributions of thousands must be a massive effort. Surprisingly the resulting effort is readable and insightful. The primary and secondary authors argue adapting social network to your business will drive decision-making and greater profitability.

The book shares case studies on product development, manufacturing, marketing, customer service, finance and management. After completing it, I had greater insights into business functions that can best be supported by social networks and communities; moderating the process, balancing structure with independence.

Guidelines from the book:
1. Lead from the rear. The company is not the star of the show. Words and ideas should be allowed to flow unimpeded. When overzeolous managers interrupt and detail the conversation, valuable ideas are lost.
2.Know when to step in. Communities have built in sefl correcting capacities. Trouble makers get squelched or ignored.
3. Form a Club, a real community of like minded people
Creating a vibrant community is all about creating a a critical mass of good minds and spurring them to spark off one another. Odds of success improve when members share the same general outlook.
4. You can't hide so don't even try. When an error occurs, there is a natural inclination to hunker down and hope it will go away. Spin destroys the covenant. The company needs to fess up, explain how it happened and transgress no more.
5. Forget about perfection.
6. Stir things up.
7. Say thank you.
8. This is not a one night stand. Communities take time to develop. When the community is forming, companies need to experiment with contect and ways of inciting valuable discussion.

[Andrw Yang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice easy read. Nicely laid out, efficient. There are some important principles that are laid out that should help any company who wants to connect more with their customers using the much hyped "Web 2.0" model

It includes a lot of case studies/examples based on real experiences which is a great way to learn, however due to their rosiness, it leads me to wonder whether those were contributed from impartial researchers or rather people who came from the mentioned companies who may have other motivations involved. Because it was a book written by thousands of people, this is where impartiality may become an issue.

Regardless it is an interesting and efficient read.

[Bricoleur (David) Soul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh... when will I learn... Whenever a book's front-cover promotes the author of its foreword at the expense of the actual author of the book, its probably a good hint to go find something written by the former.

Crowdsourcing is a very interesting phenomenon; and probably a very important one, but most unfortunately this book is as thin as gruel... although it might indeed be the first of its type unless you have an overwhelming hunger you will probably be better off waiting until someone else comes up with a more exciting recipe.

[Leader Summaries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro El poder del "nosotros", de Barry Libert y Jon Spector.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: innovación, internet y nuevas tecnologías, mejora de procesos.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro El poder del "nosotros", El sorprendente poder de la colaboración masiva en Internet: El poder del "nosotros"

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 2 out of 5]

The experiment of writing the book was more interesting than the book itself. Here, dozens (hundreds?) of writers collaborated in the writing of the book.

The book was very short and even shorter whether the often irrelevant pictures are ignored. I was surprised at the repetition of stories and summaries in the book.

The collaborative writing means that the style is very bland and has no consistent voice.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skimmed through this in about two commutes. It was ok – it kind of hammers home the same message, that the collaboration of ‘crowdsourcing’ is the next great step in the Information Age, over and over. If nothing else, it’s a good way to find out about some of the latest trends in internet communities.

[Yno · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book turns out to be more like a pamphlet: superficial, one/few liners.
It would be nice as a presentation, but as a book it is too pretentious.
However, it does provide a convenient list of ideas to "unleash the power of crowdsourcing"

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book with examples how to gain companies wisdom of crowds which can drice inovation, research new markets, create customer loyalty and improve profitability.

[Marlin Silviana]

It's new era of community marketing and this book will give you best practice of implementing two way communication between brand`and community.

[Darrin Grella]

So far, interesting concept. Still trying to determine how I can apply this to me.

[Rahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provide good generic guidelines to harness the power of crowdsourcing for business. But the material was not rigorously covered for my taste, too generic.

[Josh Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on collaboration and crowdsourcing. How to best use the wisdom of the crowds. A great read.

[Jim Serger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the pros and cons of crowd sourcing -- talks about start up companies, Fortune 500, 1000 and the little one person operations. Good thought and great insight.

[Antti Vilpponen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference book with lots of examples on crowdsourcing and collaborative work.