How to work like a network: For Today's Executives

1. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR EXECUTIVES
How to Work Like a Network:
For Today’s Executives
Your guide to leading a more innovative and
responsive organization with Enterprise Social
ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR EXECUTIVES
Estimated reading time: 17 minutes

2. Introduction
Part One:
Break Down Barriers
Part Two:
Building a Legacy with Social
Part Three:
The Feedback to Go Forward
Table of
Contents
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Enterprise Social describes a new way of working that taps into the power of human networks. It’s an approach that brings the essence of consumer social
networks—connecting with others, rapid information sharing, and easy discovery—to the enterprise. By connecting individuals to a dynamic network of
people and information, Enterprise Social enables employees to respond faster, accomplish more, and keep your business moving forward together.
The Microsoft vision for Enterprise Social is to empower organizations to work like a network by delivering seamless social experiences across familiar
applications people already use, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Yammer, SharePoint Online, Lync, and virtually any other
application or service that matters to your company.

3. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR EXECUTIVES
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. You’re
watching the competitive landscape constantly evolve,
and opportunity is everywhere for organizations that
want to keep growing and remain profitable.
For you as a business leader, this evolution presents challenges too: low
employee engagement that undermines productivity; inefficient collaboration
that hampers innovation; and higher expectations from customers who are
more connected and technologically savvy than ever before.
What can you do to keep control of the reins and guide your company?
Enable your organizations to work like a network with
Enterprise Social technologies.
The ubiquity of social media cannot be overstated—and it’s growing inside the
enterprise. Forrester Research analyst Philipp Karcher says, “We see improving
adoption every year as Enterprise Social becomes a standard component in
the employee toolkit.” If Enterprise Social is part of the toolkit, then you are the
master craftsman.
Ninety-three percent of
business leaders agree
that Enterprise Social tools
stimulate innovation within
their companies.
—Jared Spataro, General Manager,
Enterprise Social at Microsoft
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4. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR BUSINESS LEADERS
The objective of this e-book is to show you how Microsoft Enterprise Social can help
you lead your organization more effectively. It‘s your guide to using Enterprise Social
technologies to engage employees, foster innovation, and attract and retain more
customers. First it defines Enterprise Social and shows the value of these solutions
for today’s executive leaders. Second, it presents three ways that Enterprise Social
can help you and your leadership team.
Finally, it shows you how to get started working like a network.
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5. Break Down Barriers
Part One:

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The Value of Enterprise Social
for Executives
By applying the power of Enterprise Social to your
business, you can:
• Boost employee engagement and empower
individual employees to make an impact on
the business.
• Foster innovation and unlock creativity by removing
barriers to collaboration.
• Increase customer loyalty to help drive
business growth.
With Enterprise Social, you can find the right
information instantly without the need for time-
consuming searches; keep your workers connected
no matter where they are located; enable productive
conversations among your employees, customers, and
partners; and empower everyone in your organization
to make better decisions faster.
Enabling everyone associated with your company
to work like a network can help you, as an executive,
address some of your most significant challenges.

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With Microsoft Enterprise Social technologies,
you can:
• Listen to conversations within your company on Yammer.
• Gain insight on sentiment outside your company with Microsoft
Social Listening.
• Adapt to employee and customer needs quickly by collaborating
and by using Office 365 productivity tools.
• Find valuable internal information and make connections
with Office Delve.
“As a manager, you’re
better able to hear
real-time feedback. You’re
able to make quicker
decisions. And then, those
quicker decisions lead to
better growth in business
and sales.”
—Bryan Goode, Senior Director of
Product Marketing for Yammer
and Enterprise Social, Microsoft

8. Building a Legacy with Social
Part Two:

9. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR EXECUTIVES
You are already accustomed
to the business world moving
at breakneck speed. We know
that the multitude of social
tools can seem overwhelming,
or even risky. You’re not alone.
The Wall Street Journal reports
that the majority of North
American CFOs have focused
more on the risks of social
media than the benefits.
But we know you are not one to shy away
from what is new, especially if ignoring it will
impact your bottom line. With Enterprise
Social, you have an unprecedented
opportunity to get raw, unfiltered
information—which will help inform strategic
business decisions—straight from employees
and customers.
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“It’s scary to send an email directly to the CEO of a company. Very few people would actually have the nerve to go do
that,” says Bryan Goode, senior director of product marketing for Yammer and Enterprise Social at Microsoft. “And yet,
the bar is really low for a front-line worker to post about a customer experience, which the CEO can see. That means a lot
more feedback for the senior executives.”
That means you can focus on listening to your people while also being nimble, sharing information, and getting products
to market faster. With Enterprise Social, the range of tools helps you create a legacy of valuing human capital while
growing your business. You can have your cake and eat it too.
Listen to and Engage Your Employees
As you know, there are fewer people working from the office on a strictly nine-to-five schedule. More employees are
working remotely, gaining the benefits of working from home, flexible hours, avoiding traffic, and staying productive while
traveling. But this lack of physical presence can impact employee engagement, which impacts your bottom line. In the
“We want people who’ve joined us fresh out of college to
have access to senior management. A platform like Yammer is
perfect for us, since a new employee can post something on
Yammer and it shows up on our CEO’s screen.”
—Wilkie Wong, Chief Financial Officer, Esquel Group

11. ENTERPRISE SOCIAL FOR EXECUTIVES
United States alone, Gallup estimates that
active employee disengagement costs
organizations $450 billion to $550 billion
every year.
You don’t want that dead weight.
Enterprise Social establishes tighter
connections between executives
and employees at every level of the
organization and across all locations,
and gives senior leaders a better
understanding of what employees want
and need. As a business leader, it’s on you
to help employees feel more connected,
valued, and motivated to do their
best work.
In the compelling organizational
leadership book, Leaders Eat Last, best-
selling author Simon Sinek writes, “The
effort required by a job is not in itself
stressful, but rather the imbalance between
the effort we give and the reward we feel.”
It’s not rocket science. The more valued
people feel, the more they want to give.
A Two-Way Street
Foster a more connected company culture, share company news, and encourage
multidirectional conversations among employees by posting a Yammer
Announcement. Employees can respond directly to the same conversation thread and
start a discussion with executives and other employees.
Clear as Glass
Build trust through increased transparency about key decisions and updates. Use
Lync to host executive Q&As across multiple office locations. Or use Yammer to host
“executive YamJams” where employees can ask questions and get real-time responses
from senior leaders.
A Direct Line
Give employees a voice by establishing and maintaining a direct channel for people
to share ideas, offer honest feedback, and surface issues with senior management.
Create a Yammer Group for employees to connect with your executive leadership
team, and encourage senior leaders to regularly post messages and updates in
the group.
Give Them a Round of Applause
Regularly offer positive feedback for good work and good ideas. Yammer lets you see
and “like” posts; the Praise feature lets you recognize individuals for a job well done.
Informal recognition goes a long way toward making all employees feel more valued
and appreciated.
Connect from Anywhere
Stay connected to employees and conversations—even when you’re out of the office.
The Yammer mobile app helps you maintain a consistent presence among employees
and jump into key discussions despite busy travel schedules.
Ways Executives Can Increase
Employee Engagement
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And this isn’t just coming from the top down. The floodgates are open, so
employees can communicate more freely among themselves too. Yammer
offers a “Praise” feature that encourages peer-recognition programs. “It’s good
for the person getting recognized. It’s also empowering for the person doing
the recognizing to be able to say, ‘You really did something great for me and I
want to say thank you,’” says Bryan Goode.
Adapt and Respond Faster
to Foster Innovation
Businesses today must be extremely nimble and responsive to stay ahead of the
rapidly shifting market. But how do you accomplish that with so much on
your plate?
Think of any monumental feat of human engineering: the great pyramids of
Egypt, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China. Nothing epic can be built without
the collective power of many people working together.
But the labor itself is not enough. Those workers also need to trust each other
enough to tackle new problems together. “Leaps of greatness require the
combined problem-solving ability of people who trust each other,” says
Simon Sinek in Leaders Eat Last.
“There’s no question
Yammer has helped us
reduce the time it takes to
go from a new idea or call
to action to execution. It
accelerates innovation.”
—Gregory North, VP, Business
Transformation, Xerox

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A platform like Yammer makes ideas
more visible and provides a place
where employees can build on previous
suggestions—without reinventing the wheel
or creating and endless chain of
‘reply-all’ messages.
“In a social forum, you get a lot of
that building effect. And it becomes
a conversation versus just a one-way
communication,” says Goode.
Enterprise Social removes the
communication and collaboration barriers
created by physical distance, departmental
boundaries, and organizational hierarchies
to help executives lead high-performing
teams, foster innovation, and take ideas to
market faster.
Razor-Sharp Focus
Every quarter, post a Yammer message to employees outlining three or four core
business priorities. This helps employees understand how they can contribute to the
business and gives them an opportunity to ask questions.
Making the Space
Yammer Groups let employees create dedicated workspaces for collaborating on
anything—from product development to marketing campaigns. Because group
conversations are open by default, senior leaders can easily see project updates or
jump into a conversation to offer direction.
Grassroots Feedback
Post a question in Yammer to crowdsource ideas from across your company. Ask
employees to share ideas for new products, advertising concepts, HR improvements,
and more.
Finger on the Pulse
The Yammer feed helps you get a quick reading on what various teams are
working on, and Delve lets you discover relevant files and documents generated
by employees.
Ways Enterprise Social Can Help Your
Company Adapt and Respond
More Quickly
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Another way to say this: If you ask for teamwork, you’ll get it. And it will likely be very valuable. Bryan Goode says, “I was
planning a presentation to a pretty big audience, so I asked for feedback from people in Yammer. I got some incredible
ideas that will make for a much better presentation. I was able to effectively tap into everybody’s different perspectives
and intellects.”
Grow Customer Loyalty
Customers don’t want to hear a sales pitch. Your audience is savvier than ever, and will have likely already researched your
brand, products, and reputation before direct contact is even made. They want to be informed, entertained, and above
all engaged through personalized experiences. Enterprise Social helps you build a customer-centric culture that does a
better job of meeting their needs—which makes your company indispensable to them.
Networked companies—those that use Enterprise
Social—experienced a 20 percent improvement in
supplier, partner, and customer satisfaction.
—Yammer Business Trends Customer Survey, 2013
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Timing is everything if a customer is going to feel heard and valued. You can
find out about any concerns right away with Enterprise Social. On Yammer, if
there are any issues or incidents, you are able to find out and respond much
faster than through traditional channels. “Within an hour or so of the sales rep
posting that escalation, I was able to respond to it, and they were able to get
their answer back to the customer. In the past, that would have taken weeks,”
says Bryan Goode.
Your business will also benefit by knowing the exact specifics of an issue. In
the past, if a customer had feedback, it might be slow to filter through various
departments, or it might be watered down by the time it arrives. But with
Enterprise Social, you are hearing directly from the source.
“In other means of communication, somebody else aggregates it for you and
puts their own flavor on it. And that runs the risk that you play this telephone
game where you don’t really hear the direct feedback. It’s filtered and edited,
which is sometimes not useful.”
You can keep track of what’s top of mind with your competitors, partners, and
customers with Microsoft Social Listening. “It’s a great way to keep tabs on
different conversations happening outside our company,” says Bryan Goode.
“Yammer lets us engage
our employees and
partners in a way that
is not only compelling
for them, but best of all,
creates value for
our members.”
—Greg Moran, SVP and CIO,
Infrastructure and Operations,
Nationwide Insurance

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Keys to Growing Customer Loyalty with
Enterprise Social3
How Do They Feel?
Use Microsoft Social Listening to track
social sentiment and identify emerging
trends that impact your business.
Faster Than a Carrier
Pigeon
The Yammer mobile app connects
remote employees to headquarters
and provides a quick and easy way to
share what’s happening on the ground.
Crowdsource
Share market research reports broadly
using Microsoft OneDrive for Business.
Facilitate discussion and determine
action items through side-by-side
document conversations.
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17. The Feedback to Go Forward
Part Three:

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In order to run your business
well, you need consumable,
actionable data. “Every
business leader I’ve ever met
wants more information. They
want more feedback from
customers and from their
front-line people,” says
Bryan Goode.
A sophisticated Enterprise Social solution
does exactly that. It should help you listen
to important feedback so you can make
data-driven business decisions. In the
end, this will lead to better engagement,
happier employees, a more innovative
business culture, seamless collaboration,
and improved customer loyalty. And that is
the kind of legacy a business wants
to build.

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Microsoft is a longtime and trusted partner for IT. Microsoft Enterprise Social technologies enable companies to
engage, inform, and connect their employees, partners, and suppliers, and were awarded the top position in Gartner’s
2014 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. There are three primary reasons that more than 400,000
organizations have chosen Microsoft Enterprise Social technologies to improve their business:
• Enterprise-grade technology built for business – Microsoft offers companies the experience, global
footprint, security, and reliability they expect from enterprise cloud solutions.
• A comprehensive and connected platform – Microsoft offers a comprehensive and deeply connected
platform for delivering seamless social experiences across many familiar applications as well as customers’
data centers, service providers, and the Microsoft public cloud.
• Familiar and intuitive user experience and applications – Microsoft provides consistent, familiar, and
intuitive applications across its cloud solutions to drive faster, lower-cost implementation and high user
adoption, which lead to improved productivity and better business results.
To work like a network and learn about tools that help you engage employees,
foster collaboration, and grow your business, visit www.enterprisesocial.com.

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www.enterprisesocial.com