Blogging: It's Not Just for the "Young"

Bill Marriott, age 75, recently launched his "Marriott on the Move" blog, introducing it as the new form of "management by walking around." For those not familiar with this business technique, it's basically just what it sounds like: managers take time to walk around their company and talk to everyone -- from the front desk person to the people in the warehouse to their VPs of public relations -- to get a sense of the "real" functionality (or non-functionality) of the company.

Clearly, Marriott (and others) have cozened on to the fact that online interactive tools like blogs and social networks can help immeasurably in their implementation of traditional management techniques, like "management by walking around." Anywhere from 6 to 10 people a day comment on Marriott's entries -- some customers, some employees, some random citizens. And the posts, while polite, aren't all postive.

In fact, here's what's really cool. People are actually allowed to -- GASP -- disagree with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Publicly! Without repercussions (well, I'm not sure what room they get when they check in to a Marriott). But the point is that this isn't just a corporate fluff piece. Real people with real concerns get to have a say and they're willing to speak up with less rancor and more thoughtfulness than you might expect.

The fact is that people these days, whether they're customers, employees or random web surfers EXPECT you to have a blog. It's a new business standard. So what are you going to do to get on board? One great place to start is my post on blogging. More to come soon.