Blog Line

After several months the GCI book club has now completed “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. It is an extremely interesting book and though the original edition is now four to five years old it remains completely relevant. Friedman discusses in length China’s rise as a manufacturing power and based on recent news events and company announcements China’s manufacturing practices are indeed a hot topic. Risk management and oversight of an organization’s supply chain, or all external points of contact, take on a profound new meaning in the new world order of a truly global economy coupled with consumers’ expectations of transparency and ability to “shout” their concerns or rage with the click of a key.

It’s no accident then that the “hot pick” for the next GCI Book Club selection is “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media” by Paul Gillin. The foreward promises that “this book isn’t a book about blogging. It is a book about transformation in media that is handing influence to people who have never before had the tools or platform to express themselves…Blogs and podcasts happen to be a way to exercise this influence, but they are just tools. Fundementally, this is a book about people….” Personally, I do not believe that a blog is the answer to every problem but just that, a tool, hopefully this will be a “good read” and like, “The World is Flat”, lead to a great deal of active discussion and debate within the GCI office.