Managing in the Age of the Empowered Customer
Josh Bernoff, SVP, Forrester
Customers today have more power than businesses, in fact more power than any institution. A majority are in social networks. They connect at all times of day, and from anywhere, using smart phones. They define brands, demand service, and make or break companies with their word of mouth. There is only one strategy that can succeed in the age of the empowered consumer – empower your own workforce to serve them. In this talk, Josh quantifies the power of consumers, describes the four steps companies need to take to turn empowered consumers to their advantage, and shows how empowered workers will transform the way companies are managed. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community are invited to experience this speaker.
Josh Bernoff is Senior Vice President, Idea Development at Forrester Research, and is responsible for identifying, developing, and promoting some of the company’s most influential and forward-looking ideas. Josh is the coauthor of the BusinessWeek best-selling book, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008) a comprehensive analysis of corporate strategy for dealing with social technologies. Groundswell has won critical acclaim: Abbey Klaassen of Advertising Age picked it as the best book ever written on marketing and media, Amazon’s editors put it in the top ten business books of the year.
In 2008, the Society for New Communications Research picked Josh and his Groundswell coauthor Charlene Li as “visionaries of the year.” Josh joined Forrester in 1995. In 1996, he created the Technographics® segmentation, a classification of consumers according to how they approach technology. Forrester has used this segmentation as the basis of its consumer research offering, also called Technographics, since 1997. Josh is also known for 10 years of analysis of the television industry.
Josh’s research, analysis, and opinions appear frequently in publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He writes a column for Marketing News, a publication of the American Marketing Association, and blogs for Forrester and Advertising Age. Josh has keynoted major conferences on television, music, marketing, and technology in Barcelona, Cannes, Chicago, London, New York, Rome, and São Paulo.
Follow Josh on Twitter and Experience Josh’s Blog
Interview with Josh Bernoff, SVP, Idea Development, Forrester Research, Part 1
Julien Kervella T’11 speaks with Josh about his career and experience in the social space.
Interview with Josh Bernoff, Part 2
Josh talks about social managing and marketing.
Interview with Josh Bernoff, Part 3
Josh shares more social success stories.
