Connecting Organizational Silos: Taking Knowledge Flow Management to the Next Level with Social Media

CASE STUDY 2: REDNET (RED VENTURES)

The second case study concerned a platform that was started at the beginning of 2012. The company that launched it is called Red Ventures and their ESN is called RedNet. Red Ventures is an innovative direct marketing company based in Fort Mill, South Carolina (just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina). When they started the initiative they had about 1,200 employees. The company was founded in 2000 and is therefore a considerably younger company than SAS (founded in 1976).

I learned about Red Venture’s plans to launch an ESN in the fall of 2011 during a site visit to their amazing campus and through regular conversations with one of the key drivers of the initiative. I was able to offer some advice and also learn from their experiences launching it.

The initiative was fully supported by the CEO, Ric Elias, who specifically wanted it to be launched to everyone, but in stages. One of the key motivations was to bridge some communication gaps between different campus buildings at their headquarters, but RedNet very quickly offered a lot more than just additional communication channels (see Exhibit 1.3).

Exhibit 1.3 RedNet at Red Ventures

Source: Copyright 2012, Red Ventures

One difference in the way the initiative got off the ground at Red Ventures as opposed to SAS was a more careful launch with a pilot group of about 30 users (opposed to the viral ...