 | | The Cluetrain Manifesto
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Book Summary: The Cluetrain Manifesto ? The End of Business as Usual
Printed with permission from TCI Management Consultants. A group of senior-level management consultants, offering strategic planning and marketing services to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
The Cluetrain Manifesto ? The End of Business as Usual
by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David
Weinberger;; Perseus Books, Cambridge, Mass., 2000
ISBN ? 0-7382-0244-4
The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses (and associated
commentaries) that describe how business will be done on the
Internet in the future. Reminiscent of Martin Luther?s 95
theses that were nailed up on the door of that German
cathedral church in 1517 (which caused that little brouhaha
known as the Protestant Reformation) the intent of The
Cluetrain Manifesto is to document and maybe help foment a
(similar?) revolution in how people think about the Internet
and business.
The Cluetrain Manifesto started as a web site put together by
the four authors listed above, each of whom is a luminary (i.e.
geek and gazillionaire) in the world of computers and the
Internet. They started the site as an expression of their philosophy about how
the Internet was changing the face of business and social interaction. More and
more people became aware of Cluetrain, and 'signed up' to the Manifesto,
expressing their support for its basic tenets. Nowadays, the Cluetrain website
(accessible at www.cluetrain.com) is quite extensive, and has a lot of ancillary
information on it.
The title, Cluetrain, is enigmatic, and is not explained in the book (or, at least, not
that I could find). The best I can come up with is that it suggests that you should
get a clue about how the Internet is radically changing the face of business
(preferably several clues) and then get on the train of those who are using it
properly.
So what does the Manifesto say? Here are some of the theses:
#1. Markets are conversations.
#2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
#3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in
a human voice.
#6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were
simply not possible in the era of mass media.
#7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. (my personal favorite)
#10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized.
Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally.
#13. What's happening to markets is also happening among employees. A
metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing standing
between the two.
#14. Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked
conversations. To their intended online audience, companies sound hollow,
flat, literally inhuman.
?and so on, through to number 95, which is quite sinister:
#95. We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we
are not waiting.
I think that the whole philosophy boils down to this: individuals increasingly are
communicating via the Internet, where they have a free voice in the affairs of the
world. Anybody can post information about anything at any time, including
views about particular companies' products and services. Corporations are not
able to control this voice, and must get used to the fact that their customers, their
employees and their suppliers are talking about them through the unregulated
medium of the Internet. Companies can either join into these conversations
honestly and use them to their benefit, or they can watch from the sidelines,
increasingly removed from their (likely shrinking) markets. Hence, tenet #1 of the
Manifesto: "Markets are conversations".
Moreover, when companies do engage in market dialogue, they must speak in a
human voice (tenet #3). Corporatese bureaucraticspeak will not cut it in the freeand-
easy, say-what-you-mean environment of the Internet.
The 95 theses take up the first 20 or so pages of the book. The remaining 160
pages are devoted to 7 essays written and co-written by various combinations of
the four authors of the book. Some of the most interesting of these are:
Talk is Cheap ? This essay contains examples of how conversations
among customers, employees and suppliers and even the general public are
creating the image of the company, quite apart from the 'formal' image
creation channels of PR, advertising, etc. There is a great example
(ostensibly real) given involving Saturn, where a disgruntled new car
owner appeals to other customers for help regarding a service problem
through a particular Newsgroup. This elicits all kinds of comments, and
generates quite an extensive conversation that eventually involves a
Saturn employee who (undoubtedly unbeknownst to his or her manager)
starts to provide some useful information. It's a good example of how a
company's image and reputation are affected by an Internet market
conversation, which can be quite influential in that potential Saturn
owners might well visit the Newsgroup to see how satisfied owners are
with the product.
Markets Are Conversations ? Given that markets are conversations and
can be influenced by anybody with a modem and an opinion, what is the
traditional marketing department then to do? This chapter provides some
clues:
"Marketing isn't going to go away. Nor should it. But it needs to
evolve, rapidly and thoroughly, for markets have become networked and
now know more than business, learn faster than business, are more
honest than business, and are a hell of a lot more fun than business. The
voices are back, and voice brings craft: work by unique individuals
motivated by passion.
What's happening to the market is precisely what should -- and will -- happen to marketing. Marketing needs to become a craft. Recall that
craftworkers listen to the material they?re forming, shaping the pot to
the feel of the clay, deigning the house to fit with and even reveal the
landscape. The stuff of marketing is the market itself.? (pp. 113, 114)
The Hyperlinked Organization -- This chapter is about how the internal
organization of companies is changing due to the hyperlinked structures
of company Intranets. Increasingly, individuals in a company are being
listened to because they have something relevant to say -- not because of
their position on the corporate org chart. This greatly facilitates
networking within the company, and has the effect of 'flattening' the
organization's structure.
Clearly the Internet is changing the face of face of business in many ways, and
we are just beginning to understand how these work. The Cluetrain Manifesto
provides many fascinating insights into this process ? it's well worth a read. |