The value of conversations

IE News

IE Focus | By Enrique Dans, Professor at IE Business School

The Internet is a permanently ongoing conversation in which people recommend, redirect, provide links, etc. The value of your website depends on how involved you are in this conversation.

One of the main advantages of a solid Internet presence is its capacity to serve as a subject of conversation. Today, everything is about conversation. A campaign, a product launch, the publication of findings, or an appearance on the news, are only worth as much as their capacity to take center stage in a permanently ongoing conversation in which we all participate.

Technology has lowered barriers to entry in the publishing sector to the extent that today an enormous number of people are now able to be constantly involved in that particular conversation. The consequences of this are clear: the value of your brand is directly related to the extent to which it features in said conversation.

Contrary to what company directors may think after decades of unidirectional marketing, the conversation cannot be controlled. The most you can hope for is to be one of the voices taking part. If your web presence is good enough, the people talking about you will have a place to link up with each other when they do. They will be able to include a link to a relevant part of your website in their comments, where it is possible to find information that is permanently available (nobody wants to provide a link to information that disappears after a certain amount of time, and only serves to bring up a message saying “Error 404: not found”) and interesting references (information on products, photos, logos, comment, reactions, etc.).

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Spain’s solution to the crisis: embrace entrepreneurship

IE News

IE Focus | By Patricia Gabaldon, Professor at IE Business School

The nanny state is telling its children it’s time they became more independent by creating their own companies and jobs.

It would appear that the Spanish state is forcing its “sons and daughters” out of the “family home”. The offspring in question actually quite like living at home and don’t mind contributing to the household budget if they know that the money will be used for the common good of the family, and they trust the system that has worked so far.

But now reality seems to be kicking in and it’s time to make their own way in life without the protection of a nanny state. Just like Tanguy in the French film of the same name, they are constantly receiving hints to ensure that they realize the Spanish state will not be there to catch them if they fall, and that they have to increasingly depend on themselves and their own means and actions. The hints are pretty clear – a medium-term reduction in unemployment benefits as from the sixth month, a reduction in civil servants’ salaries, less healthcare coverage, more restricted access to education… The Spanish welfare state is being watered down and the Spanish are gradually realizing that they cannot depend on a nanny state. The way in which these cuts will affect the Spanish labor market in the short and medium term is not yet clear, but what is clear is that working as a civil servant will no longer be an attractive career choice and that a proactive search will henceforth have to be even more proactive, if that is possible in these difficult times.

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