SOCIAL ECO SYSTEM 54
sxc.hu/photo/624291, by: pr3vje
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TREND IMPLEMENTATION •• RONALD VAN DEN HOFF (CDEF HOLDING)
SEATS 2 MEET THE
FUTURE ORGANISATION NOW Seats2Meet is a conference centre that is set up according to the principles of an Organisation 3.0. And that makes a profit that is three times as high as that of conventional conference centres.
During the realization of our concept Seats2meet.com, our focus was not to simply create a good product. Our stakeholders – we thought – consciously or subconsciously want an active role in co-creating a new product. But if you do not have customers yet, and the product as such has never seen before on the market, how to proceed? Our goal was clear: a new service for the Dutch market for organising meetings, that would fit in the current era and also serve as a basis for future successes. It all started in 2007 in a shopping mall in Maarssenbroek. In all tranquillity we opened a pilot plant
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there and invited a number of good customers to test our formula for one year. Initially we mainly focused on the physical, transactional part of the organisation. But gradually we took the 'social' route. For me, that was what it was really about. Of course, our basic philosophy was in order: we were already a vision-driven organisation, where 'responsibility' and 'transparency' are paramount. But that was still in the old world. The search for new connections in this new world together with all our stakeholders, was a challenge. These connections now run through social media. We
WORKING MEETING CONNECTING
make full use of existing social software. With Mindz.com we also have introduced our own software. We call it a social ecosystem. Almost all of our social activities are run through Mindz.com.
Cream of the Crop If we look at what Chris Anderson refers to as the 'long tail' of the 'demand for conference space', we see that most of the business is generated by major parties with a high booking volume at our traditional meeting centre Meeting Plaza Utrecht. We know their purchasing departments and we make annual price and volume arrangements with them. This gives a degree of revenue certainty. That will be at the expense of price, because all our fellow providers deal with the same segment of this market. The bookers of these organisations are professional and knowledgeable. The whole process of doing
business is therefore very efficient. And in line with the 20-80 rule: 20 percent of the Meeting Plaza customers generate 80 percent of sales. The same goes for our competitors. In this fragmented market, we see more and more of my beloved Independent Professionals (IP's). They book conference chairs for themselves, but increasingly also for third parties, including the larger conventional players: the IP's receive an increasing number of assignments from the 'old' segment. This increases the number of bookers, but decreases the revenue per booking and leads to a higher business risk. Uninteresting business? Not at all; this is precisely the opportunity for Seats2meet.com. With the new formula Seats2meet.com and the social network Mindz.com we effectively focus on the 'long tail' of conferences in the Dutch market. All those small, individual bookers are connected to their networks, which are in turn connected to other networks.
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Many smaller customers by themselves generate a fragmentary turnover. The overall value of these small-volume customers, however, is enormous. Our corporate story and our message is spread by our business community. In Seats2meet.com people book thousands of meeting rooms. And through Mindz.com more than 60,000 IP’s generate positive buzz and constantly book rooms. They give us their business, because they also get a lot from us: a free workplaces, free lunch and free collaboration software. 95 percent of the site Seats2Meet consists of 'socially generated information', information that the market finds more reliable than information provided by a company itself. That also is for free. So I can do more with less money. I get more exposure and bookings with less effort. Our 'classic' profitability, according to a benchmark study, is three times higher than that of traditional companies, and then we aren’t even including the social capital. Only three FTEs work at each Seats2Meet location, where traditionally at least fifteen FTEs are needed. I no longer check our communication efforts and content. This takes some getting used to, but I don’t need to manage, drive, train, administer, pay and meet with all those people any more. We don't have sales, marketing, public relations or reservations departments. We do not need printed matter, brochures, information folders and such.
To each their own seats The number of Seats2Meet locations is also rapidly increasing. In the spring of 2011, there are 'descendants' in Lelystad, Eindhoven, Breda, Tilburg, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Maarssen. We provide interested entrepreneurs and businesses with knowledge, both in digital form and in monthly test-ups. They are more than welcome to train with us to experience everything we do (and are free to freely to copy us!) Our business advice is free. Of course, they themselves invest in arranging their location. They can use our Seats2meet.com software for free. Only when their S2M operator earns money by renting chairs, will we modestly share in the profits. Do not be surprised if within five years, dozens of railway stations will have S2M sites. Or the regional offices of Rabobank. Sometimes we copy part of our formula. For 'flexible workspaces' and the 'new world of work' movement, for instance, which are possible everywhere, as long as there's a chair, a desk and an Internet connection. So for government buildings we offer our Seats2share.com program officials can work at any public location. For companies who like people from the outside outsiders, affiliated with their company
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or not, to work with them, we offer the Seats2work.com formula. A lot of countries are interested, from Estonia, Brazil, and India to China.
Grown by staying open Ultimately, we are, to put it in an old fashioned way, an SME-organisation with a business-to-business image. In 2010 we have70 FTEs and a turnover of more than eight million euros. Our solvability is more than 40%, so even in these times of crisis I can sleep well at night. Our entire organisation is suffused with social media. We are transparent and try to communicate personally with all stakeholders. We think in terms of abundance, we give a lot away and will continue to do so. We share all our knowledge. We offer many newcomers, IP's, entrepreneurs, innovators and do-gooders a platform, both physical and virtual. We learn every day. We believe in sustainability. Our whole social media strategy has become a kind of ecosystem in which its employees and all other stakeholders fully participate. In classical financial terminology this is an incredibly cheap and very effective, but above all fun way of doing business. Not just to do business with money, but above all to do business with fun new people who have boundless energy, creativity and the natural tendency to 'share'. The energy and innovation flow. Every day is a party!
RONALD VAN DEN HOFF
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INCREDIBLY CHEAP AND VERY EFFECTIVE DO BUSINESS WITH FUN NEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE BOUNDLESS ENERGY, CREATIVITY AND THE NATURAL TENDENCY TO 'SHARE'. THE ENERGY AND INNOVATION FLOW. EVERY DAY IS A PARTY!
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