Last week at its annual meeting, Starbucks announced the launch of My Starbucks Idea, a social network where consumers can post ideas for how the company can improve its service and products or comment and vote on others' ideas. Voting will be tallied online, with each idea assigned a point value.
I love this for Prison Fellowship. Let supporters and prisoners families give us ideas. This reminds me of a conversation I had with an individual who used to be a PFM donor (with access to some massive donors) and who has a child in prison. Last time I met with him, he had tons of ideas for how Prison Fellowship could be far more relevant (in his mind) to people in his situation as a prisoner's parent. Now, we might say "That's not our mission; sorry." De facto, that's how it probably comes across. But in a dialogue, we can either accept the idea or decline it but winsomely and understandably.
At worst, such a public, open approach helps us avoid being an organization-centric echo chamber. At best...
This sort of online listening post worked for Dell, whose IdeaStorm website resulted in a few concrete product developments and, in turn, helped to turn some of the computer-maker's fiercest critics. One of them, Jeff Jarvis, went from a state of high dudgeon on his blog to praise the company in BusinessWeek.
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