B-C-D : business communication digitally

155 Pages·2018·2.445 MB·English

by  Luke Strongman

BUSINESS ISSUES, COMPETITION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

B-C-D

B C
USINESS OMMUNICATION
D
IGITALLY

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B I , C
USINESS SSUES OMPETITION AND
E
NTREPRENEURSHIP

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BUSINESS ISSUES, COMPETITION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

B-C-D

B C
USINESS OMMUNICATION
D
IGITALLY

LUKE STRONGMAN
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ISBN: (cid:28)(cid:26)(cid:27)(cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:16)(cid:24)(cid:22)(cid:25)(cid:20)(cid:22)(cid:16)(cid:27)(cid:20)(cid:23)(cid:16)(cid:25)(cid:3)(cid:11)(cid:72)(cid:37)(cid:82)(cid:82)(cid:78)(cid:12)

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York
CONTENTS

Introduction vii
Chapter 1 ‘When to Jump ...?’ 1
Chapter 2 ‘Get Creative!’ 11
Chapter 3 ‘Same Difference!’ 25
Chapter 4 ‘Negotiate!’ 33
Chapter 5 ‘Patience!’ 43
Chapter 6 ‘Listen!’ 47
Chapter 7 ‘Straight Up!’ 55
Chapter 8 ‘Should I Trust?’ 67
Chapter 9 ‘In the Shadow of the Future!’ 77
Chapter 10 ‘The Digital You!’ 91
Chapter 11 ‘A Nous for News’ 103
Conclusion 111
References 115
vi Contents
About the Author 139
Index 141
INTRODUCTION

BCD: Business Communication Digitally, is a book for today’s and
tomorrow’s business practitioner and student that is structured into eleven
chapters which each deal with topics salient for aspects of business
practice in the digital age. The constant need to innovate, to communicate
ahead of time, to perform a service or supply a good on the promise of the
future transaction, informs much of business practice. After all, what is
business acumen based on but the difference between realities and
contingencies, the tangible and the intangible?
Chapter 1 of BCD discusses the differences between ‘making and
taking’ opportunities and opportunism in business thinking. Ask almost
anyone and they will tell you that business is about ‘making the most of
your opportunities’. All business people make the most of their
opportunities or at least try to – they choose, create, transform, and move
things from one place to another, distribute, talk, inform, and deliver –
here, there, and everywhere. As with anything in life, the way in which all
or any of this is done can make all the difference to a successful business.
In chapter 2 of BCD we explore notions of creativity in the working
world. ‘Get creative!’ Is often stated in the business workplace, when a
creative activity is to begin, or a solution to a problem is needed. If it first
the problem seems insurmountable it can be brainstormed.
viii Luke Strongman
Chapter 3 of BCD, ‘same difference!’ looks at the different attitudes
towards ‘growth’ that are becoming apparent in today’s business thinking
for tomorrow’s world. For centuries and perhaps throughout the history of
human development, growth attributed to people, society and the
economy was thought to be a good thing, a sign of increasing abundance.
But increasingly, there are more people to share with, and exuberant
growth even when it can be achieved, is no longer thought better than
being sustainable for the future.
Chapter 4 of BCD discusses a ‘must have’ for all people in the
everyday working world – negotiation skills. Negotiation involves five
main factors, which are based on a set of concepts in the areas of
problem analysis, interpersonal communication, personal goal setting,
managing feelings and personal boundaries. These are explored along
with the characteristics of the disposition for negotiating with others to get
the business done.
Chapter 5 of BCD briefly explores the notion of ‘sentience’ of ‘being
aware’ and of patience as a disposition for business practice. To some
impetuous types, impatience is a virtue. Certainly, there is always a tension
between making the most of the opportunities that present themselves and
acting in a thoughtful, orderly way to complete the tasks at hand.
Sometimes in customer relations, patience is a quality that can be
negotiated between the agents of the transaction. Make the deal but when
in doubt err on the side of patience in the relationship.
Chapter 6 of BCD extols the benefits of being aware and listening.
Listening is an essential skill in the workplace. Whatever the workplace
setting, sole operator, small business, medium business enterprise, or
multi-national corporation not everyone one is conversant with what
makes good listening, but listening to others and hearing properly what
they say is important. This chapter is about how to listen!
Chapter 7 of BCD, ‘Straight Up!’ explores the benefits of being aware
and practicing simple recognition tasks. Recognition is essential in human
social life. It is also critical in the workplace as one of the central
communication activities that provides social cohesion, meaning and
direction amongst clients and staff. Without forms of recognition both
Introduction ix
formal and informal, high-context and low-context, social and structural,
from a simple greeting to an affirmation for competent achievement, the
workplace and the human behavior in it may become less than optimal and
even dysfunctional.
Chapter 8 of BCD is about trust – a central ingredient of the business
transaction. Trust involves positive expectations that interdependence will
not expose either part to inordinate risk or vulnerability. It also involves
the notion of reciprocity – that actions performed will be mutually
beneficial or at least not mutually detrimental. It is also expressed in
the notion that either party to the trusting agreement will not act
opportunistically. In situations of uncertainty and personal conflict, trust is
paramount.
Chapter 9 of BCD, ‘In the Shadow of the Future!’ concerns itself with
the tangible and the intangible, recognition of future states, or the drive
or impetus of the business world to transform, to take steps for tomorrow
today. Furthermore, emotion and intuition exercise more influence in most
economic exchanges than abstract or outright knowledge. Most economists
might recognise that they can’t assume that: Firstly, everybody behaves in
a rational manner, or; secondly, that everyone’s idea of rational behaviour
is the same. What sort of risk is involved? Secondly, it looks at the
semiotic characteristics of money, and the transition to a dematerialised
currency.
Chapter 10 of BCD, ‘The Digital You!’ explores the concept of social
presence in digitally mediated communication. Digital messaging casts
as ‘shadows of the future’ that inform our everyday mediated world. A
large proportion of social interaction, particularly in the contemporary
e-enabled workplace or in the business world, is not with others who are
always immediately physically present. It is with representations of others
through the mediums of email, film, internet, blog, online forum,
teleconferencing, and other virtual technologies.
Chapter 11 of BCD is about having a ‘nous for news,’ distinguishing
the true from the distorted and the useful from the tangential in today’s
mediated world. With the ubiquitous use of social media technology as
one form of mass communication, social presence and media effects