Startups, Social and the enterprise

We are growing: Dachis Group expands with Headshift

Posted: September 2nd, 2009 | Author: Jevon | Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Today we are announcing the acquisition of Headshift as part of our shift towards becoming the first global Social Business Design company.

A lot of you are probably familiar with Headshift. If you are involved in the world of Enterprise 2.0 or Social Business Design, you have probably run in to their work at some point. One of Headshift’s founders, Lee Bryant, has been a good friend of mine for many years, and we have always looked for a way to collaborate more closely, and I couldn’t be more happy that this is how it will happen. If you look at the list of people working at Headshift, you will believe me when I say that they are the premier team in the Social Business Design space.

It has been 6 months since I joined this company, and working alongside Kate, Peter, David, Jeff and Ellen has been inspiring and also one of the more rewarding times of my life.

In that time, we’ve immersed ourselves along in fine tuning the vision we’ve developed which we call social business design—a holistic approach to transforming organizations from traditional infrastructure toward a more open, socially calibrated ecosystem. We believe that this is the only way businesses will be able to scale and integrate what’s now commonly known as “social media” on one side and “enterprise 2.0” on the other.

Social Business Design

We believe that organizations across the globe will begin to view “social media” as social business and when this happens, integration, scale and adoption will become complex issues which will only be solved through a purposeful act of coordinated activities built upon a solid strategic foundation. Enter social business design as a systematic comprehensive approach that orchestrates social business across three core areas: business partner optimization, workforce collaboration and customer participation.
These three areas of business possess ripe opportunities for the emergence of improved outcomes ranging from cost savings to new product/service innovations and increased revenue streams. These are outcomes which happen when organizations connect and expand their ecosystems, evolve toward a more open culture and empower employees, business partners and customers to actively participate in their business.  The acquisition of Headshift will allow us to service the increasing demand for global organizations to tap into these benefits. It will also allow us to attract the best talent at an international level while creating our own culture focused on collaborating and doing the absolute best work in this space. Headshift’s client relationships include extensive work in: Professional and Legal Services, Consumer Products, Media and Publishing, Health Care, and Government verticals as well as global companies including AXA, British Petroleum, and the BBC. The official press release for this news can be found here. For more on the Dachis Group and our services, visit our current site.

We believe that organizations across the globe will begin to view “social media” as social business and when this happens, integration, scale and adoption will become complex issues which will only be solved through a purposeful act of coordinated activities built upon a solid strategic foundation. Enter social business design as a systematic comprehensive approach that orchestrates social business across three core areas: business partner optimization, workforce collaboration and customer participation.

These three areas of business possess ripe opportunities for the emergence of improved outcomes ranging from cost savings to new product/service innovations and increased revenue streams. These are outcomes which happen when organizations connect and expand their ecosystems, evolve toward a more open culture and empower employees, business partners and customers to actively participate in their business.  The acquisition of Headshift will allow us to service the increasing demand for global organizations to tap into these benefits. It will also allow us to attract the best talent at an international level while creating our own culture focused on collaborating and doing the absolute best work in this space.

Headshift’s client relationships include extensive work in: Professional and Legal Services, Consumer Products, Media and Publishing, Health Care, and Government verticals as well as global companies including AXA, British Petroleum, and the BBC. The official press release for this news can be found here.

For more on the Dachis Group and our services, visit our site.

This is the most exciting day in my professional life so far, and I think it is an important day for anyone who is involved in the use of Social Software inside of organizations.

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12 Comments on “We are growing: Dachis Group expands with Headshift”

  1. 1 Lee Bryant said at 10:25 am on September 2nd, 2009:

    Thanks brother. As you know, the first and most important due diligence step was your recommendation – really appreciate it. Glad we finally get to be colleagues :)

  2. 2 Drew B said at 10:26 am on September 2nd, 2009:

    Good, thorough post Jevon. And congratulations on the news.

    My perspective on this evolution of business advisory over the years is that of a communications department / practitioner. It’s great to see how the social and digital media principles are increasingly seen, as you say, as part of the business design. Not just how the business talks and listens, but how it operates. Long may this continue too.

    Good luck with the venture and the partnership.

  3. 3 E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez » Executing Enterprise 2.0: Dachis Group Acquires Headshift said at 6:43 pm on September 2nd, 2009:

    [...] earlier on today there has been a exciting uproar on what promises to be the news of the year in the field of [...]

  4. 4 The FASTForward Blog » Congratulations to FASTForward Colleague Jevon MacDonald: Enterprise 2.0 Blog: News, Coverage, and Commentary said at 7:23 pm on September 2nd, 2009:

    [...] on what he calls "the most exciting day in his professional life", as the Dachis Group announces that it will work with Headshift to grow its capabilities in bringing social business design and implementation to the business [...]

  5. 5 Jeremy Thomas said at 7:50 pm on September 2nd, 2009:

    Awesome Jevon. Congrats on the acquisition!

  6. 6 metarand » Blog Archive » Social Media Design: Birth of a new industry said at 1:14 am on September 10th, 2009:

    [...] key inflection point though came last week when Dachis acquired Headshift. Much has already been written about this and most industry commentators will agree with [...]

  7. 7 Ryan Gensel said at 2:51 am on September 15th, 2009:

    How do you plan on monetizing consulting engagements? As a finite product with scope constraints or as a relative advisement contracted as a retainer / per hour?

    -Ryan Gensel

    twitter.com/readysetproject
    ryangensel.blogspot.com

  8. 8 Social Business Design: Birth of a New Industry « seggr said at 11:52 pm on September 19th, 2009:

    [...] key inflection point though came last week when Dachis acquired Headshift. Much has already been written about this and most industry commentators will agree with [...]

  9. 9 what consumes me, bud caddell » The Myth of Social Media Monitoring said at 3:00 pm on October 8th, 2009:

    [...] references a model that defines how the Dachis Group is approaching the problem of social business [...]

  10. 10 A new website and some new ideas | Socialwrite.com said at 9:53 am on October 22nd, 2009:

    [...] Jevon 12:00 pm on October 5, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity. Just a few days ago Oliver Marks announced that he was joining us, and before that we announced our acquisition of Headshift. [...]

  11. 11 Three Leading Social Media Agencies Acquired – A Sign of Things to Come? | Thoughts from Mike Templeton said at 5:34 pm on January 11th, 2010:

    [...] colony by acquiring popular business authors and renowned bloggers Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. Dachis Group crossed the Atlantic through it’s acquisition of Headshift. And the Altimeter Group tripled in size when Jeremiah [...]

  12. 12 El mito del Monitoreo en Medios Sociales » KMNY | NET-Working - KMNY | NET-Working: Social Media, Research, Brand Strategy, Innovation & Design, Trend-Hunting, Future Thinking…Digital. said at 3:31 am on February 17th, 2011:

    [...] Grupo Dachis creo un modelo donde los cuatro arquetipos alrededor del exterior están llevando su pensamiento en [...]

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