How LinkedIn Has Killed Your Book of Business

In the olden days, when a fellow was fired from his job,
there was a certain time-honored tradition that was
followed. The employee would be called into the office,
would get a dressing down, made to cringe, and then
told, “Security will escort you to your desk to get your
personal items.” The (now former) employee would be
given a milk crate or cardboard box, and would take their
personal items while nearby employees pretended not to
notice what was happening in the next cubicle. (And,
both the employee being fired as well as all the others
knew the inicident would be water cooler talk for the
next few days…)
The reason for the security escort was a simple one -- it
ensured that the ex-employee would not try to take any
company information, any proprietary information or
internal documents that could hurt the business.
So what was being held from being taken away was
essentially the information, the client list, the Rolodex,
which belongs to the company. This would prevent the
employee from quickly getting a job at a competitor
with that information, or, equally disastrous, take
confidential information and open in competition with his
former employer. After all, no one wants to fire a guy
and watch him build a company that does a better job
for less than us, the company that got rid of him just a
few weeks ago!
LinkedIn, quietly and stealthily, has changed that entire
paradigm. It’s something you hardly, if ever, see even
mentioned, because it could actually cause changes in
the way businesses operate.
Related: Want to Stand Out on LinkedIn? Consider
Ditching These 10 Overused Buzzwords.
Why?
Imagine an office in 1983. On the desk sits a huge
Rolodex, full of all the contact information for everyone
you know now, or ever knew in the past. Its green,
slightly rusty base creaks under the weight of the
cards, some handwritten and others with a business
card taped or stapled.
And, when the name of a certain someone becomes
relevant, the wheel is cranked by the big dial on its side,
and the person’s card is taken out -- sometimes only to
find that the phone number no longer is in use, or
that the person no longer works for the company. Mail
sent to the address on file gets returned with a postage
notice saying in big block red lettering "RETURN TO
SENDER, MOVED, NO FORWARDING ADDRESS.” Kind of
frustrating, of course… but what can you do? Such is the
way of life.
And even as we entered the age of email, those could
change, too. Change an email provider in the old days --
you remember, the ones you had to pay to have an
email address -- and suddenly you were lost forever.
LinkedIn is, at its core, something spectacular. It’s a self-
updating Rolodex that keeps your contacts updated—
seemingly by magic--- with their latest contact
information. It tells you when they get a new job, change
positions within the company, and even can tell you
when they have their next birthday and what updates
they may have in their professional lives.
Related: LinkedIn to Unveil Tools to Connect Co-
Workers
It also can tell you about their interests, who else is out
there similar to them who might be relevant to you. After
all, if you are looking for the vice president in charge of
merchandising for a supermarket chain, then wouldn’t
other people in similar positions with competing chains
be the perfect person for you to reach out to spread your
reach?
And., if you know that you once knew a guy at IBM, and
you wanted to reach out to him, LinkedIn would ask you
for his email to invite him to your network. And even if
you give the email you have, which hasn’t worked
because he left that company, LinkedIn will accept that
email, recognized as his, and will email him at his new,
current mail address letting them know that you want to
connect. That’s incredible power that is little tapped and
worth its weight in gold.
But here’s biggest problem with LinkedIn, from a
business perspective. It’s the dilemma
forcing companies to protect themselves as much as
possible, even leading to litigation. It's why some
companies are having employees sign a document
saying that their LinkedIn profile belongs to their
company, not to them personally, even if it says their
name and background.
The business-changing, absolutely incredible earthquake
to the way business has traditionally been done is that
there is no longer any “client list' and "book of business”
for companies to protect.
When an employee works for you, he carries with him
his LinkedIn profile (along with a Facebook account and
Twitter profile), allowing the employee to connect with
people he meets while working for you. This includes
suppliers, clients, and fellow employees, with whom they
are now connected and privy to the contact details of at
the tip of a finger. In the case of being fired, they aren’t
“stealing” anything. They have it already on a silver
platter.
As new technologies continue to develop and as the web
matures, much like a teenager who moves into maturity,
the effects and tradeoffs these platforms have to offer
both in promise and in potential detriment have to be
carefully weighed.
LinkedIn is not a very powerful tool. It is an entire
pocketknife of tools, a Swiss army knife if you will, in
which every element can turn a business on its head and
take it to a whole new level.