Employee power
Cameron Reilly made an insightful post about Robert Scoble and the problem if employees at Microsoft haven’t heard of Robert. He also compares the salary Robert receives to an advertising agency. No matter how much Robert makes it doesn’t compare to what an ad agency receives.
I agree with what Cameron wrote, Robert has a lot of value and the employees who haven’t heard of Robert “should” have. Well, developers and PR employees should know him, no real excuse why they shouldn’t. I could see how non-technical employees might not have heard of him. That is not what this post is about though. It’s about Robert’s worth to Microsoft.
There is no doubt that he is valuable but this is what most corporations fear…an employee having that kind of power. Why? What if the employee leaves the company? If Robert left Microsoft his readers would continue to read him and the new company instantly gains a valuable employee. Corporations usually don’t like to put their eggs in one employee, which is why ad agencies are a neutral solution. Microsoft’s most popular voice would be gone and it would be hard to find a replacement. If a replacement was found it would take time for the new blogger to gain a reputation and more important earn the respect and trust of the readers.
Honestly, Microsoft can afford to take a hit like that because there are so many sites devoted to writing only about Microsoft. Most companies don’t have that advantage. A smaller company experiencing the same dilemma could be devastated. It’s too big of a risk to take. Especially since it is much easier for a smaller company to lose their blogger to a bigger company offering more money.
As the blogging phenomenon continues it will be interesting to see how many companies allow one or two employee to have that much power. if they do, it will be interesting to see the impact on the company.
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