Mike Dover

Mike Dover is a highly-connected research executive with more than a decade's experience leading New Paradigm, a world-class think tank. He was a member of the senior management team that built the think tank's business and reputation to make it an attractive target (acquired by nGenera in 2007).

Currently co-authoring Wikibrands: How to Build a Brand in a Customer-Controlled Marketplace, Dover investigates how companies are using technology to enable meaningful conversations with their customers.

Dover was responsible for operations, content quality, and client management for $10 million, multi-year research studies on the intersections among technology, business strategy and society. He led more than 100 professionals over the course of the programs. The research in these programs formed the basis for the bestselling books Wikinomics: Mass Collaboration Changes Everything and Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. These projects were funded by senior executives at Global 2000 companies such as IBM, Cisco, Procter & Gamble, Federal Express, Disney, and Accenture.

Dover has written dozens of white papers and reports, mostly on the subjects of generational theory, the relationship of technology to business models, and popular culture. He currently contributes to Richard Florida's "Creative Class" blog.

As an experienced public speaker and panelist, Dover has delivered dozens of highly-rated speeches about the role of technology, generations in the workplace, and popular culture.

• 1. Wikibrands

  Based on the upcoming book Wikibrands: How to Build a Brand in a Customer-Controlled Marketplace (Co-authored by Mike Dover and Sean Moffitt), this presentation discusses how companies can deploy technology to include customers in discussions about their brands in a meaningful way.
  
  The presentation will discuss:
  
  

  • The ways in which successful brands compete in the twenty-first century,
  • The motivations for these brands to venture into customer collaboration, and
  • The nine elements of successfully building and managing a Wikibrand.

  
  
  From leading mass media stalwarts Nike, Frito-Lay, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, to digital enterprises Cisco, Microsoft and Sun, to customer experience experts Westjet, Best Buy and Starbucks, to turnaround successes Dell and Ford, to loveable underdogs Method, PEMCO, Dave's Killer Bread and Fiskars and to wide-eyed startups like Freshbooks, Stormhoek and Zappos the presentation will look under the hood and chronicle the practices of these model companies. The currency at play within these companies is no longer mass communication and passive consumption but customer participation and genuine brand engagement.

• 2. The Net Generation as Customer and Employee

  The Net Generation (the oldest born in 1977) was the first to grow up surrounded by digital technology (or "bathed in bits"). This immersion in technology dramatically affected the way these young people think, work, communicate, and play. They operate differently in the workplace and the marketplace. This presentation will describe the key findings from the multi-million dollar research program that formed the basis for Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott (Dover was the research director). The study validated the following norms of the Net Generation:
  
  

  • Freedom
  • Customization
  • Scrutiny
  • Integrity
  • Collaboration
  • Entertainment
  • Speed
  • Innovation

  
  
  The presentation will describe how each of these norms manifests for the Net Gen as employees and as consumers.

• 3. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

  Lessons from the bestselling book authored by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams (Dover led the $4 million research program that formed the basis for the book).
  
  Wikinomics describes the phenomenon of mass collaboration enabled by interactive technology. Billions of people connected through the Internet self-organize into a powerful collective force. Examples in the presentation come from business, industry, government and society. It can be customized to provide examples from whichever industry is most relevant to the audience. Stories discussed in the presentation include:
  
  

  • Rob McEwen, the Goldcorp, Inc. CEO who used open source tactics and an online competition to save his company and breathe new life into an old-fashioned industry.
  • Facebook, Second Life, YouTube and other thriving online communities that transcend social networking to pioneer a new form of collaborative production.
  • Mature companies such as Procter & Gamble that cultivate nimble, trust-based relationship with external collaborators to from vibrant business ecosystems.

• 4. Harnessing Social Media

  This presentation will describe the social media phenomenon including its roots, current status and future. The audience will learn about best practice cases of how corporations can deploy social media as well as the best way to build their personal brand. Case examples will be customized to suit the audience.
  
  Also included in the presentation are:
  
  What are the most important Social Media platforms?
  
  

  • Social media metrics: How to know if you are doing it right?
  • Employee policy: Should I restrict my staff's access to Facebook?
  • How to deploy "underground reference checks"
  • Facebook vs. LinkedIn: The Hawaiian shirt and the Grey Flannel Suit

• “Mike spoke to the Alliance of Independent Practitioners, a group of self-employed communications consultants to which I belong. He did a great job of explaining how to use social media tools to boost one's profile and generate more revenue.”
  Alliance of Independent Practitioners
• “Mike was a featured speaker at the October 2009 conference of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, a group of leading experts in the worldwide hospitality industry.....his presentation regarding the evolution of social networking in the hospitality industry was terrific....informative, precise, intriguing and most importantly to this group of type A consultants, it was a call to action.”
  Goodwin & Associates Hospitality Consulting
• “Mike appeared on a show I produced on TVO. He's engaging and really knows his stuff. I hope to use him again on shows in the future. He was also extremely helpful in the research stages of putting the program together.”
  TVOntario
• “I am pleased to recommend Mike as someone who understands 'mass collaboration' and can challenge his audience as to what can be possible if we move in this direction. A very powerful presentation that has good synergy with the times we are in and paradigm shifts we are encountering!”
  PetLynx
• “Mike is extremely versatile, insightful, and knowledgeable. He stays well ahead of a broad range of developments not just in IT, telecom, & high tech, but also emerging social and demographic trends and paradigms that impact technology adoption. From research analyst and director, to emceeing rooms full of 200 senior executives, Mike brings a rare mix of skills and knowledge to any endeavour.”
  AT&T

• 
  %6$s

  %4$s

  %5$s
%7$s