Nadim van der Ros
BA (Hons) International Marketing, 2000
Since RBS London
Nadim went on to study at SOAS after RBS London. He
then successfully applied for a job with McCann-Erickson as a
Strategic Planner on the International Accounts in Hong Kong.
By the end of 2003, he decided to start his own
web consultancy company which focuses on helping companies to
leverage online communities for their business objectives. Although
it wasn’t an obviously logical transition to move from advertising
into the dot.com field, both are commercial communications
industries and Nadim found hisskill set has been surprisingly
mobile.
'My fascination with online communities started during my final
year at RBS London where I wrote a dissertation on - How AOL UK
could better utilize online communities for their own competitive
advantage. Since that paper, the dot.com bubble burst and many
people have asked me why I would even consider starting a company
in the current conditions'.
Digital Revolution
Revolutions have always followed the same format of upheaval and
continual change. Conventions are toppled by new theories and as
practicality kicks, these too give way to a hybrid balancing of the
two to ensure lasting progress. The upheaval of the French
Revolution was a mere instance compared to the more permanent
legacy of liberty and universal suffrage that we have today in
modern society. So too with the digital revolution: while the weird
and wonderful ideas that drove the information age to its current
prevalence might no longer enjoy the credibility of boom times, the
technology is now a given and companies are taking a more rational
interest in building the right online strategy.
An enduring charm of the Internet has always been its power to
connect people to other people, their interests and, with a
commercial view, their brands. The concept of online communities is
not a new one but so few companies are harnessing the competitive
advantage that they bring. They either avoid the apparent chaos of
online forums altogether or half-heartedly deploy the tools without
proper management.
Companies often make the mistake of considering their online
communities not as a function of an integrated communications
strategy but as an end objective in itself. It is little wonder
that many companies take a non-committal approach to fostering
strategic use of their online communities when so many are nothing
more than glorified public scrawl boards. Nadim's company aims
to help clients understand the dynamics of online communities and
how best to achieve the right results from them.