Armed with powerful mobile devices, consumers and employees have become the force behind a wireless wave of change. Whether they are seeking discounted prices or looking to coordinate a sales campaign, these mobile end-users are growing impatient with companies that are still trying to control behavior and the sharing of information. Enterprises that fail to learn how to give up some of that control and innovate to meet the evolving needs of their constituents could soon find themselves in the back of the pack. There are five ways to ride this Wireless Wave, according to Todd Hewlin, managing director of TCG Advisors, a boutique consulting firm in Silicon Valley, and Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at Wharton, author of The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution and president and chief strategy officer of Mobiquity, a mobile strategy and applications development firm.

In their opinion piece published in Knowledge@Wharton, Hewlin and Snyder point out that the mobile phone was one of the key weapons of battle during the Arab Spring. “Fueled by the rapid proliferation of the mobile and social web, the Arab Spring demonstrates the collective power of technology-enabled citizens,” they write. “While the events of the Arab Spring are still making headlines, another less-publicized technology-enabled revolution is unfolding that also pits connected masses of people against large organizations trying to control them. This revolution is occurring in the business world, and the end-users who are rising up are consumers and employees. These end-users, equipped with powerful mobile devices, are enabling a new wave of disruptive innovation that is transforming the companies they buy from and work for.”

Hewlin and Snyder argue that if you “do not give your customers a way to easily compare and search for discounts on your products, they will use Red Laser or Amazon Price Check. If you do not give your sales team better ways to share knowledge and coordinate efforts, they will useFacebookor Flipboard. Fail to give patients a better way to manage their chronic disease, and they will use Welldoc or Patientslikeme. Mobile technology is creating both an expectation and impatience in users that never existed before. Immediacy is not just desirable; it’s fundamental to the mobile experience. If you fail to deliver on that expectation, impatience will grow – and you will risk losing the business of customers and the loyalty of employees.”   

They quote former Procter & Gamble CEO A. G. Lafley, who once said: “We have to strike the right balance between being in touch and being in control. The irony is the more in control we are, the more out of touch we become.”

To read the complete article, including a description of the five ways that companies can ride the wireless wave, go to: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2860