Charlene Li

Charlene Li has been wowing us for years -- first with her social-media insights as VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research; again when she founded Altimeter, a consulting group for disruptive technologies; and then with last year's best seller on harnessing technology for business, Groundswell.

Focused on disruptive technologies, the advisory firm’s office--called the Hangar--lets clients learn about and experiment with new technologies. Experts in leadership and management, customer strategy, enterprise strategy, and innovation and design, Altimeter helps companies navigate changes brought on by the disruptive nature of social media, all the while taking advantage of the new technology.

Gosh, our ears must be red. We’re beaming with pride that Fast Company has recognized our work and nominated founding partner Charlene Li in their recent awards. We’re also pleased that our Founding Partner, Charlene Li, was named as one of the top 100 creative people in 2010.

In Open Leadership Charlene Li (the coauthor of blockbusting bestseller Groundswell) offers the next step resource that shows leaders how to tap into the power of the social technology revolution and use social media to be “open” while maintaining control. This important book explains how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yammer, Jive and other popular social media sites can improve efficiency, communication, and decision-making for leaders and their organizations.

Author Charlene Li visits Googles Mountain View, CA office to discuss her book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. This event took place on October 15, 2008, as a part of the Authors@Google series.

"This book is great if you are just starting out as a "newby" trying to understand how to join the online conversation. Whether you want to tag and aggregate or find interesting feeds or information, or want to actively contribute through ratings, feedback or by blogging, or create an entirely new social network, this book has great advice for you."

Charlene Li has owned charleneli.com for years and has been buying AdWords for “charlene li” since 2003. She also own lots of variations on her URL, namely charleneli.net, charleneli.org, but someone else already owns charlenelee.com. And yes, if you do a search for “charlene lee”, you’ll see her ad buy there.

This book posits that it is essential that the modern organization and the people who run them feel comfortable working in a world where they are not in control — but are able to command and get things done with the very technologies that caused them to give up that sense of control in the first place. The book will lay out a process of how companies can bring their employees, partners, and customers into the process of running the organization, giving them control – and thriving in the process.

The logo project on crowdSPRING received 146 entries and I gave feedback to every design because I was grateful that these designers took the time to submit a concept. In the end, I gave two awards of $400 each because I needed more time to decide between the two winning designs.

"I’m going to be working as an independent thought leader, looking at how emerging technologies impact business, organizations, and individuals and sharing my thoughts here on this blog as well as on Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, et. al. I’ll also be conducting interviews with companies about what’s happening in this space. On the business side, I’m offering a few commercial services, ranging from speeches to consulting for a limited set of clients. "

"I was once asked what was the best career advice I ever received -- and it was to plan for job obsolescence every 18 months, because research showed that people typically master a job in that time period and fall into a routine.It's a testament to Forrester that I've been happily employed at the company for over nine years (that's 36 Internet years or 63 dog years)."