Google EMEA head tells Leaders in Dubai forum, online consumers push businesses for good CSR

He told Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 delegates that there were a growing number of examples where customers had used the power of online advocacy to force corporate change.

One case involved British confectionary manufacturer Cadbury which reinstated a particular chocolate brand that it planned to drop. Fan clubs for the brand started up on Facebook to call for its retention and culminated in a highly visible protest at the Glastonbury Festival.

He also gave an example where a Chinese community was mobilised online to protest against the building of a polyester factory in their city, which resulted in the authorities reassessing their plans.

Mr Arora said there were three major factors that were influencing the future direction of the Internet, including the growing ease of connectivity; the falling cost of storage and what he calls the "democratisation of the tools of production", where everyone had the power to create content for the internet.

With more than one billion people now online on PCs and three billion using mobile phones, many Internet capable the power base had shifted away from businesses to the customers and many businesses still did not know how to deal with it.

As well as having to develop strategies to deal with customer participation, businesses had to recognise that they now faced potential competition from multiple sources in ways they may not have anticipated. He said there were very few "old" brands competing successfully online because they had not been able to successfully adapt.

With the Internet being a tool to fuel instant gratification, speed had now become of the essence, as had flexibility and adaptability. Google itself used online tracking to make sure it was responsive to customer needs so its product were constantly evolving.

To get the best from online commerce, businesses had to develop new alliances, often with partners they may not have previously had any synergy with; giving the Nike/Apple wired running shoe linking with an iPod as a good example of a successful alliance. There were now 30 million runners using their Nike shoes and iPods to record their running performances and upload to the Internet, where they shared their statistics and competed against a global community online.

He said the Internet offered a range of opportunities for people who wanted to be social entrepreneurs and there were websites which offered people the chance to lend money online to poor people in the same way that Professor Mohammed Yunus' Grameen Bank does in Bangladesh.

Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 is supported by Founding Sponsors: Citi Private Bank and Nokia; Leading Master Developer: Dubai Properties; Headline Sponsors: Addax Bank, Bidaya and The Monarch Dubai; Supporting Sponsors: Omniyat, Ithmar Capital, Al Barari, Damac Properties and Dubai Real Estate; Official Technology Partner: Fujitsu Siemens; Knowledge Partner: SP Jain; Official Event Courier: TCS.