Robert Maguire

"Social Media in the Corporate World...
Too Legit to Quit"

MEETING DATE: September 21, 2012

                We've all seen them. Men and women, of all ages and stripes, glued to their palms, earnestly staring into tiny screens and seemingly oblivious to their environment. Surely, they don’t see our disapproving glares as they tap tap tap away at who knows what!

                Well, now it’s time to forgive. The trend toward what I think of as offline work, is continuing and will only get more common as we continue our ride into the electronic age. Robert's presentation will be about communication. For that is what business is. Communication is by far the most important aspect of good business, and this was always true. I remember retyping letters until I got every comma, every semicolon in the right place, then retyping again, when the boss deleted a sentence. The difference is now it’s done without wasting paper, and instantaneously. We get instant results.

                People are working to execute documents and messages. Business is the same. It’s the tools that differ. So next time you see a young man sipping a Starbuck’s drink and staring into his palm, be patient. Such is commerce. Such is the future.

                Social network communications started with services like America Online and have evolved into Gmail and ways that people can send and edit files en masse while watching a presentation with full sound and visuals from their bedroom. Although it’s not my experience, I’m sure that knowing what has to be done before hitting the road to the office is better than getting there and being bombarded with requests and problems needing extra time. Being prepared for the day’s issues is surely a time-saver. In business, time is money.

                Our presenter, Robert Maguire is from Merck where he is Executive Director—Enterprise Portal and is in Shared Business Services.

                He states, “What I would like to convey in the talk is how social media is changing the corporate world. Initially companies didn't know how to use it but now the are realizing they can't succeed without it. The problem is that it is very hard to do successfully and I want to share some of our learnings on how to make it work.”

                He has presented this information externally and is quite the expert in Social Communications in the business arena. He is passionate about what he does, and will tell us how electronic communications, via social media, has enhanced his and everyone’s work. He will show us different tools for this, and answer our questions as to where the trend is going.

                Robert lives in Middletown with his wife, three daughters and dog Shamus. He grew up in upstate New York and attended college in Rochester at Rochester Institute of Technology. He has a B.S. In Biomedical Computing.