“We’re building on Gates’ foresight. We’re building on the foresight of the best thinkers in marketing and public relations and business in general. We’re building out the nascent capabilities of the best technologies. We’re taking advantage of advances in complexity science, in strategy formulation and execution, and in media and in the global nervous system we call the Internet. We’re innovators. Others can be followers.

“If this sounds good to you William I’d be delighted to share our perspectives with your portfolio at their convenience.”

William got the check.

“We’re biological creatures at one level, and social creatures at another level, a higher level. People have an innate affinity for the layer that’s higher up in the stack if you like because that’s where we live, that’s where identity and relationships and empathy breathe. We’re biological creatures, for sure, but we live, think and behave social. We feel it. We’re social creatures and we’re striving for social business.

“So, just as it is for humans, we’ve begun to think of business as biological at one level and social at another. And I understand precisely what you mean – if I heard the expression ‘biological business’ I’d screw my face up too. Sounds more like a pharmaceutical outfit than anything to do with creating great products that celebrate great food and great cooking, or any other type of business come to that. So to answer your question, that’s why we don’t use the term.”

I could see the course of my argument taking shape, but I needed reinforcements. Then I remembered John’s missive quoting Bill Gates. I started a search for it and then continued to make our case.

“This is the really important bit. No business can really get to be social in a meaningful and valuable way simply by indulging in social media or by slapping apps onto social devices or by subscribing to a social enterprise network. The social human is literally powered by the biological human. The true social business is powered by similar capabilities, capabilities that are clearly lacking in the typical organization today, no matter how much they recite a social mantra.

“We’re mimicking nature by redesigning our business around influence flows, a capability that will drive responsiveness, productivity and profitability. You’d say we’re making Attenzi more intelligent, fitter and healthier, and these are biological words that have been invoked metaphorically in business terms for decades. Why? Because they make sense.”

My search had been fruitful.

“But don’t take my word for it. Ask Bill Gates.”

William lowered his coffee and visibly offered me his full attention.

“This is what he had to say back in 1999. ‘How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose. … The winners will be the ones who develop a world-class digital nervous system’”, I stressed the metaphor, “‘so that information can easily flow through their companies for maximum and constant learning.’

“And he goes on: ‘A digital nervous system comprises the digital processes that closely link every aspect of a company’s thoughts and actions. … To think, act, react, and adapt.’”

William was nodding now. I went with the momentum.

“And here we are now on the cusp of 2013 and things have moved on, as you’d expect. Back then Gates referred to email as a critical component of the digital nervous system. We don’t lend it the same emphasis because we have more choices these days. He referred to the digital nervous system of the company whereas our nervous system extends out into the world. He advised building an ideal picture of the information you need from technology. We also want technology to help us build that picture, indeed to help us identify new insights, new opportunities and new threats with unprecedented speed and perspicacity, unprompted.”

Now I felt prepared to parry.

Saket’s phrase about extending ERP beyond the flows of time, money and materials seems to resonate loudly in these conversations, but the P stands for planning. We may want to track influences and may indeed plan some, but we clearly don’t plan all of them by any stretch. And I’m not sure influence is a Resource quite like money and materials either.

So we’ve found that we often refer back to some of the biological metaphors that have emerged during our discussions. If there is any planning or controlling or management then it’s analogous to our bodies own nervous system and brain: sensory neurons detect / receive data and information; interneurons transfer and interpret; the brain does what it does; and motor neurons send appropriate instructions / responses.

It sounded a bit odd at first until we realized how many biology related metaphors already pepper our vocabulary: the heart of the business, and the pulse; the lifeblood of the business; getting a project up and running; the ears, eyes and mouth of the business; the muscle and the fat.

John put us more at ease by sending round some quotes by Bill Gates from his 1999 book Business @ the Speed of Thought. Gates refers to “the digital nervous system” of business and calls information flow the lifeblood. We thought if it was good enough for Mr. Gates a dozen years ago, it was good enough for us now.