The secret to winning in this economy is a high SEQ score — and to model your company after a futuristic smash-hit movie.

The economic meltdown coupled with advances in technology has birthed a new species of businesses classified as Social Enterprises. Companies of all sizes that adopt this New Normal are winning with their customers as well as their balance sheets.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

An organization with a transparent leader who fuses strategically chosen social technologies into the corporate culture, business model and systems. The result is improved economic value for employees, customers, partners and community.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE QUOTIENT (SEQ)

Your SEQ pinpoints your location on the social enterprise spectrum. That location becomes your starting point to develop your strategic playbook. The higher your score is the greater the propensity for economic success. There are seven elements of the SEQ, including ecosystem, business model, culture, brand, customers, partners and competitors.

(1) ECOSYSTEM

Measuring the health of your ecosystem is the first step to SEQ. Let’s take, for example, the movie “Avatar.” Pandora, the moon on which the movie took place, was the environment where the Na’vi lived and worked. Similar to how we overlooked the last few decades of irresponsible fiscal policy, the Na’vi did not stop the RDA Corp. — a mining company from Earth — in time to prevent their ecosystem from collapse.

(2) BUSINESS MODEL

Does your current model work in the New Normal? Where are the bottlenecks? What metrics are you tracking?  The Na’vi’s business model included the main ingredient in any social enterprise, the “Tree of Souls.” James Cameron, the director of “Avatar,” referred to it as “a big input-output station.” The Na’vi were connected to this web of information all the time. Social enterprise companies have comparative systems. They tie data from the Internet and their internal databases, and mine new data from Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other sources to touch their customers where they are located.

(3) BRAND

How do you leverage your brand with social technologies to reach new customers? The Na’vi were known for being great warriors who cared greatly for their ecosystem. They had high influence and respect. Their brand was well defined and easy to follow because they were connected to all their constituents in real time.

(4) CULTURE

Is your CEO transparent and does he or she foster an environment of collaboration, plus have a project-management mentality? The Na’vi were open, trusting and collaborated on everything, and even with competitors.

(5) CUSTOMERS

Do you who and where your raving fans are? How do you nurture and sustain them? A segment from the SEQ asks a simple question: Are you for us or against us? The objective is to move as many bystanders to the Raving For and Influencer For columns.

(6) PARTNERS

Do you know which of your vendors, investors, friends, affiliates and others are prominent online, and with whom you could be leveraging your relationships? Since the Na’vi were connected to their network, they were able to draw on those relationships and defeat their arch rival, the RDA Corp.

(7) COMPETITORS

Which of your competitors are influential, and how are they using social technologies? What are they saying, and how successful are they?

Editor’s note: Mark A. Carbone is FirstMonday’s resident “technology catalyst.” Follow him on Twitter @MarkACarbone or e-mail mark@marksnewnormal.com.