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Blur The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy By Stan David and Christopher Meyer Pub. Capstone. Review by Martin Payne This book aims to summarise how the acceleration of life is affecting not just companies but also individuals. Speed and connectivity as well as the growth of intangible value have meant that the rate of change is the key factor underlying how things are evolving. For this reason, any assumptions made in the past will become invalid. The measurement of a company's worth through a balance sheet is one of those areas which will be increasingly invalid as there is no account taken of intangibles. An example given here is the goose with the golden egg. A balance sheet can record the ownership of one goose but will fail to recognise the intangibles, i.e. the future delivery of golden eggs. The success of Netscape's float and that of DreamWorks SKG are indications that capital can be raised even if no products have been shipped or no large revenue generated. The authors give examples of how the new economy is blurring. These act as a checklist. For example, one area is the convergence or blur between products and services. Products take on a service element and services take on a product element. A car may have a microchip built in so that any faults can be remotely diagnosed. The issue of the ending of competition comes in here. A company's ecosystem or economic web is an area that should be understood and exploited. There is the notion that you may compete and co-operate with the same set of companies. There is a blurring between buyers and sellers too. The exchange of information and often payment may be two-way. The book uses numerous examples of leading edge companies to illustrate these trends. Levi Strauss's on-line ordering system helps to encourage repeat ordering, David Bowie was the first artist to sell his own stock against future revenue. The books acts as a guided tour to the change that confronts us as organisations and individuals. It helps us to understand the new mechanism for delivering value to customers, employees and partners. It also acts as a warning to companies that are unable to adapt to this new environment. The one key underlying need is to be adaptable. This allows change to be accepted and exploited. Pool, Summer 1998 |
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Pool Version 1.0 © Martin Payne / Through the Loop Consulting Ltd 1998 |
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