Browse Books

Reviewer: Lou Agosta

For business, the Internet represents the prospect of change, which, in turn, implies learning to live with uncertainty. It represents one of the challenges of modern life—to reduce and manage risk and uncertainty through knowledge and understanding. To its intended audience—managers charged with deploying Internet technology in the service of business customers and other stakeholders—this skillfully crafted business narrative delivers knowledge and the means of understanding. In many businesses, product innovation has come to mean the construction and deployment of information technology (IT) systems. In industries that deal with physical artifacts, IT is the glue that holds together logistics and supply-chain management. The authors note that those Internet projects created as extensions of a business, and not merely as extensions of a technology, are the ones that succeed. The authors state their aim as providing fluency, a basic level of comfort, and a framework for Internet business (rather than technical) planning. They believe that managers must take charge of change rather than merely react to it. To this end, a concise managers' guide to concepts and terms is exactly right. At the same time, savvy technology architects and planners should consider studying the book and then handing out a few copies, with the aim of fostering productive conversation between business and technology project personnel. The text is divided into three main parts, the first of which is an overall introduction, itself a substantial essay on the business Internet. The authors make clear that no one knows for sure where the Internet is headed. Depending on a company's business and risk profile, it may be appropriate to use the Internet for either innovations in customer service, products, or distribution; selective pilot and prototype investments; or small-scale experiments. The second part includes a series of business Internet mini-cases. The famous Amazon.com and Virtual Vineyards are discussed here. These brands did not exist before the Web and exist only or primarily on the Web. Even more interesting are such cases as Federal Express, Dell, and American Airlines, which use the Web to extend their existing brand and customer relationships. The third part consists of a glossary of technical and business terms relevant to the Internet. Many of these entries are self-contained essays on such subjects as agents, encryption, push technology, and Web advertising. Find out who invented the term “cyberspace” (p. 157) and did so at least seven years before Tim Berners-Lee invented the hypertext technology that is the basis for the Web. Although the format tends to invite browsing, dipping in, and wandering, the text is substantial enough to withstand a sustained page-by-page reading. Throughout, a recurrent theme is that of using the Internet for the purpose of building and extending customer and product relationships, instead of promoting isolated hits on Web pages. The authors advise “careful design and selection of the relationships a firm wants to build (p. 33)” and that businesses should “adapt the Internet to [their] relationships, not the other way around” (p. 55). They encourage businesses to build “an information-intensive relationship enhanced by the Internet” (p. 55). According to the authors, it is best to avoid creating just another Web site , and readers are further advised to “think relationship, not system” (p. 66). Indeed, it seems as though we are dealing with new institutional forms—electronic commerce, virtual communities of interest, and redefinition and elimination of distance. Although predictions concerning ways in which the Internet will affect us both exaggerate and minimize its likely effects, one thing is certain—our habits will be changed. Business managers and technical support staff will want to read this concise and enjoyable executive briefing, in which humor, zingers, and incisive analysis are to be found in equal measure.