How Digital Is Your Business? - Hardcover

Slywotzky, Adrian J.; Weber, Karl; Morrison, David J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609607707 ISBN 13: 9780609607701

Publisher: Crown Business, 2000

Synopsis

The biggest, most important issue in business today--becoming digital--touches not only traditional enterprises but the most avant-garde of Internet companies as well.

Old-economy companies must take steps to avoid becoming victims of capitalism's creative destruction, the unofficial system that flushes out the old to make way for the new. For dot-com companies the question is whether or not they are flash-in-the-pan businesses with no long-term prospects of profitability and customer loyalty.

Most of the early efforts to answer the question "How digital is your business?" have been shrouded in techno-speak: a veritable Tower of Babel unconnected with the real needs of business. Slywotzky and Morrison show, first of all, that becoming digital is not about any of the following: having a great Web site, setting up a separate e-business, having next-generation software, or wiring your workforce.

What they so creatively demonstrate is that a digital business is one whose strategic options have been transformed--and significantly broadened--by the use of digital technologies. A digital business has strategic differentiation, a business model that creates and captures profits in new ways and develops powerful new value propositions for customers and talent. Above all, a digital business is one that is unique.

How Digital Is Your Business? is a groundbreaking book with universal appeal for everyone in the business world. It offers:

* Profiles of the future: the in-depth story of the digital pioneers--Dell Computer, Charles Schwab, Cisco Systems, Cemex.

* Insight into how to change a traditional enterprise into a digital business: the stories of GE and IBM.

* An analysis of the profitable dot-coms: AOL, Yahoo!, and eBay.

While How Digital Is Your Business? has great stories and case studies, its most invaluable central idea is that of digital business design and the array of powerful digital tools it offers for use in creating a digital future for your own company.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"A must-read for executives from traditional brick-and-mortar companies facing the challenges of the digital economy. Its real-world case studies prove that it's possible for any company to transform itself into a customer-centric digital business design."
--Earnest W. Deavenport Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eastman Chemical Company

"Insight into the art and science of positioning businesses for digital transformation . . . an illuminating glimpse of a new digital landscape."
--Bob Lambert, Senior Vice President of New Technology and Development, The Walt Disney Company

"The playbook for the next round of the new economy."
--Ellen M. Hancock, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Exodus Communications, Inc.

"A strategic and practical road map that helps you to separate your best digital opportunities from the quicksand of technology for its own sake."
--Michael J. Hagan, Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer, VerticalNet, Inc.

"This is the first of the 'digital books' that really gets it."
--Dr. Klaus Wucherer, Senior Vice President, Siemens AG

"Concrete approaches that hold real promise for companies--whether traditional or new economy."
--Roxanne J. Decyk, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Royal Dutch/Shell Group

"The customer-centric approaches outlined in How Digital Is Your Business? are right on target."
--Mike Gunn, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Planning, American Airlines

"Embrace [digital business design] now--before your competitors."
--Mark J. Lotke, Managing Director, Internet Capital Group

"Filled with relevant examples [that] help you immediately apply the concepts to your own industry."
--Richard A. Noll, Corporate Vice President, Sara Lee Corporation

"A clear and compelling articulation of why companies need to redesign their businesses around the customer and digital technologies."
--Deryck Maughan, Vice Chairman, Citigroup

About the Author:

ADRIAN J. SLYWOTZKY is the author of Value Migration and the coauthor of The Profit Zone and Profit Patterns. Mr. Slywotzky is a graduate of Harvard College and has an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is vice president of Mercer Management Consulting and was recently selected by Industry Week as one of the six most influential people in management.

DAVID J. MORRISON is the coauthor of The Profit Zone and Profit Patterns. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he also holds an engineering degree from Princeton and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. Morrison is vice chairman of Mercer Management Consulting and head of MercerDigital, the firm's e-commerce practice.

KARL WEBER is a writer and editor specializing in business and current affairs.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown Business
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0609607707
• ISBN 13: 9780609607701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326