Digital Aboriginal: The Direction of Business Now: Instinctive, Nomadic, and Ever-Changing

The Aborigine's view of the world suggests that all things are interconnected. Every relationship in turn influences every other relationship. Along these same lines, this book reveals how the modern-day business world organizes this unlimited range of possibilities and how readers can reorganize and redirect business plans merely by shifting marketing beliefs.

Mikela and Philip Tarlow, founders of the company Accelerating Results and authors of Navigating the Future: A Personal Guide to Achieving Success in the New Millennium, here look at the new economy and its changing patterns. Drawing on the aborigines' view of the world that all things are connected, the authors analyze behavioral strategies for the new economy. The book's perspective is of an anthropologist observing "one of the most dramatic shifts in the organization of our social universe that has ever occurred." A new generation is "using the freedoms of the new economy to develop a set of behavioral strategies: digital aboriginal," according to the authors. They are "driven, yet they rarely plan," are "highly individualized, yet depend on tribal ways of birthing ideas," and are "brilliant strategists" but often "chart their courses based on pure instinct." Numerous case studies of companies illustrate changes in leadership strategies, marketing concepts, and behavioral strategies, moving toward a more instinctive, "nomadic" model. These companies include Napster, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AOL. This thought-provoking work provides a unique perspective on the new economy and is recommended for business collections. Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The authors' point is that the digital community is like an aboriginal tribe, with shared information, always moving, changing, and without ownership. The authors conduct seminars around the world to help companies adapt to this changing environment. While others cling to the idea of intellectual property rights, digital aboriginals scorn ownership and gleefully share ideas, images, and music over the Internet. When Napster was shut down, Gnutella-based peer-to-peer exchange sites appeared overnight, allowing individuals to share music, video, software, and books unfettered. Entrepreneurs who adapt to this mindset have prospered. Rather than fighting this trend, the authors contend that with shared information, more is more, and this interconnected community should be seen as opportunity rather than threat. David Siegfried
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