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.
