God forbid that doing business and making money on the Internet should bear
any resemblance whatsoever to the past millennium of bricks-and-mortar
capitalism–that would be too easy. Nope, it’s a whole different ball game
now, and the new rule is: adapt or die. At least that’s the message behind
Digital Capital. From the three principal cyberconsultants at the Alliance
for Converging Technologies (one of whom, Don Tapscott, authored the
bestsellers The Digital Economy and Growing Up Digital), comes a paradigm
for global takeover: the business web, or “b-web” for short.
In their words, b-webs are “strategically aligned, multi-enterprise partner
networks of producers, suppliers, service providers, infrastructure companies,
and customers that conduct business communication and transactions via digital
channels.” Some examples are eBay, Cisco, Dell, MP3.com… in short, any
enterprise that a) knows how to form lateral partnerships with other
goods-or-service providers, and b) eliminates the role of planes, trains,
and automobiles–not to mention lots of time, money, and human energy–by
doing almost everything over the Internet.
Not only do the authors provide a wealth of b-web case studies (including
Charles Schwab, Priceline.com, Webvan, AT&T Solutions, and OptiMark in addition
to those mentioned above), they outline a step by-step process for weaving a b-
web of one’s own. Too often, Digital Capital’s sound ideas come marinated in
think-tank jargon so alienated from plain English as to be nearly impenetrable.
Consider: “Disaggregation leads to ‘disintermediation’ and ‘reintermediation’,”
which, believe it or not, isn’t a line that French film theorists use in pick-up
bars, but the simple statement that business webs manage to cut out a lot of
the traditional steps between producers and customers. Now why couldn’t they
just have said that? No matter. After you nibble through the self-important
MBA-speak, you’ll find a smart look at how online shops are rewiring early
21st-century capitalism. —Timothy Murphy
Klaus Schwab, President, World Economic Forum
“Digital Capital provides a powerful intellectual framework for thinking and
acting in the new economy…”
Gerald W. Schwartz, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer,
Onex
Corporation
“Digital Capital takes you beyond the theoretical model [of the digital
economy] and reveals the how-tos of preparing your business for the future.”
The industrial-age corporation is crumbling. The new form of wealth creation
is the business web,and the new basis of wealth is digital capital.
Schwab, eBay, Cisco, MP3, Linux, and dozens of other companies have
transformed the rules of competition in their industries, seemingly
overnight. They hijacked long-entrenched industry leaders with revolutionary
offerings that surprised and delighted customers.
These transformers could
not and did not act alone: partners enabled them to move with stealth,
speed, agility, and force. Such teams of innovators pioneered the business
web, or “b-web”, the new platform for competition in the twenty-first
century. B-webs partner networks of producers, service providers, suppliers,
infrastructure companies, and customers linked via digital channels are
destroying the firm as we have known it and generating wealth in entirely
new ways.
In Digital Capital, information-age visionaries Don Tapscott, David Ticoll,
and Alex Lowy describe and explain the b-web phenomenon and the forces
behind its emergence. Drawing on three years of multimillion-dollar research
into hundreds of b-webs as diverse as the Microsoft alliance and the
automotive industry, the authors illuminate the five distinct types of b-web
now in play: Agoras, Aggregations, Value Chains, Alliances, and Distributive
Networks. Punctuating their analysis with a rich set of case studies, they
provide the definitive guide to business model innovation in the digital
economy.
Linux, Schwab, and Priceline
AT&T Solutions, and Enron
multi-enterprise environment
capability
The authors warn that participation in b-webs is not optional. To encounter
and satisfy the digital customer, firms must lead or partner in one or more
of these new business networks. While no single path leads to b-web success,
businesses will adopt effective b-web strategies-or they will simply fade
away.
Sustaining advantage in the digital economy demands more than superficial
actions like attracting “eyeballs,” launching a hot IPO, following “new
rules,” building a cool Web site, or even just focusing on customers. In
Digital Capital we finally have a book that gets beyond whiz-bang clichés to
today’s central issues of competitive strategy.
“Digital Capital is unarguably the single best guide to corporate survival
in the new economy. If your company wants to be in the phone book in the
year 2003 and beyond, read this book.”
– Warren Bennis, University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business
Administration, University of Southern California, and Coauthor, Organizing
Genius and Co-Leaders
“The Internet revolution waits for no one-no country, no company, and no
individual. The key to success in this revolution is harnessing the power of
the Internet to gain sustainable competitive advantage and to create value
for your customers. Tapscott, Ticoll, and Lowy show you how to do this by
defining the business model for your company’s survival in today’s economy.
Read this book to stay ahead.”
– John Chambers, President and CEO, Cisco Systems>
“By far the best work on the new business models required to compete in
e-business. Pray that your competitors don’t read it!”
-J. Bruce Harreld, Senior Vice President of Strategy, IBM
“We created eGM to transform General Motors into a major force in the
digital economy. Don Tapscott and the Alliance for Converging Technologies
team have greatly influenced out business design and are helping us to chart
the future. Digital Capital does a great job of putting the task at hand in
clear focus.”
-Mark Hogan, President, eGM
“This dynamic work provides an unprecedented in-depth look at the new
economics and the fundamentals driving the digital revolution. Anyone
intrigued by the Internet’s boundless possibilities will view Digital
Capital as an essential guide to innovation and success.”
-Jeffrey Mallett, President and COO, Yahoo! Inc.
“Tired of all the hype and clichés about e-business? Still don’t know how to
compete in a dot-com world? You just found your secret weapon. Tapscott,
Ticoll, and Lowy cut to the core of what really matters-how to use the
Internet for creating powerful business partnerships. You can’t find a
better guide to winning in the new digital economy.”
-Kim Polese, President, CEO, and Cofounder, Marimba, Inc.
“The Internet has seamlessly interconnected customers, suppliers, and the
workforce, and b-webs are effectively blurring all traditional roles and
changing how we think about infrastructure. Digital Capital is a
breakthrough-a must-read to understand the dynamics of how this new economy
will unfold.”
-Craig Conway, President and CEO, PeopleSoft, Inc.
“Digital Capital is an insightful guide to the rules of engagement in the
new economy. Its explanation of collaborative business webs-the emerging
market models for value creation-should be required reading for anyone who
wants to reach the digital customer.”
-Michael S. Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corporation
“Exciting and compelling, Digital Capital concisely captures important new
thinking on Internet business models and how to apply them today.”
-Larry Downes, Coauthor, Unleashing the Killer App
“The seminal book on business webs and how they can help move your business
units into the new, new economy. Every business leader should read this
book!”
-Robert Eaton, Chairman, DaimlerChrysler
“With a surgeon’s precision, Tapscott, Ticoll, and Lowy define and explore
new business models and opportunities coming to light in the emerging
virtual ‘agora.’ Digital Capital is the guide to the new world of Internet
work.”
-William T. Esrey, Chairman and CEO, Sprint Corporation
“One of the most important challenges facing today’s executives is the need
to disaggregate and reaggregate their firms to harness the power of business
webs. Digital Capital presents an actionable blueprint for meeting this
challenge. If you have any responsibility for the future of your business,
read this book.”
-Durk Jager, Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble
“Simply a must-read. Digital Capital provides real out-of-the-box insights,
and, even more, excites and captivates you.”
-Jeff Papows, Former CEO, Lotus Development Corporation, and Author of
Enterprise.com
“Digital Capital is an insightful and recommended read for anyone wrestling
with the impact of e-business and the pace of change. Our business literally
exploded with the b-web thinking outlined in this book.”
-Peter Schwartz, Chairman and CEO, Descartes Systems
“Digital Capital provides clear insight into responding to the new economy.
Working with the authors, our Corporate Foreign Exchange division embodied
the ideas behind this book in its e-business strategy, and is now ready to
participate successfully in many business webs.”
-Alan Stewart, Deputy Chief Executive, Thomas Cook Holdings Limited, and
Chairman, Global and Financial Services, Thomas Cook Group
“Digital Capital is the guidebook for any business leader who wants to win
in the e-business world. Well written and provocative, this book provides us
with the first practical navigation system for what the authors coin as
‘b-webs’-the new platform for winning in the twenty-first century.”
-Noel Tichy, Professor, University of Michigan, and Coauthor, The Leadership
Engine and Every Business Is a Growth Business
Don Tapscott is author of the international bestsellers The Digital Economy
and Growing up Digital. With David Ticoll and Alex Lowy, he also coedited
Blueprint to the Digital Economy. Tapscott is Chairman, David Ticoll is CEO,
and Alex Lowy is Managing Director of the Alliance for Converging
Technologies, an international research and consulting group that advises
corporations and governments worldwide on strategy in the digital economy.
Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs
by Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy
Amazon.com Price: $19.25
You Save: $8.25 (30%)
Hardcover – (May 2000) 320 pages
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.
