centrally controlled structures that still rule most organizations.
Most organizations are looking for ways to make their wholes smarter. They
are changing their information strategies to keep up with the velocity of the Net
and to keep up with, or preferably overtake, their competitors. A growing percentage
of businesses now practice some form of e-commerce—whether it be
selling over the Web, communicating with customers online, or managing business
relationships with supply chain partners through compatible software—
and that, too, is having an unavoidable effect on their strategic thinking.
Yogesh Malhotra is a recognized expert in the fields of knowledge management
and business innovation. In an article published in the online periodical,
Brint Institute’s Online Book on Knowledge Management, he describes organizations
as moving their knowledge management focus “from information
processing to knowledge creation.” He also maintains that today’s organization
must recognize that its most limited resource is no longer information; it has
become human attention—the ability to deal effectively with the growing volume
and speed of information.
In Malhotra’s recommended knowledge strategy for today’s fast-changing
e-business world, information manipulation is replaced by processes that
emphasize the “renewal of archived knowledge, creation of new knowledge,
and innovative applications of knowledge in new products and services that
build market share.” The new is what matters most here, and the strategy must
seek to home in relentlessly on what is most emergent and relevant.
Organizations no longer operate in a stable business environment where the
future can be predicted by what happened in the past. Business strategy, Malhotra
warns, must change from “prediction” to “anticipation of surprise”
because the emphasis of the 21st century organization has moved from “structure”
to “the edge of chaos.”
Leading the Moving Target
In both skeet shooting and football passing, the shooter or passer must aim not
where the target is but where it is going. Strategy must anticipate where the
organization’s target goals will be by the time a product gets to market or a project
is completed. The trick today, Mr. Malhotra warns, is that the strategy must
also anticipate surprise.
In skeet shooting and football, the clay pigeon and pass receiver are far more
predictable in the timeframes of their seconds-long trajectories than the marketplace
is in the timeframe of the business cycle. A clay pigeon travels in a
smooth arc. A pass receiver runs an agreed-upon pattern. Only the exceptional
skeet shooter or quarterback can compensate for the sudden wind gust or
improvised pass pattern.
Rigid, top-down strategizing has always assumed fairly predictable futures,
but such an approach breaks down when the future is highly speculative. An
intensively communicative and flexible organization—like an ant colony—is
better able to detect sudden changes and to communicate appropriate adjustments
in preparation or reaction. Effective strategy today must account for surprises
in both the short and long terms.
Nimble Strategy for Short-Term Surprises
The emergence of the PC, the explosive growth and standardization of the Web,
the rise and fall of the dot-com business model, a volatile economy, and most
recently, the unpredictable tragedies and global repercussions of September 11
have forced organizations to adjust as quickly as possible to changing market
conditions, changing consumer moods, and changing knowledge needs. With
instability in world politics and potential environmental threats like global
warming looming on the not-so-distant horizon, there’s no reason to believe
that the accelerating forces of change will let up.
Evolutionary Strategy for Long-Term Trends
Surprise and chaos make an active, well-organized, and responsive knowledge
network a critical asset. Certain demographic and technological trends provide
further justification for enabling fluid online conversation within the organization.
With every year, a greater percentage of Americans continue to use the
Internet. The dot-com bomb may have wiped out many businesses and their
revenue models, but it did not halt the trend of increasing presence on the Net
as the following statistics indicate:
■ A report published by the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration found
that 143 million Americans (54 percent of the population) used the Internet
in September 2001. That’s a 26 percent increase over August 2000.
According to eMarketer, there were 445 million people online worldwide
at the end of 2001, of which 119 million, or 27 percent, were located in the
United States. By 2004, there will be 165.5 million U.S. Internet users,
accounting for 23 percent of the global total.
■ Nielsen/NetRatings reports that in the fourth quarter of 2001, 24 million
people worldwide gained Internet access at home. The rate of growth of
the global Internet population in the fourth quarter was nearly double the
third quarter’s 15 million new at-home users.
■ Projections by Commerce Net show Internet usage in the United States
rising to 75 percent of the population by the year 2005.
Those numbers represent a steady increase in the number of Net-literate
workers, consumers, and customers, many of whom will be conversing through
online channels. Any intelligent business strategy must come to terms with the
trend that more people and more of their communications will be moving online.
Reference
Bloor, Robin. The Electronic B@zaar: From the Silk Road to the eRoad.
London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2000.
Bloor describes the brave new world in which an economy based on
paper-based information is rapidly transforming into one in which the
market, money, and its supporting information are all electronic.
2. Boyett, Joseph H., and Boyett, Jimmie T. The Guru Guide to the Knowledge
Economy: The Best Ideas for Operating Profitably in a Hyper-Competitive
World. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
This is a valuable distillation of the wisdom of 115 successful business
titans who describe what it takes to survive and succeed in this new
global, knowledge-intensive, increasingly high-tech world. Peter Drucker,
Seth Godin, Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan are among those featured.
3. Bressler, Stacey E., and Grantham, Charles E., Sr. Communities of Commerce:
Building Internet Business Communities to Accelerate Growth,
Minimize Risk, and Increase Customer Loyalty. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2000.