Digital Transformation: The Essential of e-Business Leadership

by Mary Pat McCarthy and Keyur Patel

Book Overview

The future of business is inextricably bound up with the Internet. Written by strategists at KPMG Consulting/Mertrius, this text provides executives with a road map for leading their companies through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071364080
• ISBN13: 9780071364089
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Read This Book!

This book is well written, and I think it succeeds in providing an entertaining strategic view of e-Business success factors. The following chapter descriptions may help the reader decide to pick it off the shelf.Chapter 1 Who's Winning at e-Business? -- an overview of successes (CISCO and Intel) and non-successes (IBM and Levi Strauss) at making the jump to successful e-business selling over the Internet.Chapter 2 The Vision Thing -- the core of the book's approach, which emphasizes that successful e-business transformation begins with generating a vision of what the expected e-business will become as an Internet presence. This e-Vision generation process must be the heart of any approach to starting an e-business effort. Chapter 3 Transformation -- detail about how companies must commit to transformation of their business model in order to succeed at e-business. This applies mainly to bricks-and-mortar companies that have not made the e-business leap. Chapter 4 First-Over Advantages and New Business Models -- describes how good business models enable first-to-market companies to establish huge Internet presence in spite of lack of profitability or bricks-and-mortar tangibility.Chapter 5 The B2B Challenges -- details the success of CISCO and Intel into completely transforming their business-to-business relationships into Internet e-businesses. Chapter 6 The B2C Challenges -- details the experiences and difficulties of dot-com companies in selling to customers directly over the Web, and in establishing themselves as Web presences. Chapter 7 Do It In-house or Spin It Off -- looks at the experience of established companies that created in-house Internet departments and then had to decide whether to keep or spin off the successful efforts. Explores the idea of "disruptive technology" that clashes with the current culture/business model versus "sustaining technology" that enables further success of the current culture/model. Looks at several industries, from automotive to brokerage. Chapter 8 Preparing for the Unpredictable -- looks at surprising occurrences in recent past of Internet e-business, and discusses similar expectations for the future. Again there is an emphasis on vision and business model in trying to predict how the future will develop. This chapter is a fun one to read. Contains predictions from many of e-industry's founders and leaders about how the future will develop. Wireless transformation is high among them.

Understanding How To Create Your Own E-Vision?

A lot of people have have made negative comments about this book because it does not give new ideas. This book is not going to provide you with any technical solutions to develope your e-business but it was also not meant to do that. It gives the non-experiened e-businessperson the rules and how to formulate your own vision to how your company should function. It also explains what has changed in business cycle due to the e-commerce factor. I found it was explained very clearly for anybody to understand. The target audience for this book is somebody who is new to e-commerce.

An Intelligent Discussion on What it Means to Be a True EBiz

Ever notice how the really good teachers (the ones with the deepest subject knowledge) are also those who impart their wisdom the most succinctly and simply? This is what Patel and McCarthy have done with Digital Transformation, a thoughtful, pragmatic discussion of what being an eBusiness really means. The book is short enough that most folks could polish it off on a five hour flight - a welcome departure from the blathery eBiz treatises that occupy most bookstore shelf space (whose main aim seems to be the self-aggrandisement of the author). In Digital Transformation, Patel and McCarthy underscore that eBusiness is less about the ubiquitous dot com appendage and its accessories than it is about using technology to redefine a company's business strategy and means of delivering on it.The discourse is peppered with interesting commentary from such eBusiness mavericks as John Chambers (Cisco), Vint Cerf, Priceline CEO Dan Schulman and Dave Wetherell of CMGI fame.Now, if only other business books could be as simple and relevant, there'd be more shady trees under which to read them.

Internet Common Sense

With so much Internet hype over the past few years, it is refreshing to see a common sense analysis of how to integrate the new ecommerce concepts into your business. McCarthy brings a refreshingly clear and understandable perspective to the ecommerce challenge. This book is a must read for senior executives struggling to develop an Internet strategy. I read it in one sitting, and found myself writing action items in the margins of almost every chapter. By the end, you are looking for McCarthy's phone number, for KPMG obviously has thought long and hard about how to adapt your business to the ecommerce age. This is an exceptional book. It is succinct, imaginative, and practical. Buy it. Read it. Use it. If you don't, your competitors will.