The Seven Steps to NIRVana: Strategic Insights Into Ebusiness Transformation

by Jeff Zabin, Mohanbir S. Sawhney, Mohan Sawhney

How do we transform our business into e-business? This is the challenge that many traditional companies are facing. As the framework for business changes, these traditional companies must continually... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071375228
• ISBN13: 9780071375221
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book on E-strategy

The so-called "mysterious" world of e-business is covered very well. Categorization into seven steps and further classification of them makes this book very interesting and easy to follow. The case studies and examples are excellent, however it seems that most of them move around some 10-15 companies. Although, this book is targeted to top executives but the language is so easy that any one can comprehend and get benefited. I found the E-volution and E-strategy topics very useful. They provide very good insight on how a company should view and plan e-business initiative. Recommended to any one who is involved in any kind of e-business initiative, this book can take the efforts to much more deep and meaningful level.

Unique and Engaging Style Sets This Book Apart ...

This is the best book I've read on (e)business transformation. It will most certainly be understood and put into action by its mainstream readers. The authors' unique and engaging style is what sets this book apart. They focus on customer-centric as opposed to tech-centric analysis, using metaphors and stories brilliantly to bring the information to life. As a result, what could have become a slow and difficult read became an easy and enjoyable one. Anyone who wishes to stay ahead of the pack in (e)business should read this book. The future of any business is certainly between its covers.

New book addresses e-business for old economy companies

The Seven Steps to Nirvana: Strategic Insights Into e-Business Transformationby Mohan Sawhney and Jeff ZabinReview by Madanmohan Rao...With a foreword by Dan Tapscott (author of "Digital Capital" and "Growing Up Digital"), this concise e-business guidebook is just what serious readers need in the "post-dotcom era" to sift through the confusing views and assessments of e-business out there.Mohan Sawhney, e-commerce professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Northwestern University, is a prolific writer and speaker and serves on the boards of several startups; he was a keynote speaker at the India Internet World 2000 conference... Jeff Zabin is a writer and research fellow with strategy firm Diamond Cluster International in Evanston, Illinois. The book also has an online companion... Referenced books include Leading the Revolution (by Gary Hamel), Intellectual Capital (Thomas Stewart), MetaCapitalism (Grady Means), ValueNets (David Bovet), and Enterprise E-Commerce (Peter Fingar).The focus of the book by Sawhney and Zabin is more on the traditional old-economy "smokestack" industries than established technology players like Cisco and Dell. It is chock-full of case studies and anecdotes of successes as well as failures in e-business ventures of corporate America. One chapter each is devoted to the seven steps which businesses must take in order to maximize e-business potential: broaden company and industry vision, chart incremental moves down the e-business evolution path, devise clever e-strategy, synchronise channels and internal departments, gear up e-infrastructure platforms, judiciously allocate financial resources and investments, and rally employees and partners around the e-business banner.In retrospect, it might be said that the new economy was the best thing to have happened to the old economy, according to the authors, especially the shining examples they set for speed, innovation and pure adrenaline flow. "Unlike anything before it, the massive wave of entrepreneurial startups energized Corporate America to change," they observe. E-business can play a key role in four ways: cost reduction, revenue expansion, time reduction, and relationship enhancement. E-business plays not just to the bottom line but also to the top line, where it can lead to the transformation and reinvention of entire industries. Companies like United Technologies and Eastman streamline purchasing via e-procurement. Citibank leverages CRM for online initiatives, and Proctor & Gamble uses Web sites to improve information services quality for its products like Tide, Crest and Vick’s. Xerox harnesses the Web to lubricate its relationships with its numerous resellers. Consultancy firms and Fortune 500 innovators like GE use Intranet-based knowledge management systems to capture, codify and recycle the learnings gleaned from every project and every employee.One of the key impacts of the Internet, Intranet and Extranet is to break down traditional barriers wi

Great insight

Given the state of the dotcom meltdown, it is easy to see why many more people should have read this before leaving established companies and jumping on the bandwagon. Sawhney pretty astutely makes the point about how to actually transform a business by integrating the internet deeply within the operation rather than viewing it as some kind of stand alone panacea. The metaphors and stories add a pithy touch that make this an entertaining read. I think this is a must read for anyone who is trying to ascertain what happened in the ebusiness boom that went bust and where we go from here. The principles are widely applicable across businesses new and old. I loved it!

Sage Advice!!

Finally a practical book that is not just a fluff but substantive in guiding the "old economy" players into what they must evolve into. Once all the dust and hoopla has settled, people need to get down to serious business. This is a great "how to" book for this. The anecdotes are classic in being humorous yet instructive. I disagree with Hiroo, who may be japanese and seems to "know it all" but more likely is one of those that got burnt in the NASDAQ fall and seems bitter about it!! Trust me this is a keeper!