What has been destroyed? Given the fact that anyone who has a computer can now communicate with anyone else who also has a computer, any time, anywhere, there has indeed been an “explosion in connectivity” which we are only now beginning to understand. Simultaneously, amidst various detonations, a “tidal wave of universal connectivity is melting the glue bonding economic activities together.” 

This is an appropriate, indeed a very clever title. I am reminded of Negroponte’s Being Digital which offers a probing examination of the “information highway” as a means by which to transmit, globally, “weightless bits at the speed of light.” Because bits are “the DNA of information”, Negroponte’s analysis of their nature and impact helps us to benefit from as well as understand a “revolution” which has only begun...the same “revolution” to which Evans and Wurster also direct their attention.They do a brilliant job of explaining “how the new economics of information transforms strategy.” These “new economics” are NOT a “qualitatively new body of principles”; rather, a “rebalancing of existing economic forces when one of them (the informational glue) is subtracted.” 

I was especially impressed by the authors’ probing analysis of various forces at work as a new global balance evolves. Here is a brief excerpt from Chapter 2: “The economics of information and the economics of things have been tied together like participants in a three-legged race. Every business is consequently a compromise between the economics of information and the economics of things. Separating them breaks their mutual compromise and potentially releases enormous economic value.” Sound familiar? Immediately after reading this passage, I thought about those involved in the Manhattan Project when they realized, for the first time, how much energy could be released by nuclear fusion. At the end of this and the other chapters, the authors provide what they call (what else?) “Sound Bits.” They are especially well-done as they summarize key points but lose much of their value unless you have read the material which precedes then. In so many books, end-of-chapter “key points” are all you need to read. Not so with this book.

For Evans and Wurster, deconstruction and disintermediation will be major forces as the “informational glue” melts. As a result of their impact, as noted earlier, there will be a “rebalancing of existing economic forces” in organizations which require a different kind of leadership: “The traditional, hierarchically defined roles of leadership become obsolete. But there remain two things that leaders, and only leaders, can do”: create a culture of a “purposeful community”, and, formulate strategies which will nourish and sustain that community. I agree with Evans and Wurster that each organization’s culture should serve as the essence of identity, of management, of leadership. I also agree with their concluding observation: “In a world of impersonal technical change, that is a refreshingly human thought.” If your organization lacks such a culture, if it does not understand how the new economics are transforming strategy, here is an invaluable source for information, analysis, and wisdom...also for inspiration.

Order Blown to Bits here. 

Find the full list of Robert Morris's Business Nuggets featured by Eastbook.com here.

 

Blown to Bits 1999 Hardcover Edition	Blown to Bits 1999 Hardcover Edition

 

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