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New Dimensions in
Business Space
New dimensions in
Business Space
get constantly created. Forces like
technological breakthroughs, economic
growth, market evolution, shifts in customer tastes, social changes, and
political events can expand or shrink Business Space. Vast amounts of new
Business Space created today change perspectives. This unoccupied territory
represents a land of opportunity for the technological and
strategic innovators
who can see or create it
faster than their competitors do. The
opportunities are
great, but so are the
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competition and the chance of
failure.5
Growth Era
Today's growth era produces huge discontinuities, creates new
industries and destroys old ones, and accelerates global economic growth in the
process. "Expectations are rising everywhere; human
creativity is flowering in every field.
Emerging economies are industrializing, and everyone is joining the digital
revolution of boundless information and seamless electronic commerce. The ideas,
technologies, and capital to satisfy new needs flow freely."6
Keep Your Computer-tired Eyes Healthy
Entrepreneurial Economy
New economy opens unlimited opportunities for
entrepreneurial firms. In 2003 in United
States, a staggering 61% of the listed companies were started at home, at
the CEO's kitchen table, and 16% were initially capitalized with less than
US$1,000. This is an inspiring evidence illustrating how much
an
entrepreneur can accomplish with an
idea whose time has come.
Increasing Complexity
Business space, technologies,
processes, and
business
models
become more complex. That is because new characteristics are added frequently,
but subtracted infrequently. The dimensions of business
space
keep increasing,
adding complexity and furnishing attractive
new opportunities for those who can
successfully navigate in the new environment. This complexity also inhibits
greater size and greater
value creation.5
Information
In the emerging
era of
overcommunication and hyper-competition, people are overwhelmed by choice –
choice of information, ideas, products, and services. Information is becoming readily available around the globe at an
unprecedented pace. Customers, competitors, and
innovators have instant access
to each other. Technological change, especially change in information and
communication technology, delivered the Information Age and converted it to the
Knowledge Age.5
Customer-driven Economy
Customer power surged as a result of the convergence of several
long-developing trends. First, product and service scarcity gave way to
abundance. A key reason for this is that advancing technology has dramatically
increased manufacturing productivity and thereby reduced costs of entry to and
expansion of many industries.
"Globalization led to more companies pursuing the
same customers. At the same time, customers have become more sophisticated and
informed buyers. Information technology enabled them to find and analyze
competing products and to make intelligent choices. Customers discovered they
had options and the power to exploit them. Customers now aggressively seek
alternatives, compare offers, and hold out for the best option."7
Further, many products became virtual commodities and rapid changes in
technology have dramatically shortened product life cycles. The result is a lot
of similar offerings that make it very difficult for you to
differentiate yourself from your
competitors; this further empowers your customers. In combination, these
phenomena transformed supplier-dominated economies into ones ruled by customers.7
Knowledge as the Source of Business Value
Knowledge and continuous learning are now critical elements of
success. In the new economy, the
knowledge component of products and
services has increased dramatically in importance and has become the dominant
component of
customer value. The shift to knowledge as the primary source of
value, makes the new economy led by those who
manage knowledge effectively – who create, find, and combine knowledge
into new products and services faster than their competitors...
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Internet Power
The
Internet
changes the fundamental nature of doing business and competition. As new ways of
building and delivering products and services online emerge,
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your competition goes beyond established competitors to include new companies, in
addition to new innovations, ideas or
ways of improving existing processes or products.8
Change
Dramatic changes in competition, technology, and workforce values
are causing organizations to search for new and more human ways of
increasing
productivity and
competitiveness. The biggest changes have been due to the
impact of information and communication technology. The ability to access vast
information resources within a matter of minutes and to communicate across huge
distances at ever lower costs and improving quality and convenience is
transforming the way people and companies interact.
Globalization
Globalization is not new, but today it's more rapid and
pervasive. Distance is becoming a shrinking barrier. Markets are globalizing rapidly, as are the companies that compete in
them. Considerable share of sales of companies come from outside the
headquarters country. Geographic proximity is no longer essential for people for
working together. World trade economy is growing at more than five times the
rate of world gross domestic product.
Capital Markets
Capital markets have evolved significantly. New
investors are
more informed, innovative, and activist, and have themselves become agents of
change by demanding superior performance and corporate transparency.
New Competitive Dynamics
Competition is now based more on
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capabilities than assets. New competitive dynamics led to greater instability in the
profitability of companies. New products, services, and competitors are emerging
with blinding speed. Competitive pressure has been intensifying and it is
becoming harder to achieve market leadership and to stay on top.
New Skill
Requirements
Specialized skills are increasingly required by companies, yet
these skills are what makes employees more mobile in the marketplace. New skill
requirements foster changes in the relationships between employers and
employees. No dimension of the
business environment is changing faster than the
dynamics between employer and employee.
New
Employee Relationships
The
relationship between the company and its people is changing
rapidly. Ever
increasing emphasis on knowledge and
capabilities means that
people become even more important. In the rapidly changing business environment,
companies cannot promise long-term employment any more. At the same time,
knowledge workers have also become more mobile in the marketplace - the old-style employee loyalty is
dead. Due to evolving demographics (e.g. dual career couples are the norm now),
family values and personal time are at premium.
New Definitions of Value
In their book 'Blur'10, Christopher Meyer and Stan
Davis describe the shape of a world in which
speed,
intangibles and
connectivity dominate the social and economic landscape. The authors outline
a number of metrics that evaluate corporate performance in the connected
economy:
speed to market,
cycle time from idea generation to
new
product development, and the number of
electronic connections to suppliers,
customers and partners. In this new blurring world, the focus must be on
the way in which the nature of value is changing, involving new ways to
price goods, information and
emotion.
The implication of
these new forms of exchange is a transfer of power from the producer to the
customer. There are multitudes of
values
present in every buyer-seller exchange: economic, informational and
emotional. These exchanges increasingly happen so fast that there is no time to
translate them into precise monetary terms. Businesses will need to identify
these hidden values and think more accurately about their worth before accepting
the price proposed. The implications are profound. Companies will need to think
in terms of offers, which involve merging products and services to exploit their
knowledge to give customers a
value-added experience, not just "selling them
stuff".11
The Fun Factor
As business today is about
passion and
winning and
creating new things, fun has
become a big element in the business strategy of many
highly successful businesses. No one should have a job they don't enjoy. "What's
really driving the new economy – and confounding the grand pooh-bahs of the old
one – is that individuals are having a huge impact. And an awful lot of
fun," writes Edward O. Welles, the author of The Fun Factor...
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