Digital Storm: Fresh Business Strategies from the Electronic Markeplace

Citation

Gerbert, P., Birch, A., Schnetkamp, G. and Schneider, D. (2002), "Digital Storm: Fresh Business Strategies from the Electronic Markeplace", info, Vol. 4 No. 5, pp. 64-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/info.2002.4.5.64.3

Intended as guidance for confused business leaders, this is authored by a team from the McKenna Group (Silicon Valley) and OC&C Strategy Consultants (London). The title comes from a 1999 comment (this was before the meltdown of the past two years) by IBM’s CEO who suggested the dot.coms were merely the “fireflies” before the storm. With lots of flashy graphics and 27 “searchlights” or examples, the ten chapters appear in four sections: the true force of the electronic marketplace (two chapters, one a brief history of how we got here and the other discussing the reshaping of business relationships); current e‐market strategies explained (the B2B markets, purchasing platforms dominating procurement, intermediary e‐markets that attempt to “deliver all” and sell‐side portals); long‐range forecast for the digital storm (two chapters taking a look at likely future developments); and your pilot through the digital storm (two final chapters providing advice for making one’s way). Time does pass, however – one of the blurbs on the dustwrapper extolling this book is from Jeff Skilling, then still the CEO of the now‐disgraced ENRON.