The Electronic B@ZAAR: From the Silk Road to the E-Road

Citation

(2000), "The Electronic B@ZAAR: From the Silk Road to the E-Road", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949cae.005

The Electronic B@ZAAR: From the Silk Road to the E-Road

The Electronic B@ZAAR: From the Silk Road to the E-Road

Robin BloorNicholas Brealey£18.00ISBN: 1-85788-258-X

Keywords: Information technology, Economics, Strategy

The Silk Road revolutionised trade in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: so, argues the author, will be the "e-Road" in the twenty-first century. The switch to an electronic economy is as important in commercial terms as the earlier switch to a paper-based economy. Robin Bloor is CEO of Bloor Research, Europe's leading IT analysis organisation (http://www.it-director.com), and is the author of numerous reports on corporate IT strategy. Here he offers a recipe for survival.

He demonstrates the need to move onto the e-Road and shows how to construct a different form of enterprise, ready to deal in new ways with emerging suppliers and "digitally-enhanced" customers. He discusses the meaning of an e-Brand and the reality of an e-Channel, pointing out their differences from their non-electronic predecessors. He suggests that the electronic economy is based on a publisher/subscriber model - a model that leads to many interactions but where the subscribers are volunteers who cannot be co-erced into buying. If they do not like what is "published" they cease to volunteer.

This book is definitely worth a read: you may not agree with Bloor's analysis, but if he is right and you have not listened, you are in trouble. Read - and then make up your mind!