Making business sense of the e-opportunity

Most corporate executives are by now convinced that the scale and pervasive ness of technological change requires a fundamental review of business stra tegy Web-based technology is creating opportunities to rethink business mod els, processes and relationships along the whole length of the supply chain . Successful e-strategies translate established strategic concepts into con texts in which they previously were not economically viable. For example, i n the 1960s and 1970s IBM won the loyalty of major corporate customers thro ugh highly paid account executives who provided so-called relationship mana gement. Today that same concept - now technologically based - is being depl oyed to tailor support to individual consumers. But there is still enormous uncertainty within the business community about the future shape of e-business - as evidenced by the mood swings of the fi nancial markets and the faltering fortunes of even the icons of the New Eco nomy. The sheer scope of potential change presents some challenges: How can executives make sense of the burgeoning e-business ideas, and where does s trategic analysis begin? Behind the new e-business language, how new are th e strategic concepts? And what form will a company's strategic e-opportunit y take? \ As a platform for answering those questions and exploring the new strategic landscape, author David Feeny constructs a coherent map of the e -opportunity. He identifies three layers of e-opportunity, or domains, that exist within operations, marketing and customer service. In each domain, t echnology may enable a radical new vision of what a business can accomplish . Although every business should be considering opportunities across all th ree domains, the potential significance of each domain and of individual id eas within it will vary widely across industry sectors and businesses.