From book writing to e-business

Although the above strategy was used for writing a book, there is every reason to believe that a similar strategy would be applicable to projects or goals in any niche - be it in the world of conventional business or in the plethora of different niches that make up the world of electronic communications. The connectiveness of the Internet environment has vast potential to improve efficiencies and its full potential can only be realised through imaginative communication strategies.

The first flurry of excitement about the potential of e-business was based upon looking at the Internet and the World Wide Web through the eyes of conventional, Industrial Age philosophies. It's main focus was on the Web site. This was seen to be the prime scene of the action. Many ignored the real power of the Internet: the ability to organise and communicate with people. The Internet was often seen as an inconvenient hurdle, that had to be crossed to get to where the real business was thought to be: at the portals and the places that attracted eye balls.

Billions of dollars were poured into Web site oriented business, which were designed and constructed using Industrial Age business models and management techniques. At first there was surprise when some of them failed. Then, as the failures escalated, people began to question the principles upon which the new on-line businesses were based. People started asking sensible questions, such as "How is this investment going to make a profit?".

At the height of the speculative bubble in dotcom start-ups, it suddenly began to dawn on people that there was more to e-business that setting up a grand, all singing, all dancing Web site, even if it incorporated a sophisticated back end. The real game was about providing better value and increased efficiency. If the final product or service to the customer or client didn't deliver those then all the technology in the world wouldn't help make a viable e-business.

Many are still trying to cling on to the old ideas, the methods of the past. Sharp salesmen are still cashing in on the unrealistic dreams of naive investors. Advantage is still being taken of businesses not familiar with Internet technology to provide them with useless Web sites at exorbitant costs. Billions of dollars are still being squandered on hopeless schemes, which a grain of common sense would banished to the trash can.

The stark reality is that e-business isn't about technology, it is primarily about communication efficiency. This involves separating useful communication signals from a background of noise. Communication creates noise, but, this isn't something to be avoided, it is something to be tackled.

One of the first weapon research labs I worked in had developed a system for measuring the surface temperature of the sea from a low flying aircraft. It wasn't designed to measure the absolute temperature, it was designed to measure only the randomly fluctuating temperature variations as the waves mixed erratically with the air above.

By applying suitable filtering to the random noise produced by the heat sensors measuring these small variations in temperature, they could sometimes detect a discernible pattern: the pattern of a submarine as its progress disturbed the water at the surface. Out of the noise a valuable order could be discerned. This is what e-business is really about: filtering through the noise of communication to reveal valuable patterns. Figures 17.7 and 17.8 illustrate this concept

It may seem strange to think of filtering out a pattern of people to create an e-business niche, but, isn't this the way all business niches are created? Teams leaders filter out people to create a team. A salesman filters out a list of valuable contacts. A contractor will filter out a collection of subcontractors. An expert will filter out a group of peers to share knowledge. An auteur will filter out a group of collaborators, an entrepreneur will filter out a number of investors, an investor will filter out a set of advisors.

All business niches rely on the filtering out of sets of key contacts that together form a viable system. The Internet is a vast sea of possible contacts. All it needs, to create any kind of a niche, is to apply an intelligent filtering system. This was the main message in the fore runner to this book, "The Entrepreneurial Web", where the value of a person was considered in the context of an object oriented world. In this world, everyone has a value that is the sum of their own abilities and knowledge plus the ability and knowledge of their contacts. People do not act alone, they act as part of a self created group. The more accomplished this group, the better the individual will be able to perform.