The main players in the game

At this point, we can begin to see how the paradigm necessary for creating solutions in the fast changing world of e-business is going to be radically different from that used in the creation of businesses in the Industrial age.

The engine that will drive innovative developments is not going to come from highly structured organisations, but, from small cores of main players. In the film making industry this core might consist of:

1) The original story writer.

2) The auteur, or director, who adapts this story to the screen

3) The producer who arranges the financing.

4) The entrepreneur who brings the first three together to make it happen.

Although these roles are separated out, there is no reason why a single person shouldn't be able to perform all of these roles in a small production. In fact any of these roles could be combined so that the main players in the game could consist of one, two, three or four people.

The paradigm shift is to see the initial creation of an e-business as the creative work of a very small group who have no need to permanently hire all the functioning components of the production. This initiating group would then be seen to consist of:

1) The originator of an idea

2) The adapter of the idea who can bring it into reality

3) The funding organiser

4) The entrepreneur who can make it all happen

As with the production of a film, all of these roles can reside in a single person or be split between two, three or four.

There is one very big difference though. The uncertainties involved in the rapidly changing environment of e-business means that ideas are uncertain to work. Adapters are unlikely to know the best way to bring the idea into reality. The funding organiser has no tangible product with which to attract investment. This leaves the most difficult part to the entrepreneur who has to find a way of coping with this uncertainty to make it all happen.

Making the entrepreneur's task even more difficult is the probability that the original idea may quickly become a bad idea; an adaptation may turn out to be less than suitable and the funding can quickly evaporate before a credible result has been achieved.

Clearly, this is not a job for careful preparation or planning: it's a job for game theory.