e-Strategy Pure and Simple
Chapter Two
The e-nigma: Page Two

Back To The Future

Let’s go back in time to 1885/86 when the world was introduced to the first automobile. Who, then, could have foreseen the advent of such concepts as car insurance, autobahns, parking lots, drive-in restaurants, banks and theaters and laser-read toll systems? The answer is simple: probably no one! The reason? The concept was so foreign to most people’s "modus operandi" that they had great difficulty adapting their thinking to accommodate this revolutionary concept. In fact, they could hardly bring themselves to give it a name. At first they called it a "horse-less carriage" because it was the first carriage that did not need to be pulled by animals or humans. The best they could do was rename it an "automobile" which literally means "self- moving", not a terribly mesmerizing description.

Now back to 2000 and the Internet, a concept as "alien" to today’s executive as the horse-less carriage was to the owner of the local buggy whip factory. And, just as the automobile paralyzed the buggy whip factory owner, preventing him from doing anything about the automobile because of its "alien-ness", the Internet is having the same effect on today’s CEO. And there are good reasons for this as well.

Landscape Versus Seascape

Let’s draw some mental pictures. Imagine a landscape with its profile of mountains, valleys, lakes, canyons and volcanoes, all of which have been shaped by nature’s forces-- wind, rain, gases, etc-- found in that environment. Now imagine a modern city sprouting on this landscape with a host of small, medium and large buildings all interconnected by a road and rail system.

A business operates in a similar manner. It also has a "profile" consisting of products, customers and markets which have been shaped by market forces - competition, economic, political, technological - all at work in this business arena or environment. Similar to a city sprouting from a landscape, what emerges from a "business arena" is a business model which is put into place to deploy the business strategy of the enterprise.

Furthermore, as the natural terrain surrounding a city puts physical constraints on that city’s activities, so does the business ""terrain" that a company finds itself within will impose constraints on that company. These will obviously vary from one geographic area to another.