21st Century Business: Managing and Working in the New Digital Economy [Paperback]

James W. Cortada (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2000

In a time of unremitting, accelerating technological change, James W. Cortada offers a calm, intelligent path through the wilderness, helping managers understand the big picture and successfully manage the transition to the Internet economy. Cortada shows how to get past the glitter and hype associated with innovation, and leverage the best of the new technologies, without abandoning management fundamentals that are more important today than ever. Cortada demonstrates how to manage and work as your firm transforms itself from an Industrial Age enterprise to an eBusiness -- describing exactly what is changing, how to live in both worlds, and where your future sources of profit and personal success are most likely to come from. Cortada offers new insights into the role of knowledge in a services-centric economy, shows how learning organizations and Internet technologies are transforming work, and demonstrates how to use these new technologies to generate value through smarter, more efficient supply chains. 21st Century Business shows which traditional management practices are still valuable, and which must change -- presenting a street-wise set of proven strategies, guidelines, examples, and tips for every manager.

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From the Inside Flap

Preface

The business climate today is in a state of flux, evolving in many ways, but essentially from the forms familiar to managers and workers during the Second Industrial Revolution into new ones. For sake of convenience, I call the new environment the Information Age, and we work in the New Digital Economy because the Internet has changed so much how we use computers and work. This book is about what tasks both managers and workers in this period of transition from one economic order to another are doing and need to do to be successful. The answer lies largely in doing three things. First, managers have to perform many basic tasks of management essentially unchanged from one decade to another. For example, managers still have to run organizations that generate a profit. Second, both managers and workers need to leverage technologies quickly and effectively and, in the process, adapt to the consequences of such actions. You see this strategy already at work-using the Internet for new channels of distribution of products and services-but the activities required extend far beyond this new merger of computing and telecommunications. Third, most managers and workers have to work effectively in companies (even government agencies) that live in two worlds, that of the old Industrial Age and in the emerging Information Age.

This book is about how to carry out these new requirements. In the early 1990s, an author of a book such as this would have had to defend the notion that things were changing. Today, such an author finds readers very familiar and accepting of the notion that things are changing, often very rapidly. So, the discussion has moved on to the next level, what to do about it. While I have a great deal to say about what people are doing and need to do, let me begin by delivering some good news: The fundamentals of management, as described, for example, by Peter Drucker in more than a dozen books and 35 articles, still apply. What is changing is how these fundamentals are being executed because there have been important technological changes in the past decade, such as the arrival of the Internet. The services and knowledge content of work has increased sharply as well. Most workers today are also experiencing the consequences of the simultaneous survival of pre- and post-industrial economies in many industries and in various nations.

Noneconomic conditions have also changed, affecting workers around the world. The Cold War is over, and one consequence has been an enormous expansion of international trade. One byproduct has been the growth of free trade practices. A second has been both the expansion of democracies (especially in Latin America and in Central Europe) but also significant chaos in what used to be the old Soviet Union. It became more difficult to do business in Russia, but a lot easier to sell goods in China.

Economic sociologists argue that we are moving from economies that focused on the physical manufacture of goods to new ones in which assets are information and knowledge, where the key skills are not centered around making things but around using information technology. Microsoft is worth more than General Motors. Welcome to a new work environment! There are many issues, but the central one is how are we to respond to change? Change is taking place at different speeds across various industries. It is playing out in various forms around the world. In this book I recognize and accept that change is occurring, often profoundly, but-and this is where my message differs from that of many other commentators-it is occurring more in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary manner. Looked at over long historic periods, as opposed to just over the past couple of years, I conclude that the adjective evolutionary is a more accurate way of describing what is going on. It is from that perspective of viewing events as evolving that I find answers to the questions about how you can thrive in such a period of change. To be sure, change is more or less intense from one industry to another, and occurs at an uneven pace. Successful managers and workers view their duties as more than just keeping up with the Internet and e-everything. To be successful, the key insight they need is to apply many of the basics of business and managerial practice either in response to changing circumstances or to create those changes, and to do it holistically, thoughtfully, but with a grip on reality.

This book is written for anybody who works today, particularly in highly industrialized (economists would say "advanced") economies. I address my comments to the skilled and experienced employee and to the newly minted MBA who knows her way around the Internet. The senior executive also needs help because he or she worries about the implications of many of the new technologies causing changes in their industry. Middle managers often feel the crush of change earliest in an organization, since they are the ones who normally alter processes, buy and use computers, and experience the consequences of changing market conditions. This book is very much intended to reassure them that the changes underway can be exploited to make their work rational and successful, although their lives will remain fraught with change and churn.

As enterprises increasingly came to share managerial responsibilities with non-managerial employees over the past two decades, it became essential for "empowered" workers to understand and practice the basics of management. As members of teams, as process owners, and as users of an organization's assets, they had, for all intents and purposes, assumed many of the roles and responsibilities of managers. This role is as profound a change as the arrival of the Internet, for instance. There is a melding of manager/non-manager roles, even though traditional command-and-control and hierarchical organizations still exist. Because the roles of managers and non-managers are blending together, yet often simultaneously remain apart, I frequently apply the terms management or managers to the tasks of workers.

The term worker needs further redefinition. In the mid-twentieth century, the word would have conjured up images of men wearing blue shirts, hard hats, walking around with lunch pails, and proud to be members of a union. By the 1980s, many observers were calling white-collar office personnel workers, not just white-collar workers. They included in this category lawyers, doctors, consultants, and accountants. By the end of the 1990s, we also had Web masters and process engineers. Today, the term workers is widely used to include anyone who draws a salary; that is how I use the word in this book. I raise this issue because some commentators on modern economic conditions use the term just to refer to either blue-collar employees (an old economy perspective) or in reference to non-managerial personnel.

I have organized this book around major topics, themes that address what people are dealing with as they transcend both the old and new economies. The chapters help to catalog and rationalize the changes underway and how work must be done. Because the changes I discuss have already started, we have specific examples available of how that is occurring, and what is working well, to guide your own personal behavior.

Chapter One looks at the big picture of what is happening to business in general. I describe how the world of work is transitioning from the Second Industrial Revolution to one based on information and the use of information technologies in ways that are not necessarily clear today. The chapter explains the fundamental historical features of the Information Age and how they differ from the past, viewing changes through the eyes of managers and workers. Driving forces in the new economy include technology, but more important, the hunt for new ways to make money and profit.

Chapter Two discusses the notion of learning organizations set within the context of managerial best practices. Knowledge, skills, historical perspective, and knowledge management represent key sources of change as companies move into the new economy. Key themes in this chapter explain how institutional knowledge management and personal skills development make sense, and how historical perspective makes it easier for you to see what practices are essential during the transition. I reaffirm the value of process management as a relatively new, yet highly effective, way of organizing work.

Chapter Three discusses the role of knowledge, and knowledge workers, because in a services-centric economy, institutional and personal knowledge is essential to an individual's economic success. Best practices in knowledge management represents a core body of actions people and firms can take to simultaneously exploit the old and new economic realities. I set the issue of knowledge management into the context of such new technological influences as e-business and the Internet.

Chapter Four is devoted to a broad discussion about the nature of work, especially as it is affected by the introduction of the Internet into the daily activities of workers. I argue t

From the Back Cover

Manage all the changes driving your business in the 21st century!

In a time of unremitting, accelerating technological change, James W. Cortada offers a calm, intelligent path through the wilderness, helping managers understand the big picture and successfully manage the transition to the Internet economy. Cortada shows how to get past the hype associated with innovation, and leverage the best of the new technologies — without abandoning management fundamentals that are more important today than ever.

Management How the fundamentals of management will — and won't — apply in the 21st century Knowledge Master today's best practices for creating a learning organization Internet Leverage the Internet to build smarter, more efficient supply and value chains Work Understand how the new economy transforms work — and workers Strategy Choose a new future for your company — high-level approaches and step-by-step tasks

21st Century Business demonstrates how to manage and work as your firm transforms itself from an Industrial Age enterprise to a 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS, presenting street-wise strategies, guidelines, examples, and tips every manager can start using today. It's a masterful guide to what is changing, how to live in both worlds, and where your future sources of profit and personal success will come from.

21st Century Business is the first book that gives managers a broad, long-term perspective on the information age transformation — and translates that wisdom into strategies and tactics they can use right now.

James W. Cortada, one of the world's leading authorities on the management and history of information technology, offers profound insight into the changes that really matter. Equally important, he exposes the changes that will prove superficial or overhyped.

Integrating economics, demography, technology, and management case studies, Cortada demonstrates how work, workers, and management are really changing — and the fundamentals of business that haven't changed. Cortada shows how the Internet is really impacting the enterprise — and how to leverage it proactively, giving your supply chains new flexibility and power, without compromising processes that still work well.

Tomorrow's successful manager will go beyond keeping up with the latest "e-trends," applying the fundamentals of business management holistically, thoughtfully, and with a firm grip on reality, no matter what changes. For managers focused on what matters most, 21st Century Business offers sober, clearheaded guidance.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (August 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130305693
• ISBN-13: 978-0130305695
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,719,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was trained as an historian with a Ph.D. in modern history, but have spent nearly 40 years at IBM in sales and consulting and am the author of a dozen books on European history and two dozen on the history of information technologies and another dozen on business management. My interests are largely around the role of information in moder societies: use, managemnt, and history. I am currently writing a global history of how computing spread around the world so fast and am publishing a book on how historians think with a lot of my experiences, called Hunting for History. I just did a book on the role of information as THE thing businesses do, make, and worry about, called Information and the Modern Corporation. It was a lot of fun to write and is intended for everyone.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A practical guide to 21st century, but not easy to read..., November 5, 2002

By 

Jean-Claude LE GAL - See all my reviews

This review is from: 21st Century Business: Managing and Working in the New Digital Economy (Paperback)

It is the first time I'm reading a book from James W. Cortada and I can say that it was not an easy reading for me. The author is writing in the preface "The chapters help to catalog and rationalize the changes underway and how work must be done", but too much use of cataloguing and rationalizing is harmful for the reader who is losing his way in all the firsts, seconds, thirds, etc. at quite every page. It makes difficult to follow the thinking of the author.

Main idea developed in 21st century business is that change "is occurring more in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary manner" and that "we must manage in an environment rooted in the past and yet stepping forward into a new future." This duality gives possibilities to build our future on past sound well chosen practices even if some "old knowledge and practices increasingly are competitive disadvantages as firms move from the Second Industrial Age into portions of the new Information Age."

James W. Cortada is showing us that the Information Age is more than technology and that managers need to understand that the sources of profit are changing. They need to understand how profits are made and to understand the effects of globalization and digitization within a context of emerging political realities. Information is becoming an important part of a new value proposition and must be leveraged by developing networks, learning organizations, and knowledge-workers.

Based on the evolution concept the author develops how to use best practices, benchmarking and process management approaches to give us the assets to understand how waves of change work and to create a virtuous circle for developing learning organizations.

But learning organizations are networks of knowledge workers, which are increasing in number with the emergence of information-based economy. That means that knowledge management is becoming an important part of a manager's job. To understand that knowledge management is operating within a business ecology, which can be described as an environment of enablers, inhibitors, and drivers is crucial to be able to leverage knowledge to generate profits in business or efficiencies and quality of performance in governments.

The use of Internet, which is a low-cost way of moving information around has a big impact on knowledge management, but also on work organization by enabling collaboration and alliances without constraints of space and time. This allows closer partnerships with suppliers, customers and even competitors, making organizations' traditional boundaries more flexible. But Internet is also an interactive tool with the impact on organizations moving from Second Industrial Age mass production to Information Age mass customization, when not made-to-order.

"The most important use of Internet today is in the fundamental redesign of supply chains", which "are making it possible to squeeze out inefficiencies, improving productivity while allowing firms to connect in new ways to suppliers and customers." The author is sharing with us IBM's interesting practical experience in this field.

The final chapter is showing us how we can manage the change to enter in the New Digital Economy, because "we have more control over the future of our enterprises than we realize."

This book is finally replacing the move to the "New Economy" in a context we are leaving in, and wants to convince us that we already have many tools in our hands to enter properly the Information Age. Some Great Reading at the end of the book consolidates the evolution approach demonstrated by giving us roots in the past literature.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The business world as it is today and will be tomorrow, January 19, 2001

By 

John Woods (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 21st Century Business: Managing and Working in the New Digital Economy (Paperback)

I found this to be an insightful read with lots of ideas to ponder. Cortada hits on several hot buttons of the new economy--technology, continuous training and best practices, knowledge workers and knowledge management, the Internet, and supply chain management. He makes the important distinction that the changes going on today represent more than just technology. He talks about the search for the new value proposition, globabilization, how to leverage knowledge workers, the preeminence of the supply chain, and lots more. His book is not just descriptive. In several chapters he includes an "implications and actions" section that is very helpful in thinking about "what now?" The book also includes useful diagrams to illustrate his points.

At under 250 pages, it's a really good summary of what's going on in the new economy, and I highly recommend it.