Customer Reviews

Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Your reaction to this book will depend very much on the training and perspective you bring and why you want to read it. If you are much like Charles Ferguson, the author of the excellent "High Stakes, No Prisoners," you already have intimate knowledge of this industry and its players, AND you have a strong grasp of both technology and economics. The marginal gain from this book will be de minimus, but you will appreciate its clarity and scholarship.

I think I understand more about business strategy than an average bear, but I also believe that a bunch of children are creating a new reality that is destroying those models, and I began reading some books--this was one of them--to help me try to understand what that will mean for business strategy. I found the book valuable. While I think some of the authors' opinions--consider the hypothesis at the top of page 107--beg to be tested empirically, the references are both current and relevant, the book is clear, and I found it thoughtfully done. You don't have to be an academic to read it. The authors don't use much jargon that they don't explain, and they go to some lengths to avoid using words like isoquant.

I'd contrast this book with the very popular "Killer App," which I found trivial. "Blown to Bits" is superior in its clarity and breadth, and in the quality and relevance of its cited source material. I mention the contrast only because you may tend to listen more carefully to people who know a lot about what they are talking about, and my impression is that Evans and Wurster do.

If you are reasonably well-trained or experienced in business strategy, but feel like you need to better integrate the transformation to an information-based economy into your models and your thinking, I recommend this book.

This is no doubt a timely and insightful book. It does suffer from what many management/consulting books suffer from, convoluted sentences and polysyllabic word choices. Evans and Wurster, economists by training, and now BCG consultants, do have something to offer, however. Their analysis of many industries is piercingly accurate as to their value chain and profit zone (e.g., auto, brokerage).

The material areas the authors revolve the economics of things v. economics of info (when the former is sold it's gone; when the latter is sold, it can be sold again and again at a negligible cost); (2) the idea of reach v. richness seems to be the linchpin of their profound tome and is perfused throughout the book. This of people that can share a piece of information is inversely related to the quality of that information. Witness a salesman's pitch v. a direct mail letter - the former has greater richness and adaptability, while the latter has greater reach but less richness.

The book ends with some advice for businesses. According to the authors, the new digital game involves the application of applied economics, refined segmentation, and the analysis of value chain information flows. The authors encourage businesses to be contrarian, pre-emptive, and experimental. I agree that the HBR article is more parsimonious and lucid. Nevertheless, this is a solid book in the genre, and the authors clearly know this developing area. A worthy read overall.

Scenario: You go to the Museum of Modern Art and you've heard everyone talk about Monet's Water Lilies. You've looked around at a lot of the art and by the time you finally see the painting it doesn't seem spectacular so you're very disappointed. Well a lot of folks seem to have a similar reaction to this book. They've heard so much in the press and from supposedly "in the know" colleagues that when they finally read it they don't get what the hype was all about.

I'm of the opinion that while it isn't as revolutionary as some books that have received similar hype (Innovator's Dilemma, Competing for the Future), it is an excellent read. It has some strategic insights that are very useful for leaders and aspiring leaders in the developing economy. It helps motivate those in start-ups to aggressively pursue stodgy corporate America, while giving corporate America the kick in the pants it needs to shape up or lose out to these young guns.

Two knocks: it is difficult reading at times which while not neccesarily a bad thing (James Joyce isn't easy either) is a negative for time-constrained executives.

Secondly, some of the middle chapters were seriously deficient in value.

Suggestion: skip chapters 5-8 and the book becomes an enjoyable 130 page read.

Chapter 4: "Deconstruction" and Chapter 11: "Monday Morning" are both excellent.

Unlike most e-commerce books that focus on the best practices of the last 2-5 years, Blown to Bits is a book about corporate strategy as it relates to the implications of e-commerce. Although I have read many e-commerce books, this is the first one that I have found that addresses strategy questions in their broadest implications. Other books on the subject tend to focus more narrowly. I had heard the term "deconstruction" before reading this book, but was not quite sure what it meant. Now I know that this is the process of taking vertical value chains apart. To me, the most important insight in the book related to navigation as a value-added activity for e-commerce customers. The Web is obviously going to keep growing very rapidly, and we will all need more and more help to get to the right places on it. The navigators will be very powerful, as that problem increases. For those who want how-to information for starting up an e-commerce business, this is not the book for you. Instead, you should read Customers.com and keep up with Patricia Seybold's Web site. If you want to know what is working well now, surfing the Web is a good alternative. Those who are most likely to get benefit from this book are larger companies who are doing little with e-commerce now, and start-ups who are thinking through their strategies of which markets to pursue. In either case, the book is well-written and easy-to-read.

If you are working in a high-tech company fully leveraging the web, then much of this book is probably old news to you. If you are working in a company that is successful doing things the "old way" with no new competitors on the horizon, then this book is probably written in the equivalent of a foreign language. For the rest, who understand change is happening on multiple fronts, but don't fully understand all that is at work, this book provides great insight. Particularly useful is the way it provides examples of changes in multiple dimensions - not only richness and reach that are initially presented, but also other directions such as the movement to affiliations. The speculation about coming deconstruction of companies where existing pieces of the business are not as good as niche competitors in delivering value is food for thought.

Yes, this is not a book for light reading. It presents powerful concepts that will soon be recognized on par with those that have shaped our economies till date. More important, this is for the future and not a thesis based on historical research.

Traditional economic theories have largely been successful at a time when assumptions were made - due to lack of information in the market place. Students in Business Schools are still taught "Economic value of perfect information". Remove the constraint on the availability of information ; Traditional Business models instantly collapse and give way to the new economic model that is driven by connectivity and standards.

The book focuses on two basic forces that shatter traditional business structures- 1. The separation of the economics of information from the economics of things. 2. The blowup of the tradeoff between richness and reach of information. The result is "Deconstruction".

The authors explain each of these concepts with excellent illustrations and cases and then go on to provide a framework for competing in the new economy.

This book is written in such a manner that the concepts could be used by managers in diverse industries - If they are keen that their traditional businesses (and their jobs) are NOT "Blown to bits".

Excellent !

I bought this book because I read the authors' excellent article in Harvard Business Review. But the book simply repeats the same ideas, over and over again. This book has fewer ideas per page than any management book I can recall reading in years. Save your money and read what they wrote in HBR.

A nice book with some really interesting material. Most of their examples are quite fascinating. Has a fast paced tone to it. Was a disappointment in substantive terms since their Harvard Business review pieces covered the same ground a lot more succinctly. Save yourself the time and read those pieces instead. The central concept of the reach v. richness tradeoff is quite appealing however. You will find some useful tips on actionable ideas originating from the key concepts. I know there is a lot of hype about this book but don't expect too much because you will be let down.

BCG consultants Evans and Wurster explain and analyze in detail how Internet and information technology "deconstructs" existing industries, such as newspapers, auto retailing, and banking, while creating new opportunities for both new entrants and incumbants alike. Other books typically give the standard "old-economy-is-dead" line, but Blown to Bits goes beyond the superficialities and gives you a thought-provoking analysis on the changing business structures and competitive dynamics in the information age. If there's one book you should read on the Internet strategy, this is the one! BUY THIS BOOK!

Once you get past the egghead literary construction and the techno speak this book is a viable read and probably worth the twenty something bucks with freight. I did not begin to grasp the message until I was close to the end of the book.

Reach and richness is the story. How can a company reach the most number of customers with the greatest quality of service. The information highway of course.

The companies who want to be competitive and survive need to maximize their information technology.

There is discucssion here of ways and means including freuently asked questions boxes and what are called sound bit boxes which discuss the implications of disintermediation and deconstruction in the new economy.

I plan to read this book several more times to really grasp the message. Overall the book could use more concrete examples and less "business" literary style. It is almost as garbled as Bill Gates book, Business at the speed of thought. Not quite.