Customer Reviews

Blur: The Speed of Change In the Connected Economy

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A book written about how changes in technology affect the way business is conducted, BLUR attempts to open the eyes of stable organizations, identifying old business rules as being subject to immediate change in order to support a new economy.

Davis focuses much of his attention on the following formula. (Speed x Connection) = Intangible. This formula attempts to show that the traditional roles of buyers and sellers are changing with the introduction of technology. Speed implies that immediate access to a desired set of information is available at any time of the day. Through connection, Davis infers that real-time information is available from virtually anyplace in the world. His use of the word intangible relates to expanded knowledge about a particular item of interest. BLUR shows how these three areas effect the way business will be conducted in the future, and how the relationship between buyer and seller will ultimately differ from that of today. There are new rules regarding the connected economy, and instead of trying to fit those rules into current day practice, Davis suggests that businesses first must become aware of them and then second, try to adapt to them.

BLUR challenges the reader to question every basic business assumption held, and encourages businesses to implement new ideas. New ideas that might even contradict past experience, but its those new ideas that just might be the key to launching businesses forward instead of becoming stagnant in an advancing economy.

I believe many of the ideas presented in BLUR carry merit worthy of in-class discussion and would recommend it as optional reading material for future classes.

If you are looking for a good fast read about the New Economy and a high level primer on what it means for you I would recommend Blur. Despite a few commercials in there for E&Y's services and the jargon of the 'blur' it is a solid read. Though it is not something that will help you stratgically change your business, sections on how employees will be valued in the future ring true and how companies will have to bend over backwards in the future to really serve the customer. This book is good to read if you want to get an idea of what will happen at a high level to society, people, working habits and business. Its also good to have around if you are thinking about your resume...

Blur is literary junk food. Reading the book, you must endure a 'Wired' magazine attitude, i.e., your only chance to attain hipdom and cool, and, of course, business acumen, is if you embrace the terribly simplified and exaggerated message found in its pages. Now, this book does point out much that is true, and as a minor 1990's milestone, confirms that we're on the path laid out succinctly in Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock".

There are certainly many thought provoking issues raised by this book. It is just too bad the authors did not bother to think any further about those issues beyond a mention or suggestion. Far too many important and cautionary subjects are brought up only to be swept past by a testosterone and adrenaline fueled hype-fest.

For example: we are to accept the proposition that by virtue of the increasing compression of geography afforded by modern technology, distance is becoming a negligible issue. Yes, there are obvious advantages to teleconferencing, electronic funds transfer, and the Internet. Yet the book says nothing about the continuing tyranny of time-zones. Lloyd in London may want to collaborate with Sam in San Francisco, but the Londoner must wait 'till the end of his GMT work day before Sam's PST workday begins. No matter how fast the communication links we string between distant points, distance presents impediments to the work people at opposite ends can accomplish together. Impediments that do not exist when people work in close proximity. In this case and many others the book fails to deal honestly with the disadvantages while extolling the advantages of the increasing "...speed of change in the connected economy".

The book unabashedly advocates chaos and instability as virtues while urging "Connecting everything to everything". This sound superficially appealing, but is in reality extremely irresponsible. Have the authors never heard the term 'bleeding edge'? Such over-the-top advice ignores the unavoidable whirlwind of incompati! ble evolving standards, proprietary technology, and chronic bandwidth constraints encountered in the effort to interconnect heterogeneous systems. We cannot doubt that our world will continue to become more interconnected, but we must proceed aware of the costs as well as the benefits. Unfortunately, you will gain no awareness of cost reading this book.

I definitely parted company with the book's prescriptions at the point where MCI's long pattern of twice-annual corporate restructurings was cited as ideal. For any given function or value-chain there must be some optimized organizational structure. In the face of accelerating change in the business environment, change is often necessary. Yet while change can be good, change for change's sake can only serve to enrich consultants, not their clients. My advice to gentle readers: beware.

The premise is straightforward: Changes in technology are blurring traditional boundaries, transforming simple oppositions like product and service into a new synthesis. Blur applies this kaleidoscopic view of social and business changes to commerce, management and the flow of capital.

The approach is formulaic, but that's sort of the point. The Blur formula is right there on the table of contents: speed x connectivity x intangibles = blur. Well, all right. But hype x marketing opportunity x intangibles = blur, too, and that's pretty much what we've got. The authors open by asserting that Blur is much more than a book, and that belief seems to be the root of the problem. Changes in technology haven't blurred the bond between writer and reader. Davis and Meyer say they are trying to offer "an ongoing, organic exchange of opinions." I'd settle for a good book.

BLUR refers to the mind-numbing speed at which things are happening. BLUR also refers to the increasingly changing and dual roles of individuals and organizations within larger systems. Three concepts are BLURing business: speed, connectivity and intangibles. The business world is changing at such a rapid pace that it gives rise to an even greater need to be connected to more people like suppliers, customers, and other partners. This forces companies to reevaluate the intangible benefits of the company's service/product. And all this is fueling an even greater need to shorten the product cycle or quickly identify new valued intangibles.

COME ON IN AN MAKE US AN OFFER...An offering according to Davis and Meyers means the ability to provide unique value to the products and services organizations offer. In a way, their definition mirrors the definition of technology. If we understand the basic definition of technology to be knowledge or a device to solve problems, our corporate or organizational missions should intensely focus on solving our customers' problems. Technology also underscores continual innovation which gives one technology an advantage over others.

Technology, once obsolete ceases to solve problems with respect to other available technologies and becomes abandoned. So, organizations must continually examine the services and products or face the same fate. Successful companies will find ways to efficiently and inexpensively add value by bundling services with products.

CAPITAL: BUT WAIT YOU ALSO GET...The conventional view of capital identifies assets that can be inventoried. BLUR reminds us that capital can also come in less tangible forms. In fact, Davis and Meyer identify several areas in which non-material capital can be classified. Davis and Meyer go on to describe the growing recognition of intangible capital: In an increasing number of businesses, the real capital is intangible; it consists of such things as brand image, strong customer relationships, the talent of staff, the experience built into the process, and so on (p.184).

BLUR also warns us of the dangers of over-investing in physical capital. With the increasing emphasis on speed and innovation, large investments in physical capital tend to inhibit adaptation to market forces. IT'S MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY... Typically we consider business transactions as a simple exchange of money for a product or service. Although this is the key part of the transaction, businesses must go beyond mere buying and selling. The exchange, according to Davis and Meyer, is like a six-lane highway. There is a lane in both directions in which there is a basic economic transfer. There is also a lane in each direction for the exchange of emotional values and one for information too.

In the future competitive companies must find new and better ways to exchange informational and emotional values to support the economic. Your local supermarket might reward customers with discounts for using a special "club" card. The supermarket hopes to retain loyal customers by offering discounts in exchange for the ability to track information--the customers' habits--through the club cards. The point here is that there is more than just a simple exchange of money for goods.

The emotional exchange has more to do with brand recognition. BLUR cites Harley Davidson as a company that has able to command a premium because "customers who buy a Harley feel they're getting much more than a motorcycle; they're buying into a lifestyle, an attitude, an image." (p. 68).

Nike also relies on emotional exchange. Nike doesn't mention that its shoes are constructed with steel-belted soles nor titanium supported arches (actually they aren't). But instead of focusing on the features, Nike implies customers will be able to run like Carl Lewis and run like Michael Jordan. The point here is that companies are selling a perception. Nike stresses emotional benefits not informational features.

TO ADAPT OR NOT TO ADAPT, THAT IS THE QUESTION...At the source of BLUR is continual organizational adaptability. Continual adaptation is forcing organizations to have a greater need for: connectivity, speed and the intangibles. Companies need to periodically reorganize its organizational structure so that it can react to market forces and adapt appropriately. They call this "churning". Although the authors do not state it in so many words, they advocate the empowerment model that would "give individuals a chance to self-organize and evolve in reaction to the changes taking place in the business around them." (p. 116)

HONEY CAN WE TALK ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP...Relationships will be key. Davis and Meyer explain how businesses can no longer operate in isolation: "...you will have to place your fate more squarely in the hands of companies and management teams outside your jurisdiction. In other words, you must give up the idea of control and rely instead on the ability to influence. This is the challenge in any economic web" So this might mean outsourcing activities that lie outside of your company's "core competencies" according to Doug Aldrich. As mentioned in an above section, periodic corporate reorganization will create new internal relationships. Businesses will increasingly create new external relationships and develop existing relationships as they attempt to gain an edge over competitors.

I thought BLUR helped shed some light on where technology is taking us. For the advanced user and/or developers of such technology it may seem simplistic. For the intermediate useres of technology it may help put things into perspective. Its easy to read and very enjoyable.

Overall disappointing. The authors bore with generally known information that was hip in the early 90ies where it could have been called "visionary". Today this is just one out of thousands of books that regurgitate what kids learn in school these days. In an attempt to make the book more hip, Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer use web sites (how much general does it get than mentioning amazon.com or Peapod.com) to illustrate business models. This might be a good book if you have been asleep for the past 15 years.

The authors of Blur adeptly share their view of the quickly approaching future of business. Their speculations are built on three forces, speed, intangibles and connectivity, which they revisit throughout the book from many perspectives. One of the breakthroughs of this book is the idea of "offers," inextricably linked products and services. I found it interesting to try to come up with my own examples of offers, though the authors provided ample explanation and illustrations of their points.

In this new marketplace, the authors suggest organizations should take the "bacterial approach" - breed quickly, mutate often and let the environment decide your fate. In other words, create offers through combinations and mutations, put them in the marketplace and see whether they are accepted or rejected by the market. This is fascinating advice, and it seems sound.

This book not only addresses organizations of the future, but also individuals. The authors suggest that individuals market and invest in themselves as "free agents," putting their loyalty and effort toward their professions, rather than toward their employers. Connected individuals and their knowledge are becoming key organizing units - not the organization. Organizations must prepare for this.

Blur suggests a strategy for succeeding in this new marketplace by using "economic webs." The convergence of speed, intangibles and connectivity are allowing real goods and services markets to behave like financial markets. The authors suggest they should be handled similarly, with real time pricing, deregulation, symmetric product knowledge and future-focused valuation.

This book is an enjoyable and informative look at the present and future of business. Unlike some futures texts, which only take the present and exhibit it, this book has real, new ideas and strategies for taking our organizations and ourselves into the future successfully.

Blur is changing how and where we work. There are essentially three "Big Ideas" that are acting in concert to produce change of enormous magnitude: · Speed: Today's business is marked by unprecedented speed: order-to-delivery performance, product lifecycles, organizational learning curves, etc. · Intangibles: Things like management talent, brand strength, and organizational knowledge are generating the largest proportion of value in organizations. · Connectivity: Computers, workers, firms, and economies are becoming seamlessly interconnected.

The effect of these is to BLUR previously known distinctions in business: · The distinction between products and services has become inextricably linked into an "Offer" that includes both. · Buyers and Sellers play reciprocal roles: both are being compensated on both sides in terms of money, information, and emotion. · With the speed of change, the focus of strategy is to position the firm in relation to its environment, requiring more strategic thinking than ever. · Companies' today no longer act alone; the work together through "economic webs." · Markets for real goods are increasingly subject to "real time pricing" like financial markets. · Organizational pressures of agility and growth will turn organizations into "webs", designed for innovation, adaptation, and growth. · People are talent, who are not so much to be hired, but applied to the issue of the moment. Heed the rise of the free agent. · Capital is no longer simply physical or financial. New forms of mobile, just-in-time, and intangible capital are beginning to emerge: Intellectual capital, Human capital, and Structural capital.

The future implications for organizations and are:

· In order to build adaptability, organizations need to be simultaneously big and small, and create a healthy churn within the organization. · When it comes to capital, future capability to create value becomes more important than cost. Value what's moving-what's accelerating-not what's standing still. · The boundary of an organization must be porous enough to let in the information it needs. Permeable organizations form external relationships and use them to bring in knowledge, talent, and opportunity. · Connected individuals and their knowledge, not the organization, are becoming the key organizing unit. As individuals participate directly in the larger sphere of economic activity, the role of the organization will diminish. · A free agent world makes managing-and retaining-talent more difficult. Organizations will have to invest more in development and mentoring.

BLUR is the word that Davis and Meyer have chosen to describethe business world in the Information Age. Speed, connectivity andintangibles are the three factors that contribute to the BLUR world. As the speed of change and daily life increase, businesses are being called upon to reinvent the way that they operate and interact with everyone and everything around them. No longer can businesses provide discreet products with discreet timelines, they now must provide offers that combine the product with services and upgradability.

Also blurring, are the roles of people both on the buyers and sellers side of the equation. Organizations now want, and need, information that the traditional buyer has and that business is willing to pay for. The roles of economic and organizational webs are also a sign of a blurred world. The relationships that businesses form with competitors and business partners alike are reshaping the way in which they operate.

Finally, the resources that organizations utilize are also blurring. The traditional roles of employee and employer are changing as the comodifcation of knowledge puts more power in the hands of the employee to negotiate. Capital too is burred. The traditional ideas of holding hard assets and maintaining strong ties to financial backing are giving way to the intangible assets of intellectual capabilities and human resources. The ability of an organization to leverage the relationships at both the corporate and personal level is crucial to success in the blur world.

BLUR provides the reader with integrated picture of how the speed, connectivity and intangibles of the "modern" world are forcing a change in how successful organizations operate. It also recognizes that BLUR is a moving target and that in the process of trying to study it, it has changed. Stressing the importance of learning how to perceive and react to the BLUR world, being adaptable and learning how to make the speed, connectivity and intangibles work for us and not against us.