Business @ the Speed of Thought : Using a Digital Nervous System [Hardcover]

Bill Gates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 1999

In his new book, Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates discusses how technology can help run businesses better today and how it will transform the nature of business in the near future. Gates stresses the need for managers to view technology not as overhead but as a strategic asset, and offers detailed examples from Microsoft, GM, Dell, and many other successful companies. Companion Web site.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

So where do you want to go tomorrow? That's the question Bill Gates tries to answer in Business @ the Speed of Thought. Gates offers a 12-step program for companies wanting to do business in the next millennium. The book's premise: Thanks to technology, the speed of business is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate, and to survive, it must develop an infrastructure--a "digital nervous system"--that allows for the unfettered movement of information inside a company. Gates writes that "The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition ... is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose."

The book is peppered with examples of companies that have already successfully engineered information networks to manage inventory, sales, and customer relationships better. The examples run from Coca-Cola's ability to download sales data from vending machines to Microsoft's own internal practices, such as its reliance on e-mail for company-wide communication and the conversion of most paper processes to digital ones (an assertion that seems somewhat at odds with the now-infamous "by hand on sheets of paper" method of tracking profits that was revealed during Microsoft's antitrust trial).

While Gates breaks no new ground--dozens of authors have been writing about competing on a digital playing field for some time, among them Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian in Information Rules and Patricia Seybold in Customers.com--businesses that want a wakeup call may find this book a ringer. With excerpts in Time magazine, a dedicated Web site, and an all-out media assault, Microsoft is working hard to push Business @ the Speed of Thought into the national dialogue, and for many it will be difficult to see the book as anything but a finely tuned marketing campaign for the forthcoming versions of Windows NT and MS Office. Nevertheless, as Gates has shown time and time again, him, Microsoft, and perhaps even this book you may ignore at your own peril. --Harry C. Edwards

From Booklist

There's a companion Web site , and the back cover carries the message that Gates is donating his share of proceeds to charity. See also Clark's Netscape Time, p.1450. Bonnie Smothers

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Printing edition (March 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446525685
• ISBN-13: 978-0446525688
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (153 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars prepare for millennium 3 with this book, November 19, 1999

By 

Christopher Macrae "intangibles mapmaker" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Business @ the Speed of Thought : Using a Digital Nervous System (Hardcover)

Gates does a fine job of explaining how digitalisation will impact an office near you, and does this in a language which is so simple that even the average fiftysomething of a 20th Century boardroom will understand the wake-up call. The case of Bill Gates explaining e-business to board of directors of a German financial institution is worth the book price by itself. This case concludes that three revolutionary business shifts are in motion:

1 Most transactions between business and consumers, business and business, and consumers and government will become self-service digital transactions. Intermediaries will evolve to add value or perish.

2 Customer service will become the primary value added function in every business. Human involvement in service will shift from routine, low value tasks to a high-value, personal consultancy on important issues -problems or desires - for the customer.

3 The pace of transactions and the need for more personalised attention to customers will drive companies to adopt digital processes internally if they have not yet adopted them for efficiency reasons. Companies will use a digital nervous system to regularly transform their internal business processes to adapt to an environment that constantly changes because of customer needs and competition.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Professional Business Managers NOT Info Tech People!, November 21, 1999

By 

John Dalesandro "JohnKneeDee" (Safety Harbor, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Business @ the Speed of Thought : Using a Digital Nervous System (Hardcover)

The people who don't like this book are IT geeks who arelooking for big vision from Gates. While it is true that Mr. Gatesdoesn't offer a revolutionary new IT toy in this book---he does professional managers a great service by providing a framework for using information technology to improve business.

Good book, it gave me some great ideas!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book... but Bill does not want to you help out, July 16, 2001

By 

Winston Kotzan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy (Paperback)

I found this book rather interesting to read. If you would like to run your own company, or you are just interested in reading about big business... then you will be satisfied with this book. Gates (if he really wrote most of the book) does a great job of citing examples of how technology is impacting business in today's economy. It might even give you a few ideas for making your own business more efficient.

However, this book has a major down side. I purchased this book hoping that it can give me insight of where the high tech industry is headed. Gates did not do a good job of presenting this. Instead, I found a book filled with hundreds of examples of how companies integrate computers into their business. It shows how the internet helped big companies move information and expand their customer service, but it does not show what's on the road ahead.

I recommend this book because it can help you make the most out of your company using computers. However, if you are looking for the next killer application, don't expect to find it in this book.