Customer Reviews

Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-Customer

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Futurise Your Enterprise (FYE) is suitable for a wide audience especially those in business (or jaded technologists) wondering what all the Web-excitement is about. Students, consultants, and industrialists benefit from Siegel's approach that includes some visionary innovation, generic business applications (mostly synthetic/made-up), and a large concentration of charisma and energetic drive.

The crux of the message is for greater (don't be half-hearted); keep customer focus, especially through energising and actively encouraging open contributory communities for product development and marketing; view the Internet as a dialogue, a conversation, and not a "new channel for distribution"; and continually monitor, learn, and adapt your approaches in an ever-changing business world. The themes of globalisation, greater and faster collaboration, and the dynamic flow of information and relationships underpinning these hypotheses apply equally to research, consultant and recreational communities.

Supplementing the main text are numerous sidebar lists of "e-cancers" to watch out for in your organisation indicating areas of urgent concern e.g. "when the company's budget for copiers exceeds the budget for networking"; or "when employees get more voice mail than e-mail" (there are dozens more similar gems of prototypes, and predictions. The principle section discusses the necessary background and deals with the need for urgent action, common web strategy failures, e-business and e-customer, and the truth economy. The practice around, the customer-led web site, the customer-led company, cyber synergy, and navigating the new world. The prototype section presents largely store, magazine publisher, steel fabricator, real estate clearinghouse, book superstore, software company, bank intranet, and drug manufacturer. Finally, the prediction section presents an attractive automated, less bureaucratic view of the future through the eyes of different prospective the moviegoer, the frequent flier, the student, the lawyer, the patient, and the reputation consultant.

A particularly powerful scenario is that of the universal personal web site that everyone will have in 2010 (even the less-Web connected developing countries), which contains information in 7 areas at 6 security levels facilitating streamlined completion of all manner of business and personal matters through timely integration Worldwide of relevant information sources and sinks, and autonomous active acquaintance/colleague, friends/family, spouse, and self. The subject haves, and wants. Such a site supports medical emergency response, organising loans and mortgages, buying and selling goods, voting governments, and almost every transaction that nowadays involves many different systems, bottlenecks, and delays.

A key strength of FYE is that it successfully presents both a basic framework (e.g. background, action steps, prototyping, and customer scenarios) at a level detailed and exciting enough to proceed towards implementation with.

FYE is readable, enthusiastic in tone, relatively complete in vision, supported by anecdotal evidence and reason, well presented with charts and illustrations, and is delivered at an appropriate level for the generalist business/technology audience- truly enough to make you want to start energising your current workplace and setup "pure-play" web-based lateness of the heavily promoted companion web-site; gaps in the 'strategic futurising tools' (the basis is narrative with customers and little else); and the lack of support (either by reference, or full logical reasoning) for many assertions made which all reduce the book's credibility- would you commit your company's future on the basis of a 'glossy brainstorm'?

Three How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond" by Seybold et al (1998) which identifies 5 key steps in success in e-commerce, using 16 case studies and summarising current best practice. * "Enterprise.Com- Market leadership in the Information Age" by Lotus CEO Papows et al (1998) which examines the way organisations, market, the nature of competition, and global society are driven by advances in technology, including IT. *"Net Gain- Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities" by Hagel/Armstrong (1997) proposing that future business success will depend on using the Internet to build communities (not just relationships) leading to phenomenal customer loyalty and high profits.

Overall, the reviewer recommends FYE as a suitable text to help quickly build up a positive picture of possible future web-enabled business and society scenarios. FYE is very suitable as a companion to one of the many change or operations management texts, which include a wide range of rigororus detailed methodologies supporting change towards "the customer-led Web revolution". END

"Futurize your Enterprise" of David Siegel is an excellent visionary book for every manager who wants to rethink business models and develop an E-strategy. It is not about "how to build a website" but how to build a web business. The book is divided into four parts:

"Principles" describes tools and methodologies to change a "management-led" and supply driven company into a "customer-led" company. This part is illustrated by real word examples like Toys-R-Us Direct and Hewlett-Packard. "In a customer-led environment everyone in the company is responsible for the customers experience". The principles part also contains a very clear description of Internet failures and the six most common mistakes companies make online. It also explains the natural development from brocureware Internet sites to real e-business. There is also a definition of different e-customers the transparency of the Internet.

"Practice" is the translation of the principles into practice. What does a company have to do to change into an e-business. There is a practical list of changes the company has to make and agenda's of meetings to organize those changes.

"Prototypes" contains a number of examples business categories like grocery stores, magazine publishers, steel fabricators, real estate clearing house, book superstore, software company etc. These examples use real-life examples as starting point, and show the many possibilities to improve the customer influence by the Internet.

"Predictions" shows speculative future scenario's in which Internet is no longer a tool but a platform for work, community-building and individual empowerment. The examples are fictional but very insightful and expiring. They show the possible developments into the year 2010 of the different roles of people like job seeker, homemaker, breadwinner, teenager, student, patient etc.

For retailers the prototypes of a grocery store and a book store are very interesting. "Futurize your Enterprise" does not touch the challenge of fulfillment of online retailing, but there is much attention for the possibility to add information to merchandise, and the importance to focus on different customer groups. For groceries these different customer groups might be households with young children, different religions with there own food restrictions, people with allergies etc. For bookstores Siegel does a good job trying to improve Amazon.com.

"Futurize your Enterprise" is focused very much on the culture, the mindset, the approach and the customers.

Siegels book is in my opinion a must for every manager who is planning to develop E-strategies. It bridges the huge gap between "Internet evangelists" and "How to"-books. The book is now the number one present for clients of my company.

I see only one flaw to David Siegel's new book: Like customers.com, it's arrived far too early to capture the imaginations of most business executives, its target audience. But for executives brave enough, smart enough, and awake enough, it's a great guide.

If you currently work to build websites for a company that hasn't quite gotten it, this book makes a good bolster, friend, and consultant you can send off to your executive team to help them see the path ahead.

At the very least, business folks can direct their executive teams and marketing and customer service groups and -- well, everybody -- to the Web Boot Camp Siegel hosts on the amazing companion website. That site, again targeted to busy business professionals, is a great service to web developers of all kinds.

If you can't get anybody at your company to look at the site or read this book and at least consider this sensible approach: Run, dear reader. Run like the wind. There are other companies out there who want smart people like you to help change the world.

Futurize Your Enterprise closely parallels the excellent book by Richard Whiteley, The Customer- Driven Company, and adds the element of how to apply Whiteley's concepts through the Internet. Futurize is the best thought-through to date of the Internet books about how to serve customer needs better. Futurize is also good for giving you simple, practical steps for implementing Siegel's universal process. Those who are interested in strategy will find that this book is all about the customer-intimacy model, as spelled out in The Discipline of Market Leaders. While that is a perfectly valid strategic alternative, most markets are led by those who are advanced in providing innovations and low-cost providers. Futurize has a lot less to say about what those other companies should do. Some of the examples seem to imply that the benefit for the majority is primarily in overcoming a negative impression with customers and potential customers through clumsy communications. A third group will probably feel excluded as well: established smaller businesses. The scale and scope of what Siegel proposes will be beyond what most people can do who have less than several million dollars avaiable to focus on the Internet. On the other hand, if you are a well-funded Internet start-up, this book can give you a basic strategy outline that will help you avoid some mistakes. In terms of content, I have only one major objection. I am skeptical about Siegel's claim that brands will be relatively unimportant on the Internet. Rather, it seems like Internet-driven branding will become very important. I notice that many people automatically go to their bookmarketed sites, for example, rather than shopping around for the best deal. Brands are the consequence of trust-building and habit. To get rid of brands, you would have to change the way that peoples' minds work. That is unlikely to occur in the next 10 years. Think of this book as the best customer-focused book about creating Internet businesses available at the end of 1999. I am sure that better ones will come along in the future, because Siegel's focus is too limited to really cover the subject. But you would be well-advised to read this book. Almost anyone will learn something valuable along the way -- if only to see your ideas about how to work with the Internet constantly challenged by the author. If Siegel does another edition, I hope the next edition drops the fictional cases and uses only real ones instead. That would make the book a lot more compelling and useful. I have one final comment: How did someone who is famous for outstanding Web site designs end up with such an ugly book cover design?

This book is written by the author of the best seller CreatingKiller Web Sites, which is apparently still a highly regarded book inthe industry. Overall, Futurize is an enjoyable journey through the thought process of how to convert today's management-led businesses into tomorrow's customer-led e-businesses.

The book is divided into four parts - Principles, Practices, Prototypes and Predictions. There are three additional sections that are found on the book's website. Clever, eh? In the first two parts, the author concentrates on what companies can do today to respond to the Customer-Led Revolution. In Part 3, Siegel shows how companies can change in the near future to implement these principles. And in the final section of the book, he focuses on the future of the e-Customer - a future that should arrive, in his estimation, by 2010, as most of the world goes online. The web site is not remarkable but I have book-marked several of the neighborhood pages - I think the "boot camp" is especially useful.

Siegel is a strong believer that, in business, the customer shapes the organization. He states that who your customers are, not what your mission statement is, will define your company in the future. The choice of these customer groups is a visionary choice, Siegel acknowledges. However, in his world, it is the last visionary choice your company will ever have to make. Once you've chosen them, your customers will guide you in making strategic decisions. Talk about your radicals!

The author lays the blame on management, not technology, for 90% of the problems companies have online today. He spends considerable time arguing for the need of a Chief Net Officer (CNO) within an organization - a position which, if successful, will no longer be needed once the business' transition has been made. He also is an advocate of allowing your customers to communicate with each other to build loyalty (he argues that branding isn't going to be as strong or important in the e-World).

Happy Reading!

I have purchased e-Business and e-Commerce books as many as 70 titles in the last 3 years. I bought almost every new titles's coming into Amazon store. This one, 'Futurize Your Enterprise' is Definitely One of The Best Book I've ever read. Surely, I will give 7 STARS if Amazon allows me. Read it, and you'll get an amazing perspective on what's going on there.....

This is the first "e" book that I can seriously say is worth purchasing. As a seasoned professional in the field with a library full of worthless literature on the "new economy", coming across this book was a welcomed change. I actually pulled out my highlighter and marked up the pages! Buy it...you're e-customers will applaud you!

After working on NYCs advertising jungle for 17 years with the bigboys, I know an insightful philosophy when I see it. And DavidSiegel's new book is chocked full of wisdom and insight.

I'm glad to see him, a pioneer of web design, don the hat of management consultant. The web has become a "beauty contest" for designers, often missing the content and customer response credo.

David brings a refreshing breath of life into business management on the web, by showing those who avoided customer needs the first time around and mistakenly won't change their company's method of doing e-business.

I've read "Futurize" twice and each time I find another little nugget of wisdom. The preception is the reality.

Get it. Read it. Profit by it. END

Read the title again. That's right, websites will determine the organizational structures. Not the other way around, as it is today. Customers will take over. The basis for the existing organizational structures is being shattered by the information explosion, as Evans & Wurster argue in their book Blown to Bits. There is no escape for most businesses. Either you deal with it, or you go the route of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Start ups are ready to blow your respected institution out of the water, over night. So much for the bad news. And now what?

This is where David Siegel comes in. With lots and lots of answers, examples and tales he circumscribes the future, he makes it palpable. Thanks to his imagination, you begin to feel what it means that `everything will be different'. And at least as important, you begin to understand how the Internet will unleash the energy, knowledge, experience, dedication, emotion, time, goods, money, etc of the millions that want to connect to each other and perhaps also to you. Who are they? What do they want from you? WHAT ARE THEY YEARNING TO CONTRIBUTE? The information explosion does not only blow existing organizations to bits, Siegel shows that it also provides fantastic opportunities for those that can get close to the customer.

This sounds deceptively simple and familiar. It isn't. Siegel stresses that the Internet is not another shop window to market your products. Just as the first movies filmed theatrical plays and the first cars looked like coaches, e-commerce now imitates the existing business on the Web. Siegel gives us a feel for what e-business will be like, way beyond the familiar customer focus. This is not about serving, but about observing. You're not the waiter, but the host. It is about learning entirely new skills, about kissing planning farewell, about letting the inmates run the asylum.

David Siegel not only tells you how to achieve that, he also gives you a feel for it. The artist in him sees the future in astonishing detail. The second half of the book presents a great number of delightful artistic projections. That is where the subject really came to life for me. None of these e-businesses will unroll as David Siegel described them, and he is the first to admit that. But all of them will have that excitement, flavor and color that jump from every page. And in that sense he is dead accurate.

Read this book.

As a business owner trying to cope with and keep up with the e-Revolution, I am relieved that I found this book before making a BIG mistake. Our company has had a "web presence" for several years and we were about to get swept up in the eCommerce rush. David Siegel has provided some stunning foresight into the future of eCommerce and we had all better listen carefully. Now, instead of charging ahead with plans to put our products for sale on the Net, our company is changing its plans. Instead of a product-centered site, a customer-centered site will guide and pull us into this new Net-based economy.