Customer Reviews

MetaCapitalism: The e-Business Revolution and the Design of 21st-Century Companies and Markets

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Aimed at business leaders, `Meta-Capitalism' offers an attractively presented, concise but unrefenced/supported PwC view of e-business markets.

Chapters span: B2B decapitalization revolution; Metcapitalism marketplace dynamics; B2B process models; Intelligent behavior of markets; B2B anecdotes; performance measures; and organizational transformation.

Strengths include: positive tone and brevity of descriptions; very attractive diagrams & tables; and a useful timely synthesis of content. The core message is: branding ("anti- Cluetrain Manifesto"), value-adding communities ("pro-Cluetrain Manifesto"), standard interlinking systems (processes; backoffice; SCM; CRM etc..) between end-customer through value chains to tiers of suppliers (products & services), and some basic financial ratios/measures. The author's also offer the formula e(b)= M(C)*2, representing B2B model= management (change times courage), emphasizing the energy of the new metamarketplace.

Weaknesses include: lack of referencing/ support for much public-domain anecdotes; superficiality of analyses & case studies; rather abstract theoretical discussions; numerous technical errors (some e.g.s include: description 90s manufacturing actually 80s; problems with granularity in figures including 2.14; JIT 80s not 90s; SCM superficiality (no emphasis forecasting problems, data accuracy, prioritization, APS, Kanban etc..(Prof Towill at U. Cardiff has much to say on this)); and CRM & intelligence confusion despite emphasis); numerous cliched "pop-culture" references (many movies covered) quickly dating content; summary & repetition from of author's other book (Wisdom of CEO); and an ultimate message seemingly a sales pitch for PwC consulting services (where those who succeed will have embraced ERP & CRM & business processes).

Overall, `Meta-Capitalism' is a good book needing more science & rigor (and better grasp of technology & operations in e-marketplace context), and case studies/support to be amongst the best. Useful as a discussion starter, perhaps with Deise et al's PwC 'Executive Guide to E-Business' (ISBN 0471376396); and Tyndall et al's Ernst & Young 'Supercharging Supply Chains' (ISBN 0471254371); and any operations management text by Wild, Mullins, or Slack for operationalizing & analysing markets, operations, and strategy.

From the book's foreword comes the context for this book: "A fundamental transformation of the business model is under way, to which the central precept of Darwinism applies: Companies must either adapt or perish."

This book's lessons are framed in terms of the large company of today that has historically used a traditional business model, such as an automobile company like GM or Ford. The book then shows what strategic models the company should migrate towards, and describes key aspects of that migration. This is expressed in terms of being effective in business-to-business electronic commerce, the fastest growing part of the Internet.

The fundamental transition is from a company primarily managing physical and working capital, with a human resource focus on production, and sales-oriented branding to a brand-oriented company that focuses on customers to meet their needs and manages a system of relationships that produce the goods and services involved on an outsourced basis.

The discussions are built at a level of abstraction one level above the normal strategy of a business model. For example, the book looks at the structure of delivering customer value and satisfaction, but says little about what the basis of that value and satisfactions should be other than more speed in developing new products and responding to customer desires and needs.

These abstractions are made more concrete by comparing diagrams of old and new business models. Typically, the authors simplify these comparisons by inverting existing business model diagrams, and by creating linkages among various models.

People who are very conceptually-oriented will like this book very much. People who like things simpler may find so much conceptualization too abstract.

Companies with existing business-to-business strategies will find this book a useful way to test their thinking. For companies struggling to develop a strategy, this book can provide useful questions to start with.

The authors make some very sweeping predictions: "The period from 2000 to 2002 will represent the greatest single change in worldwide economic and business conditions ever, and most of the impact will occur in the next 18 months." In the next 10 years, the authors also predict that the global market values for public companies will grow from 20 to 200 trillion dollars.

Cisco is the basic model for much of this thinking, as it exists today. However, the book goes on to look at how companies are evolving in many different traditional industries.

One of the things I liked about the book was that it also looked at the systems' transitions that will be required to participate in these outsourcing value-added communities and MetaMarkets.

The book was also very good in providing the key underpinnings and assumptions for the insights. For example, the stock market increase is based on changes in business structure that will accelerate earnings growth while also providing more flexible ways to grow. The assumptions are documented both for earnings and for price/earnings expansion.

Overcome your stalled thinking that you can continue to do business in the old ways without business-to-business electronic commerce in an older business with this excellent book!

This book is merely a sales pitch written by PwC executives looking to drum up e-business sales. It is full of "e" cliches and flies in the face of accepted business theories -- such as transaction cost economics. This type of thinking by top PwC partners is clearly the reason why that firm is currently merging with IBM Global Services.

I've been working as a web designer/developer, and now Information Architect for the past few years. I've been keeping track of the latest trends in software, code, applications, etc. My research has mostly been about bleeding-edge technology.

Now that my career MUST take into consideration the end-user (a trend that is confirmed throughout the book: customer focus), and how what is designed affects the end-user, my research focus has changed. Meta-Capitalism has steered me in a good direction and has clarified my responsibilities as well as for those who are transitioning their services to the Web.

As I focus on the B2B2C world, Grady Means and David Schneider have outlined a paradigm with caveats that will help shape my perspective on the future. The authors also provide a decent reading list to follow-up on themes discussed in the book such as real options theory.

This book also serves as a starting point for evaluating e-biz companies for investment opportunities.

MetaCapitalism covers the fundamentals for the ensuing direction of e-business. A MUST read for those who intend to work in the Internet business beyond cashing in their stock options.

Die Autoren verkaufen alten Wein in neuen Schläuchen. Verschiedenste Managementkonzepte wie das Supply Chain Management oder der Trend zum Outsourcing sind altbekannt. Das einzige, das den bisherigen Trend vorantreibt oder verstärkt ist die technologische Entwicklung, welche die Autoren ebenfalls erwähnen.

Das Buch lässt sich theoretisch auf vier Seiten zusammenfassen. Es werden neue Ausdrücke kreeirt, welche - wenn überhaupt - nur dürftig erklärt werden. Den Diagrammen mangelt es an Aussagekraft, die auch im Text nicht wettgemacht wird. Verschiedenste aneinandergereihte Schlagworte tragen zu einem erschwerten Verständnis bei. Argumentativ befinden sich die Autoren auf tiefem Niveau. Es erstaunt nicht, dass die Autoren dieses Werk in zwei Monaten fertiggestellt hatten. Fazit: Als Anregung in Ordnung, aber sicher nicht kaufenswert.

This is a book that I read during the internet frenzy and recently revisited.

During the frenzy I thought it did a decent job of defining various roles a product producing or telecom company can have, separating a company to it's functional componenets, and did the usual job of having a company focus on it's core competencies. It only addressed supply chain companies, a card that was overplayed back then, yet a decent area of improvement with the application of the internet.

Yet it seemed like the authors struggled on every page to not say that Cicso is great, all companies should be Cisco, and if you hire them they wil make you into a Cisco by copying what Cicso did, and you'd get a Cisco market multiple. The catch is a variety of factors helped Cisco evolve organically, and a retroactive fit is risky in the sense that it would be artificial and thus unsustainable. Also, the whole think-tank and incubator type centralized company was en-vouge and this book tried to compliment a potential client/company that they could be in that special inner circle. Yet not everyone can be a chef in a time of limited kitchens, busboys, customers, etc. Beyond that, it seemed like the normal strategic rhetoric of putting your company in the middle of some diagram or four box chart, or citing some survey from what is most likely a 24 year old's opinion when faced with a deadline. A final reaction from reading it in 2000 was that it was also free lottery ticket in the sense that the salesmen authors tried to sell a major major overhaul to firms, and as career consultants it would be unlikely that they would be able to implement or take responsibility. But lottery tickets were free back then.

Now that I've revisited the book, I see that it was actually a joke even with the hindsight bias. If a company divests all assets and becomes a brand name, it brings tremendous risk into it's ongoing existance. This is underscored by the fact that all poster child companies mentioned in the book are now either out of business or trading [cheap], with the exception of course with Cisco.

The value in the book now would be similar to the Pets.com puppet, or putting one share of webvan in a picture frame. The catch is that nobody cared about this book back then, so it loses it's nostalgic value.

I've been working as a web designer/developer, and now Information Architect for the past few years. I've been keeping track of the latest trends in software, code, applications, etc. My research has mostly been about bleeding-edge technology.

Now that my career MUST take into consideration the end-user (a trend that is confirmed throughout the book: customer focus), and how what is designed affects the end-user, my research focus has changed. Meta-Capitalism has steered me in a good direction and has clarified my responsibilities as well as for those who are transitioning their services to the Web.

As I focus on the B2B2C world, Grady Means and David Schneider have outlined a paradigm with caveats that will help shape my perspective on the future. The authors also provide a decent reading list to follow-up on themes discussed in the book such as real options theory.

This book also serves as a starting point for evaluating e-biz companies for investment opportunities.

MetaCapitalism covers the fundamentals for the ensuing direction of e-business. A MUST read for those who intend to work in the Internet business beyond cashing in their stock options.

I would recommend this book to any one who is very enthusiastic to know about what eMarkets are, how they are shaping the world of today and, how they are going to transform the way live, eat and play on this planet tomorrow. The authors bring to the reader the complex business models and the corresponding intricate e-Business strategies, in a readable comprehensible manner. The explanations are very clear and the subject is presented in a highly effective manner, using case study approach. I would recommend this book to any e-business strategist. I believe, this book has lot to give for the people who are in quest of knowledge, and who could effectively put into practice, effective and proven e-business models.

However the text, is little small and it would have been great if the authors would have taken significant effort in adding more material and integrating the contents.

thankyou amazon for the opportunity to let the world know of my thoughts....