Sense & Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era [Hardcover]

Stephen P. Bradley (Editor), Richard L. Nolan (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 1998

From virtual shopping to virtual organizations, businesses are pushing the multimedia envelope as they electronically sense, in real time, their customers' needs, and use digital capabilities to swiftly and effectively respond. "Sense and Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era", a series of essays from leading technology experts, explores how firms must develop sense and respond strategies to exploit the opportunities of this networked age. Editors Stephen Bradley and Richard Nolan have compiled an impressive resource for executives seeking to capture maximum value from new technologies. The compelling scenarios reveal what future customer interactions might look like, and address what companies must do-today-to capitalize on the emerging opportunities.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Until only recently, most companies took the "make and sell" approach to doing business. Products were manufactured and put on shelves for customers to buy. As improved service and continuous improvement came into vogue, the customer was added to the mix. Companies began actively to seek input and feedback. The new technologies that now enable networking, however, allow and even dictate a "virtual" environment, where customers become an integral part of the strategic process. Similarly, employees at all levels are being included in these networks. This collection of papers investigates the infrastructure needs for such an environment, develops strategies for "sensing" the customer and the employee, specifies the capabilities required to "respond," and analyzes how organizations will then be transformed. The 14 papers were presented at a 1995 Harvard Business School colloquium called "Multimedia and the Boundaryless World," the third such conducted by the school to investigate the "information technology revolution." David Rouse

Review

"SENSE & RESPOND offers useful, interesting advice for companies of all shapes and sizes and can be a source of particular inspiration for those planning major changes. For businesses that are planning ahead, SENSE & RESPOND is an educational look into the future, and it's a warning to those that are behind the curve." -- CIO, May 15, 1998

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 339 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (February 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875848354
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848358
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harvard Business School and Amazon.com case study, August 15, 2000

By 

Thomas H. Wilkins (Youngstown, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sense & Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era (Hardcover)

While attending Delivering Information Services at The Harvard Business School, and during the Session on "Case: Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon.com," I discovered this book. The book is now used in the course "Competing in The Information Age." This course is geared toward MBA students who want to work in the Technology industry.

What attracted my immediate attention was the course description which said that "class participation accounts for 50 percent of your grade." This book embodies The Harvard Business School "Case Method" which encourages interaction among the class participants. This is the context from which my reading interest expanded.

The content of the book is organized around "the big picture" and does not get bogged down into minutia. The content grows from other books by the editors: Globalization, Technology and Competition; Future Competition in Telecommunications; Reengineering the Organization: Transforming to Compete in the Information Economy; and Creative Destruction: A Six-Stage Process for Transforming the Organization.

The underlying theme of this book is the internet and how it is changing business.

This book has been an incubator for other books coming into the market with a similar title. For example, Scott McNealy, Chairman of Sun Microsystems, has co-authored "The Power of Now: How Winning Companies Sense and Respond to Change Using Real-Time Technology."

Another spawned title is "Adaptive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-And-Respond Organizations", by Haeckel and Slywotzky.

The authors are able to influence discussion significantly on an on-going basis. Professor Bradley is Chairman of the Executive Program in Competition and Strategy Area at Harvard. This area includes high powered thinkers and lever-pullers, such Professor David Yoffie who is on The Board of Directors of Intel Corporation and whose case studies have sold over one million copies. Professor Noland is the current Faculty Chairman of Delivering Information Services which has been a big success story for decades.

Because the editors are so influencially "wired into" many large corporations and academic communities, I think this book will continue to show continuing influence, as evidenced by boopks spawned from the subject and title.

Anyone will interest in internet technology should enjoy this book as I did.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Timing of Wisdom, October 27, 2001

By 

Debra Bring "selective_bookstore" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sense & Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era (Hardcover)

This book is a MUST HAVE for every manager or student who still believes that much has to be known about what is coming to us in the XXI Century. Anyone who has heard or met Dick Nolan, a Professor at the HBS, is very aware of his down to earth, creative, and witty mind. He will be part of Management History and this is not an understatement since, in my view, he already is. He brought, in 1974, IT to the minds of the Directors at Boradrooms by his "Stage by Stage Theory," nowadays commonly accepted by everyone. He foresaw the need for Strategy to meet IT and the Humanities. His previous 1996 book "Creative Destruction" led the way for others to recently follow the field, ideas, and even the book title. He went on to build Nolan Norton & Co., a Management Consulting Firm that everyone has been trying to copy without success. In this new book, once again, Dick et. al. compiled the best thoughts he alreday had before "the internet bubble." He waited to get this book published because he dosen't like to be seen as a forecaster. However, whatever he says, will be done in the future by every sustainable business. His thoughts and wisdom have created a school of thought from which even the Balanced Scorecard came to be a reality in 1988!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Way to Update Your Knowledge Base of IT Strategies!, April 13, 1998

By 

David L. Medd "www.TrueLog.com" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sense & Respond: Capturing Value in the Network Era (Hardcover)

As a Kellogg MBA student, this text was suggested reading for an IT Strategy course. My understanding of IT for strategic advantage was greatly enhanced through the readings in this book. I believe it is a must read for anybody who wants to know what some of the World's most successful companies are doing to enhance their current product with technologies currently available to everyone.