net future [Hardcover]

Chuck Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

What does tomorrow portend for executives, managers, their jobs and businesses in an even faster, more interactive and relentlessly competitive world? Welcome to Net Future. the prophetically plotted roadmap to a bold new world of commerce and consumerism. An interactive marketplace where success for the well-prepared will be no less than total. And all but impossible for those who are not. It's a world Chuck Martin, author of The New York Times Business Book Best Seller, The Digital Estate, is well equipped to foretell. A future dictated by seven "cybertrends" already taking form. Discover where they are, what they mean and how to get ready for all of them.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Chuck Martin believes that we are on the heels of a revolution the likes of which we've never seen, and will never see again. In Net Future, Martin, whose previous book, The Digital Estate , explored the marriage of technology with content on the Internet, considers seven trends that promise to change the face of business forever. Martin argues that the Net future will change customer interactions so much that companies, in turn, will need to change how they do just about everything. Instead of companies driving products, Martin writes, "customers actually will drive the business on behalf of the producing company." The implications of a customer-driven enterprise are profound, and Martin buttresses his case with dozens of examples of companies who are successfully carving out a niche in this new frontier. Net Future is a good read for any manager or entrepreneur who wonders what his or her business might be like in the next millennium. --Harry C. Edwards

From Booklist

In spite of the onslaught of hype surrounding electronic commerce and "E-business," a picture is beginning to emerge of what such business might be like. Martin is the founding editor of Interactive Age and author of The Digital Estate: Strategies for Competing, Surviving, and Thriving in an Internetworked World (1996). He contends that businesses will need to undergo nothing short of a revolution to survive. He warns that mounting an Internet Web site with a company brochure or an annual report is only the first step in a five-" wave" evolutionary process, which is not complete until "the wired consumer and the wired organization . . . function in harmony." Besides detailing the evolutionary "waves," Martin explains what key adjustments businesses need to make, and he profiles seven technology-driven trends that will define "the ultimate end-to-end electronic business." Relationships with customers, employees, and supplier-distributor partners will all be permanently altered; but in spite of all these warnings, Martin's tone is reassuring throughout. Those who prepare themselves will survive and thrive. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007041131X
• ISBN-13: 978-0070411319
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,292,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chuck Martin is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research at MediaPost Communications. Chuck Martin has been a leading pioneer in the digital interactive marketplace for more than a decade.

He is the author of The Third Screen (Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile; Nicholas Brealey May 2011), in which he defines the implications, strategies and tactics for businesses to thrive in this coming mobile revolution. This book links the technological developments to the behavioral changes that go hand-in-hand and reveals the unexpected aspects of the coming changes in mobile, preparing marketers and businesspeople for what is looming in the near future.

The Mobile Future Institute is a U.S-based think tank that focuses on business strategies and marketing tactics for a world gone mobile. Martin is a New York Times business bestselling book author of numerous books, including The Digital Estate, Net Future, and Max-e-Marketing in the Net Future (co-author). He is also a former Vice President of IBM.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Change or Perish, February 21, 2000

By 

T. Flynn "The Fly" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: net future (Hardcover)

The message of Chuck Martin's book is simple; be prepared to adjust to life on the net or be left behind. In Net Future: The 7 Cybertrends that will Drive your Business, Martin discusses the evolution of the "commercial" net. He warns against companies who merely appear to be evolving by transferring their businesses onto an online format. This is dangerous as he suggests that companies who will thrive in the Net Future will change the way they do business as a result of the internet. Business will become much more customer-centered and people will be more informed and demanding as a result.

The seven cybertrends that he cites suggest not only a change in the way business is done, but a more fundamental change in the way people behave and interact with one another. In the net future, one will see few successful businesses without an online component. The line between the home and office will be fuzzy in the workforce of the future. Business will operate in a global market where prices are competitive and products are driven by consumers. Classrooms and training centers will be without walls, where students and employees can learn "on-demand" according to their schedules and lifestyles. Perhaps the most intriguing chapter of Martin's book is his last in which he discusses the future of education. He certainly has the right idea of where education is going, but the details are somewhat misleading. For example, he quotes the CEO of Real Education (now known as ECollege) Rob Hemlick as saying his company supplies "professors with pre-developed course content and textbooks developed for the online environment". To say that this is the future of online education is not wholly accurate. It is certainly tempting to say that by putting a course online that you have "changed" education, but with accreditation bodies strictly monitoring the development of online programs in higher education, it is likely that we are going to see a shift away from transferring the "bricks and mortar" idea of schooling into the cyber world. Rather, education itself will undergo a fundamental change. This perspective is lacking from his book.

Martin's book is certainly thought provoking and does present an aerial view of the way that technology is changing the way people do business. However, it does not offer in-depth look at any one of these trends. It is food for thought, but the he only begins the conversation on the future of the internet and its impact on technology.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive strategies for 'thinking outside the box' -, January 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: net future (Hardcover)

In 1996 Chuck's first book, the "Digital Estate" warned corporate executives that they needed to wake up and begin to understand how the internet would change their businesses, forever. Some of us saw it, but others didn't.... "Net Future" has a much more serious message - it tells us that our customers are demanding that we change the way that we interface with them. Unless companies learn to 'think outside the box'to satisfy new customer needs, they may be doomed to playing 'catch up' with newer more inovative internet-based companies. Chuck's book provides us with intensive lessons on 'thinking outside the box' - it's a must reading for all boardroom seeking anwsers to tomorrows strategies today. Learn how the cybereconomy goes Main Street, how the wired workforce is taking over, understand how the open-book corporation is taking over, how products are becoming commodities, how the customer becomes data, experience communities, and understand how learning moves to real-time, all the time. These are the seven cybertrends that are changing the business landscape worldwide. A good read provides a stimulating look at strategies that are working.... and delivers the basis for 'thinking outside the box' - to create effective corporate strategies for tomorrow's world.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Net Future: Net Results, December 28, 1999

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: net future (Hardcover)

According to Chuck Martin, there are (at least) seven "cybertrends" that will drive any business, create wealth, and define their future. He analyzes each in Net Future. These trends are already underway and in various stages of development. What makes Net Future so valuable is that it enables its reader to place his or her organization in correct juxtaposition and then proper alignment with each of these trends; moreover, Martin (functioning as both travel guide and consultant) explains to his reader how to make whatever adjustments may be necessary inorder for her or his organization to succeed. Of course, all of the seven cybertrends are driven by technology. "Together they comprise the Net future." Fair enough. The challenge, as Martin clearly understands, is to manage these cybertrends...or be dominated by them. Many may quarrel with the number specified (Covey probably wouldn't) and others may challenge Martin's explanation of those he selects. Whatever. The point is, this is an immensely informative book in which Martin the futurist shares his visions and then Martin the consultant helps his reader to understand the trends which will probably define that future. Each reader may feel that Net Future was written specifically for her or him. At least that was my reaction. I strongly recommend this book to anyone in need of an intellectual framework within which to organize troublesome ambiguities as well as quantifiable realities.