Read and translate the text. Be ready to answer the new words and word combinations. Discuss the text with the teacher.

What is business?

In 1989 Peter Drucker talked about sharp transformations, or divides, that sig­nal fundamental changes in the basic structure of society. Piore and Sabel developed the same theme in their book, The Second Industrial Divide.² These authors trace the development of those processes and key transformations in business that have had profound effects on society. They begin their discussions with the creation of guilds, go on to describe the industrial revolution, and end with a delineation of business activity during the first half of the twentieth cen­tury. These authors pay homage to The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith as they develop the various transformations that have led to the postmodern industrial era.

It would be easy, and almost obligatory, to proceed down the same path as these authors have described and provide a similar review of business history. Yet we need not go back that far in time, because a great deal has changed since the third edition of this book. In 1998 the Internet was beginning to blossom and dot-corns filled the landscape. Enron had burst on the scene and was changing the face of competition for public utilities. Many of the large, investor-owned utilities could not understand, even take seriously, an energy company that did not own its own generation capability. Yet within less time than it took these businesses to reach their apogee, many of them also hit their nadir. We will intro­duce dominant themes that are occurring in the rapidly changing business world of today.

These dominant themes are related, and they lay a foundation for under­standing what is going on in today's business environment. By delineating these themes, we show that business as usual is a bankrupt concept. A number of fun­damental changes have occurred that impact business and the larger society of which it is a part. These changes are reflected in the following themes. One theme is the new competition, in which a new business paradigm affects the very soul of the business enterprise. The second theme is based on a shift to a knowledge-based society and the rise of the intelligent enterprise. The third theme refers to the rise of cooperation among firms that now compete as con­stellations of companies. These ecosystems of firms are as strong as their weak­est partner. They vie for resources and customers against other competing constellations of firms. These ecosystems redefine how managers should think about competition and competitive forces. We believe that these themes set a tone for many of the issues raised in this book. More important, these themes reflect basic changes in how business will be discussed and transacted in this new century. The fourth and final theme is the rise of the Internet and its profound effect on business through the rise of e-commerce and e-business. It can easily be argued that this innovation has been the most disruptive form of change because there were no templates available from which to learn. Management was flying blind; some firms figured it out, and others crashed.

Each of these major themes has caused management to rethink the rele­vance of their existing skills and capabilities. The question of core competency has become inextricably linked to the larger question of what business we are in. Referred to as the tyranny of the served market, a firm s current business blinds management from thinking about untapped opportunities. The old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" might appear to ring true, but in reality, "when it ain't broke" might be the perfect time to challenge the status quo. Similarly, we have been taught to listen to our existing customers. Innovator's Dilemma suggests that by listening too closely to a current customer who is steeped in a present market, new opportunities will very likely go unchallenged. Compounding the problem is that our current processes for resource allocation make it very diffi­cult to fund projects for which the market is nascent and whose size is, at best, difficult to forecast. If the innovative project is kept within the confines of the traditional organization, it is bound to die early. The question becomes how to free the new business from the bureaucracy and shackles of the traditional busi­ness model. Partly, our goal here is to provide tools for thinking beyond the sta­tus quo and challenging current models and frameworks.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16