Virtual Enterprise Management: How to Utilize Information to Gain Competitive Advantage

Author: [British] Fiona Charneskaia Gavain Potter
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Assuming an economic condition where products can be replicated and sold multiple times without incurring additional cost increments due to physical asset constraints; products can be transmitted and transferred instantly worldwide, and companies can communicate individually with thousands of customers. The business world is currently undergoing unprecedented massive transformations, as companies can quickly shift assets from the physical domain to the virtual domain composed of information. In the coming years, moving from the physical domain to the virtual domain may be one of the greatest challenges businesses face. This book will help you meet this challenge:
● Explain the new economic rules applicable;
● Describe how companies with leading competitive advantages leverage the opportunities at hand;
● Provide practical tools to help you survive and thrive in the new world.
Any business consists of two elements: tangible and virtual elements. Traditionally, the success of a business is determined by its physical assets; in the future, however, success will be determined by virtual assets. Knowledge about gaining competitive advantages from the manufacturing process is more valuable than the machines used to produce goods. Information about customers is crucial for a company's future. The information revolution provides businesses with an opportunity to move from the physical domain to the virtual domain; it offers a shift from mass production and diminishing returns to mass customization and increasing returns—where the more you sell, the easier it becomes to sell. It transforms a world closely tied to capital and inventory into one where each product has a customer, and you understand the customer's potential needs.
The information revolution is an economic revolution. Information products can be used in multiple ways, whereas physical products cannot; information products can be replicated and sold multiple times without incurring additional cost increments; information products can be transmitted and transferred instantly worldwide. Winners in the virtual world will take on entirely different roles, and companies that win in the physical world cannot guarantee success in the virtual world. In any revolution, there are winners and losers. This book will help you become a winner in the virtual world.