Blur : the speed of change in the connected economy /

Davis and Meyer (Ernst and Young Center for Business Education) offer a provocative new perspective on the forces that will be the engines of future business success. Challenging the hierarchical models that are the nuclei of today's corporate culture, they argue that speed, intangibles, and connectivity transcend the existing relationships between producers and their product, buyers and sellers, and employees and the organization. The book is more than a new management model; it is an exciting examination of the impact of the emerging information society on the existing business traditions. The writing style is succinct and makes excellent use of contemporary examples. A sensitivity to existing business practices is an important adjunct to a thorough understanding of the ideas. Even those who do not accept the authors' hypothesis will be fascinated by this unique conceptual framework for future strategic planning. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. S. R. Kahn; University of Cincinnati

Davis is the author of eight books, including Future Perfect (1987, 1996) and 2020 Vision (1991). Meyer is a consultant and director of Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation, where Davis is a research fellow. The trends the pair discuss have already been well analyzed elsewhere, but Davis and Meyer follow them through to build a unique model of the economy they suggest is growing out of the so-called information economy. They see the speed with which business operates and change increases. They see that physical capital is becoming a liability for companies and that customers value the intangible features of products. They see that everything is electronically connected to everything else. The result is that boundaries and differences between products and services, buyers and sellers, capital and people, real and virtual, and home and work are less distinct and more blurred. The authors even blur the definition of what a book is, asking readers to contribute to an ongoing exchange of ideas at www.BLURsight.com, where this "book" and their theory will "evolve." (Reviewed April 15, 1998)0201339870David Rouse

A feel-good guide to doing business in the post-industrial age. A new economy is emerging, say the authors, every bit as world-changing as that created by the Industrial Revolution, and they call this new economy BLUR. ItŽs characterized by Speed, Intangibles, and Connectivity. Speed is the shrinkage of time through near-instantaneous communication and computation. Connectivity is the shrinkage of space with the advent of the Web, E-mail, beepers, and other media of communication. Intangibles are values without mass, most importantly knowledge and its mobility, made possible through Speed and Connectivity. Throw away your business economic texts, say Davis and MeyerŽthe world of BLUR makes them obsolete. Companies prosper by not owning vast amounts of productive capacity. Nike, for instance, is a sort of Seinfeld of the business world, making nothing, but prospers by selling image and design. In the world of BLUR, work and home become one; consumers sell and sellers buy; workers become entrepreneurs selling their skills temporarily to the highest bidder and then moving on; competitors cooperate. The only certainty is uncertainty, but if economies, companies, and individuals embrace this uncertainty, and think creatively about and within it, they will prosper. The authors are on to something here; they've seemingly caught the Zeitgeist. Yet in their enthusiasm they may overstate just how BLURred (as they say) the economy actually is. Yes, Nike sells image, but somebody is making those expensive sneakers, and they are not to be heard from here. Consumers sell information back to producers, which they in turn use to improve what they sell, but does that fundamentally change patterns of concentrated economic control? And while we can buy groceries over the Internet, how many people do? (The book is devoid of statistical or quantitative analysis.) As a guide to surviving in the new business world, this is most intriguing and entertaining. As a careful analysis of what's really going on, it falls short. (illustrations, not seen)