Evolve : Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow Review

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Evolve : Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow ReviewRosabeth Moss Kanter is one of our finest thinkers about organizational change. In Evolve!, she has taken on a very large challenge. She attempts to help the young and the old, the e-hip and the offline, the techies and the nontechies, and those in new economy and old economy companies understand one another better so they can cooperate for greater results through using the Internet as an enabling medium. She also takes a look at beneficial cultures separately from the perspectives of pure dot com companies, dotcom-enablers (like Sun Microsystems), and wannadots (already-established companies seeking to add the Internet to their businesses). In the process, she provides lots of helpful examples of what NOT TO DO, as well as what TO DO both in terms of what kind of organization to create and how to get there. I found that the book added a great deal to my storehouse of case histories about what has been working and what has not as companies have sought to develop and improve Internet-based business models. Unlike most books about the Internet, this one was primarily based on lots of research with people at companies rather than lots of experience in using cool Web sites.
The book is divided into three parts. The first section looks at how the Internet affects every business and person, the role of young people to date in advancing the changes, and why companies have to do more than just open a web site to be effective. Basically, the Internet means a fundamental change in at least part of every company's business model. For some companies, this is a complete change. For others, it is a partial, but significant change. Cisco Systems provides a good example. You can be a major provider of high technology products while having very little manufacturing youself. Dell Computer is another helpful example. You can have negative receivables and no inventory while manufacturing products to order in minutes. Anyone would like to be able to move profitably in these directions.
The second section identifies the qualities that allow a company's culture to work well in e-commerce. Professor Kanter focuses here on the need to create generations of rapid change each of which is well received by the beneficiaries, how to create truly supportive and effective networks of partners, reconfiguring the business and organizational structure to improve the business model, and attracting and retaining the top talent needed to make these improvements.
The third section looks at initiating and enabling the change process towards the model of e-effectiveness. The roles of leaders, organizations, and of individuals are identified . . . as well as the sources of friction and resistance.
I thought that the book was exceptionally well done. It's weaknesses come from having taken on such a large topic and challenge. But Professor Kanter succeeds in most areas quite well.
Those who work in dot com companies that are facing bankruptcy will not find enough here to help them sort through their issues. Those who want to establish a new dot com from scratch also will find this book to be useful, but not a complete resource for that purpose (as Professor Kanter warns in the book). The book was primarily researched while the dot com companies were flush with cash and valuations on the stock market were still quite high. So, although there are references to stocks falling after March 2000, the book reflects in many ways a world that doesn't exactly exist right now for dot com companies.
For dotcom-enablers, they will get a few ideas about how to satisfy the need to keep revitalizing their business model. But most of this will not seem new to them, if they have been at all successful.
For wannadots, this book will help lift the veil of how to get from here to there. The main benefit will be to help avoid problems that others have experienced. You can save tens of millions of dollars and start delivering benefits to your customers much sooner if you follow the change lessons here. The senior executives in these companies should be the prime beneficiaries of this book . . . the Harvard B-School grads of a few years ago, or more.
Metaphors are very helpful for understanding new subjects. The metaphors here, although apt, are ones that many readers will not find to be very much within their experience. For that reason, the points will be a bit lost. For example, the idea of continuing innovating and creating rapid improvements is linked to what improvisational actors do. I have had some improvisational training, so this made sense to me (see Robert Lowe's book, Improvisation, Inc.). I do not know many corporate executives in large companies however who do have this experience. I suspect this metaphor will be lost on them. Some of the other metaphors also lack an experience base for most readers, as well.
A potential weakness of this book for some readers is that they will not get enough information for how to identify ways to create more profitable and sustainable business models. To date, most Internet innovations have led to lower profits . . . not higher ones -- whether they came from dot coms, dotcom-enablers, or dotcome wannabes. If more skill is not applied in this important area of conceptualizing what the new structure of the business should become, you may evolve . . . but not into any place where you want to be.
Reading this book today, you'd have to say that if you are not going to be a dotcom enabler, you'd better watch out.Evolve : Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow Overview

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