March 12, 2002
E-business expert: Executives need to treat symptoms of
The dot-com bust is over and executives need to overcome “dot vertigo,” an inability to adapt to e-commerce, says author Richard Nolan, the featured speaker at the University of Washington Business School’s e-business conference.
“My experience has been that too many CEOs do not fully understand the sea of change that has taken place, introduced by Internet technologies and implemented by a number of companies,” said Nolan, a Harvard Business School professor. “Many executives who don’t understand the substance of the dot-com period will be surprised and some will fall dangerously behind in their abilities to efficiently serve the new levels of customer demands.”
Nolan will speak at 9:15 a.m. Friday during “Northwest eBusiness Dimensions 2002,” to be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, at Pier 66 on Seattle’s waterfront , 2211 Alaskan Way. Other featured speakers include Bob Herbold, president of Herbold Associates and former chief operating officer for Microsoft Corp., as well as Scott Griffin, chief information officer for The Boeing Co.
In his book “Dot Vertigo: Doing Business in a Permeable World,” Nolan writes
many companies are, for example, still operated in budget time rather than in real time.
“We need to overcome dot vertigo to see clearly the implications,” said Nolan, who has consulted for such companies as Cisco Systems Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co..
Nolan is a keynote speaker in the E-Business Program’s second such event. This year’s conference will also explore value creation in the current economic environment.
“Organizations need sustained focus on applications and functions for which the World Wide Web provides an efficient medium for integrating business processes and conducting business transactions,” said Keith Everett, the program’s executive director.
Topics such as the emergence of the mobile Web and how to manage e-business initiatives will be discussed in break-out sessions beginning at 10:30 a.m. Executives from AT&T Wireless, Boeing, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, and Price & Associates, as well as several UW Business School leaders will head the discussions.
At 2:30 p.m., Herbold will speak about how managers can foster creativity and innovation within e-business without losing site of basic business principles.
The event is being held with support from the Center for International Business Education and Research and the Center for Technology Entrepreneurship.
For a complete conference schedule or to register visit http://depts.washington.edu/nwebiz/, or call 1-888-466-6495.
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For more information contact nwebiz@u.washington.edu; or Everett at (206) 616-9565 or keverett@u.washington.edu.
