InformationWeek

February 21, 2000

The Dot-Com Imperative

By Lou Bertin

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ately, it seems I've been bombarded with all manner of telemarketing and direct-mail offers: health clubs promising help shaping up for springtime; car dealers stuck with lots full of snow-covered, unsold, inventory-fund-burning vehicles; and stock brokers trolling for new clients among the disaffected who saw gains of less than 20% from their portfolios last year. In short, the usual suspects.

Since the turn of the year, I've gotten what seems like more than my share of telephone entreaties from representatives of the last category and, after being reminded once too often that a polite turn-down gets me nowhere, I decided to conduct a little unscientific, but entertaining, research of my own on my callers' dimes.

Inevitably, the broker representatives seeking my business would be quick to tout the gains their clients realized last year. Those gains, of course, came as a result of the brokers' sage handling of the "dot-com" sector, or so said the pitch. I'll leave it to you to fill in the rest of the pitch and, no matter how outlandish your thoughts about the claims in the spiels, you'll probably be correct.

As part of my "research" exercise, I took to pressing my callers about their opinions on several stocks in the "non-dot-com" segment of the economy. The companies I asked about were several whose use of the Internet has been written about within the pages of InformationWeek and whose CIOs (or equivalents) have become at least acquaintances, if not friends, over the years. To maintain some sense of fairness, I didn't ask the cold callers about emerging enterprises. I focused instead on established companies such as American Express, General Electric, General Motors, Federal Express, and Wal-Mart--companies likely to be tracked closely by the brokerage companies' research departments.

The results at first astonished and, later, came to be almost appalling. My initial inquiry would be along the lines of the following: "I've read a couple of things about how [Company X] has adopted a new online strategy. ... Can you tell me what your company's research department has to say about that?"

Inevitably, that request initially was met with rapid-fire clicking of keys as the research reports were sought (via an intranet?). The keystrokes slowed as specific portions of the report were located (using intelligent search capabilities?), and the mindless chatter that acted as verbal Muzak during the search slowed and faded to silence as the broker realized there were no specifics to offer me about Company X's online strategies.

To be sure, the keystrokes and chatter quickened again as I asked for a current price quote (accessed by way of real-time, online access through whatever means from the exchanges), but by then, the brokers had lost the game.

At around this time last year, I carped about academics and economists who I thought were pitifully slow to credit strategic use of technology as a (the, in many cases) critical contributor to the robustness of the North American economy. It seems, though, that I should have used a shotgun instead of a rifle to fully cover my target.

Here I've been talking to representatives of companies that, on almost any level, have been among the principal beneficiaries of the efficiencies and economies made possible by sharp, shrewd technology adoption. And what did I hear about technology strategies on the part of companies they purport to cover closely? To borrow from the wonderful Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser: "Squadoosh!" I trust no translation is necessary.

I'm utterly baffled by how long it is taking for companies to realize that ANY commercial entity is now a dot-com--or had better think of itself as such if it hopes to survive. With apologies to a couple friends of mine who work for our favorite government agency, I submit that when the Internal Revenue Service devotes considerable time, attention, and resources to its online strategy, it is time for all but the brain dead among us to realize that the old game is over and we had better get about the business of determining whether the competitive response to online encroachment is fight or flight. Only one thing is certain in determining the answer to that question: The only viable alternative is the former.

Lou Bertin is an industry consultant. He can be reached at Lou.Bertin@gte.net.


Rusty Weston: Matter Of Fact Rusty explores the facts and figures behind business technology.	Charles Pelton: Eye On IT Charles explores IT management issues and strategies that business and technology managers face.	Jason Levitt: Internet Zone Jason focuses on the strange, egregious, and the standard technologies of the intranet/Internet.	Stuart Johnston: Internet Zone As our eyes and ears in Redmond, Stuart gives his perspective on the latest events at Microsoft.