Chapter 1 - From Net Commerce to e-Enterprise

Summary

I don't think there's been anything more important or more widespread.… Where does the Internet rank in priority? It's No. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

—Jack Welch, Chairman & CEO, General Electric

When Jack Welch makes the Net his top business priority you can be sure that the Internet and Net-based business have taken the critical step from possibility into reality. In fact, General Electric and countless other Global 2000 companies are quickly investigating and applying the newest Internet technologies. These companies seek to gain and retain competitive advantages in new and evolving markets through highly adaptive Net-based enterprises. Everywhere you turn, both the mainstream and business news media are focused on the Net Revolution. Both alluring and critical reports about the Web, the Information Superhighway, and Internet ventures abound.

The Net is the backbone for the new digital economy that is radically changing business models around the globe. These new business models have become differentiators that redefine market winners and losers. No one is safe from the changing tide. Past critics of the Internet have said that it's a gadget for hobbyists and computer geeks—not a valuable tool for business. It's all hype, they said. As evidence they pointed to the astronomic market capitalization of so-called Internet stocks. They said that conventional enterprises are safe from these over-publicized startups. Put simply, they were wrong then, and they're wrong now. As Business Week says “You are Merrill Lynch when Schwab.com comes along.