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Amazon.co.uk Review
Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster think that the Internet can blow away practically any business and in Blown to Bits, they examine how the new economy is "deconstructing" industries such as newspapers, auto retailing and banking while creating new opportunities for others. They write that the "glue that holds today's value chains and supply chains together" is melting and that even "the most stable of industries, the most focused of business models and the strongest of brands can be blown to bits by new information technology."

Evans and Wurster, both executives of the Boston Consulting Group, argue that the Internet demands new business strategies because it provides companies tremendous "reach" for customers without sacrificing "richness" or the quality of the information about products and services. The book shows how some businesses--Microsoft and Intuit in personal finance, Dell Computer in retailing and the Automotive Network Exchange in manufacturing supply--are thriving amid a rapid expansion of connectivity and the widespread acceptance of new technical standards on the World Wide Web. Clearly written and tough-minded, Blown to Bits is required reading for business leaders, entrepreneurs, strategists and others concerned about the new economics of the information age. --Dan Ring, Amazon.com

Book Jacket
Richness or reach? The trade-off used to be simple but absolute: Your business strategy either could focus on "rich" information--customised products and services tailored to a niche audience--or could reach out to a larger market, but with watered-down information that sacrificed richness in favour of a broad, general appeal. Much of business strategy as we know it today rests on this fundamental dilemma.

Now, say Evans and Wurster, the new economics of information is eliminating the trade-off between richness and reach, blowing apart the foundations of traditional business strategy. Blown to Bits reveals how the spread of connectivity and common standards is redefining the information channels that link businesses with their customers, suppliers and employees. Increasingly, your customers will have rich access to a universe of alternatives, your suppliers will exploit direct access to your customers and your competitors will pick off the most profitable parts of your value chain. Your competitive advantage is up for grabs.

To prepare corporate executives and entrepreneurs alike for a fundamental change in business competition, Evans and Wurster expand and illuminate groundbreaking concepts first explored in the award-winning, Harvard Business Review article "Strategy and the New Economics of Information" and present a practical guide for applying them.

Examples span the spectrum of industries--from financial services to healthcare, from consumer to industrial goods and from media to retailing. Blown to Bits shows how to build new strategies that reflect a world in which richness and reach go hand in hand and how to make the most of the new forces shaping competitive advantage.

"A variety of technologies--particularly those associated with the Internet--will disrupt many of today's companies and create opportunities for tomorrow's great companies to emerge. Blown to Bits, which frames how these technologies can break the historical trade-offs between richness and reach, provides an important strategic guide to any manager affected by disruptive technologies. I recommend it highly." -- Clayton Christensen, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and Author of The Innovator's Dilemma

"Blown to Bitsis important reading for both established and new business leaders. Evans and Wurster have written a book that demonstrated the profound effect the Information Age is having on traditional business strategy." --Edgar Bronfman, Jr., President and CEO, the Seagram Company, Ltd.

"In the new economics of information, industries will be deconstructed, but not destroyed; corporations will not become obsolete, but their present business definitions will. Blown to Bits is useful reading for those who want to understand and apply the new sources of competitive advantage."--Jacques Nasser, President, Ford Motor Company

"Evans and Wurster show how information is the 'glue' that holds industries together and how the introduction of new navigators will melt this glue.Blown to Bits lays out the road map for new comers such as eToys to compete. I recommend it to anyone aspiring to be a new navigator." --Toby Lenk, President and CEO, eToys

"Blown to Bits is a manifesto for the reconstruction of business strategy in response to the deconstruction of information channels. Drawing examples from a wide variety of industries, the authors redefine the essence of business strategy for the Internet Age." --Jean-Marie Messier, Chairman and CEO, Vivendi

"The brilliance of Blown to Bits lies in the authors' ability to take changes that are profound and complex and strip them down to their bare essence. Evans and Wurster empower readers to move from learning how the Internet is reshaping the business landscape to establishing their own competitive advantage." --Shikhar Ghosh, Chairman and Cofounder, Open Market, Inc., and CEO, iBelong Networks

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12 Reviews 5 star:  (6) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:  (3) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (12 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   13 of 13 people found the following review helpful: Reach vs. Richness // Things vs. Information, 6 Feb 2000 By A Customer I have read a number of books on the electronic revolution taking place and how is it going to affect the business world. At the end, they all tell the same story without saying anything. We all know that the business models will have to be re-evaluated, that technology will change things but... why? What are the underlying forces acting in the background that make these changes necessary? How can we prepare for them? This book is an excellent place to find answers to those questions. It provides a credible explanation of what exactly is happening and how to identify whether our business is endangered or not. It also provides very valuable examples of different industries (automotive, banking, health care...) which facilitate understanding some of the concepts. Reading the praise for this book, one can find a coment by Jack Nasser (Ford CEO)... I would be quite concerned if I had a Ford dealer... ! Very interesting read.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   11 of 11 people found the following review helpful: Irresistible Forces Colliding Creates Opportunity for You!, 8 Dec 1999 By A Customer Unlike most e-commerce books that focus on the best practices of the last 2-5 years, Blown to Bits is a book about corporate strategy as it relates to the implications of e-commerce. Although I have read many e-commerce books, this is the first one that I have found that addresses strategy questions in their broadest implications. Other books on the subject tend to focus more narrowly. I had heard the term 'deconstruction' before reading this book, but was not quite sure what it meant. Now I know that this is the process of taking vertical value chains apart. To me, the most important insight in the book related to navigation as a value-added activity for e-commerce customers. The Web is obviously going to keep growing very rapidly, and we will all need more and more help to get to the right places on it. The navigators will be very powerful, as that problem increases. For those who want how-to information for starting up an e-commerce business, this is not the book for you. Instead, you should read Customers.com and keep up with Patricia Seybold's Web site. If you want to know what is working well now, surfing the Web is a good alternative. Those who are most likely to get benefit from this book are larger companies who are doing little with e-commerce now, and start-ups who are thinking through their strategies of which markets to pursue. In either case, the book is well-written and easy-to-read.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: A valuable e-business classic - but lacks an epilogue, 26 Nov 2004 By  Peter Leerskov "The Strategist, www.lace.dk" (Denmark) - See all my reviews       This book is an important e-business classic. But despite the authors' clever recommendations, an epilogue is missing, as the Internet revolution they announced did not materialise. The Internet EVOLUTION, however, lives on. Blown to Bits is about the consequences of the Internet for businesses. The most important conclusion in the book is that the combination of increased bandwidth, global interconnected electronic network, faster computers and open standards are abolishing the requirements up to now of balancing information reach with information richness. One example is the alternative media that a company can select when potential customers are targeted. Newspaper ads can reach a broad audience with a limited and static message. At the other end of the scale, a personal meeting with the customer gives the opportunity for deep, detailed and interactive information. Businesses' supply chains include the same balancing act. When firms do business, the number of partners is inversely correlated to the richness in the information of the interchange. The Internet removes this balancing act because you suddenly can reach many partners without compromising on the level of detail and complexity of the information (vast reach AND vast richness). According to the authors, the consequence is that the value chain is blown to bits. They call it deconstruction, which happens when the things economy increasingly is separated from the information economy. "Information is the kit that binds the value chains and supply chains". But the kit is eroding. Information is no longer embedded in the physical units. The econom