Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy [Hardcover]

Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy, by Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer, is a shrewd appraisal of the new corporate reality. The authors, who both direct research at the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation, maintain that "connectivity, speed, and the growth of intangible value" have catapulted business into a period of unprecedented transition that demands immediate and creative attention. Citing disparate examples including Amazon.com, singer David Bowie, and the Beanie Baby toy phenomenon, they show how a willingness to step away from conventional thinking is crucial for continued success. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Get ready for a whole new world--a world of blur in which traditional boundaries between product and service, capital and people, buyer and seller, and real and virtual no longer apply. Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer have a front row seat to these tectonic changes and, in this groundbreaking book, they not only define the phenomenon but show businesses large and small how to thrive.. Speed. Intangibles. Connectivity. As these three forces converge, every dimension of business behavior is being challenged to its core. If you think that business can be sustained by the old rules of mass production, segmented pricing, and stale organizations, youll need to think again.Welcome to the new economya world where the rate of change is so fast its only a blur, where the clear lines distinguishing buyer from seller, product from service, employee from entrepreneur are disappearing. To profit from these revolutionary patterns of business, you need a dynamic guide to the new economy. You need BLUR .In this groundbreaking book, Stan Davis and Chris Meyer deliver more than a guided tour to these momentous shifts. They offer readers a working model to illustrate and benefit from the new rules of the connected economy, where advantage is temporary and nothing is fixed in time or space. Showcasing the practices of dozens of enterprises exploring the new frontiers of businessfrom Amazon.com to DreamWorks SKG to MBNA AmericaDavis and Meyer build a new frame-work for delivering and capturing value, evaluating success, developing strategy, and managing organizations in an economic world no longer determined by static measures of supply and demand. BLUR provides a lens for bringing the emerging economic landscape into focusa world in which change is constant; knowledge and imagination are more valuable than physical capital; products and services are blended as offers; transactions give way to exchanges and physical markets take on the characteristics of financial markets. This world rewards those who buck convention, like MCI, which has reorganized every six months to release creativity, or David Bowie, who has sold options on his future earnings as an artist. Adaptability is paramount, as more companies build permeable networks of business relationships with suppliers, distributors, employees, and even competitors, and individuals become free agents, contracting their services to the highest bidders. BLUR challenges you to question every assumption you hold about how business is conducted, and encourages you to experiment at the edges of business. BLUR outlines nothing less than a revolution in business and consumer culture. Will you watch on the sidelines as the innovators overtake you, or are you ready to start playing byand discoveringthe rules of BLUR?