Most companies have a sizeable investment in technology but are realising only 20% of its potential benefit. BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT introduces the concept of the digital nervous system which unites all systems and processes under one common infrastructure, allowing companies to make quantum leaps in efficiency, growth and profit. Using detailed tours of Microsoft and other major corporations, Gates demonstrates how integrated technology can transform any business by energizing its three major elements: customer/partner relationships, employees and process, and offers practical suggestions on how this can be achieved.
Business at the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digit...
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Amazon Review
So where do you want to go tomorrow? That's the question Bill Gates tries to answer in Business @ the Speed of Thought. Gates offers a 12-step programme for companies wanting to do business in the next millennium. The book's premise: Thanks to technology, the speed of business is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate and to survive, it must develop an infrastructure--a "digital nervous system"--that allows for the unfettered movement of information inside a company. Gates writes: "The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition ... is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose."
The book is peppered with examples of companies that have already successfully engineered information networks to manage inventory, sales, and customer relationships better. The examples run from Coca-Cola's ability to download sales data from vending machines to Microsoft's own internal practices, such as its reliance on e-mail for company-wide communication and the conversion of most paper processes to digital ones (an assertion that seems somewhat at odds with the now-infamous "by hand on sheets of paper" method of tracking profits that was revealed during Microsoft's antitrust trial).
While Gates breaks no new ground--dozens of authors have been writing about competing on a digital playing field for some time, among them Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian in Information Rules and Patricia Seybold in Customers.com--businesses that want a wakeup call may find this book a ringer. With excerpts in Time magazine, a dedicated Web site and an all-out media assault, Microsoft is working hard to push Business @ the Speed of Thought into the international dialogue and for many it will be difficult to see the book as anything but a finely tuned marketing campaign for the forthcoming versions of Windows NT and MS Office. Nevertheless, as Gates has shown time and time again, he, Microsoft, and perhaps even this book you may ignore at your own peril. --Harry C. Edwards, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A road map for managers...effectively walks the reader through the business and life improvements the wired world presents....Plenty of specific tips and advice". -- USA Today
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I found this book very useful in explaining the way that IT can be applied by businesses, large and small.
Although much of the information contained in the book is well recognised within the IT industry, the message still hasn't hit home for many business owners and managers.
Working in systems development, I still find that senior managers barely have a grasp of IT at all, let alone how it is going to shape their industry.
The message from this book is very timely, and is directed at the right audience. The limiting factor in business today is not IT, but people's ability to exploit it. I think that this has been true for a long time now !
Although much of the information contained in the book is well recognised within the IT industry, the message still hasn't hit home for many business owners and managers.
Working in systems development, I still find that senior managers barely have a grasp of IT at all, let alone how it is going to shape their industry.
The message from this book is very timely, and is directed at the right audience. The limiting factor in business today is not IT, but people's ability to exploit it. I think that this has been true for a long time now !
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio Cassette
THE BOOK IS VERY GOOD WITH INTERESTING TOPICS ETC. but the narrator is so boring! The man who reads this has no enthusiasm to his voice and just goes on in the same pitch throughout the whole cassette and you just find yourself drifting off and not listening. I thought it might just be me so got a second and third opinion and everyone agrees the guy audio version should be read by someone much more dynamic than this guy. Bill Gates obviously hasn't listened to tape!! Anyway the book itself is very good and well worth reading in its paper format! It is very interesting and covers all issues of the digital nervous system and how this will affect everyday life in the future. Quite exiting concepts for us all!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book that I would recommend to ANY business owner. Gates manages to buil on "The road ahead" by keeping the book to a minumum of jargon. He explains the reasons why companies whould setup us systems to steamline business.
Bill has a knack for predicting changes, even people who are anti-gates cannot deny this. He predicts in this book that businesses need to change the way they work and gives a solid foundation of why and how they should go about it.
Afet reading the book, I have no doubt that Bill has got it right again and in 10 years time you won't see the businesses that chose to ignore him.
Aviod at your peril!
Bill has a knack for predicting changes, even people who are anti-gates cannot deny this. He predicts in this book that businesses need to change the way they work and gives a solid foundation of why and how they should go about it.
Afet reading the book, I have no doubt that Bill has got it right again and in 10 years time you won't see the businesses that chose to ignore him.
Aviod at your peril!
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Microsoft is renowned for watching trends, finding the best provider of new ideas and services, and buying/copying that innovation. You might call the company, the world's greatest fast follower. With the tremendous market power of its installed base of Windows, the company has moved profitably in a lot of new directions. IBM did the same before the Justice Department made the company allow anyone to use its operating sytem at modest cost. IBM also made lots of money. Was IBM a visionary company at the time? Absolutely not. Does Microsoft's success mean that it is a visionary company now? Probably not. For example, Gate's view of a paperless, electronic world proved to be a real problem during the company's recent antitrust trial with the U.S. government. Electronic records of aggressive behavior and intent kept showing up to contradict Gate's live testimony. Also remember that Gates thought the Internet was a nonstarter until quite recently, when it began its come-from-behind charge against Netscape. Specifically, the weakness of the vision is that it makes a company likely to be too internally focused. You can communicate so well with one another that you do not communicate so well with the customers and others who are important to you. I personally found the vision of Direct from Dell and Customer.com to be much more relevant. Read this book with caution, but do read it because we all need to know where Microsoft plans to take us. We'll have to go there anyway, to some extent.
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT clearly shows the risk of creating even more harm from GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. The electronic revolution will create reinforcement for all of the bad habits that organizations have. If they now use obsolete analyses in some areas, the new technology will be sure that everyone does this. If the organization is now ignoring some areas in its measurements, new software will be certain to keep that in place. If you have old-style accounting rather than Activity-Based Costing, you will be able to manipulate the wrong numbers faster. And so forth. Many organizations will totally fail in this new environment because the new technology will become disabling rather than enabling. For example, the new technology will cause you to be much more intimate with your customers. In that process, you may totally ignore those who do not buy your product (a vastly larger group), and your catering to current customer needs may make it harder to gain market share with new customers who have different needs. I think Gates is right about what he is forecasting, so you had better first work on getting rid of your organization's bad habits, and replace them with better ones. Then you should eliminate as much as you can, simplify the rest, outsource all but the key tasks (and even those if someone can do them much better than you can), then automate what remains. If you want good advice on how to do this, you should read "The 2,000 Percent Solution" before you implement Microsoft's view of the future.
By Jonathan Kettleborough
VINE VOICE
Format:Hardcover
Having read his previous book 'The Way Ahead' which was backed up by an excellent CD, I found 'Business @ the Speed of Thought' to be a little on the 'mild' side.
If you work for a small organisation then Intranets, online billing and ERP may seem the terminology of the truly enlightened. However, should you work for a larger organisation then these issues should be second nature to you - and if they're not, then you may not survive.
And perhaps that's what Bill is telling us most - that standing still is not an option, that we must move forward and embrace future technologies etc., etc.
Personally, the issue that we should ALL take from this book is the fact that sharing information is the KEY to success. The more we keep information to ourselves, the more we inhibit the ability of our organisation to succeed.
Well worth thinking about. . .
If you work for a small organisation then Intranets, online billing and ERP may seem the terminology of the truly enlightened. However, should you work for a larger organisation then these issues should be second nature to you - and if they're not, then you may not survive.
And perhaps that's what Bill is telling us most - that standing still is not an option, that we must move forward and embrace future technologies etc., etc.
Personally, the issue that we should ALL take from this book is the fact that sharing information is the KEY to success. The more we keep information to ourselves, the more we inhibit the ability of our organisation to succeed.
Well worth thinking about. . .
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Just a really fun and quick read
Published 1 month ago by cvetok
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bl@st From The P@st
Bill Gates and Microsoft were at the height of their power when this book was released, so as an avid DOS, Windows and PC user, I was certainly intrigued. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Anton Klink
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bit disappointing
I found this book hard work and lost interest. Tried to give it to a friend and he didn't seem to be impressed either.
Published 21 months ago by Andy Dyer
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sharing Is Good, But What Should Be Shared?
One of the primary benefits of a human nervous system is to allow the senses and the mind to be in close contact. Read more
Published on 28 May 2004 by Donald Mitchell
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book on how to do business in the 21st Century
I really enjoyed this book. I work in the public sector and thought that some of it might be irrelevant to me - but it was all very interesting. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2001 by Bobby Elliott
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent overview to ensure business embraces technology
This book provides an excellent overview of how a business needs to adapt its internal business systems to survive, adapt and embrace the latest technology. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is a must to get the grey matter working
For the budding entrepreneur or business man this is a must. All CEOs,directors should have it as a bible.
Published on 22 Nov 1999 by raj_kt2@yahoo.com
1.0 out of 5 stars
My name is Bill...
...resistance is futile.
Synopsis: Microsoft are great. Technology is great. Microsoft techology is great. Buy Microsoft technology. I am Bill, I am great. Read more
Synopsis: Microsoft are great. Technology is great. Microsoft techology is great. Buy Microsoft technology. I am Bill, I am great. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 1999
3.0 out of 5 stars
great for the beginner - fewer ideas for the initiated
Overall I found the book interesting but more as a reminder of things I had read elsewhere. Many of the ideas, e.g. Read more
Published on 26 April 1999
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