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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High Concept, Limited-Detail Look at Technology Success, 5 Aug 2004
Living on the Fault Line will mainly be of value to those who are new to working in technology-based businesses.This book combines the perspectives of many different books into one. As a result of spanning so much material, the book operates at about 100,000 feet above sea level. Although the view is breathtaking, you can't see most of the details. For managers and executives, that means being left with concepts that they may have trouble implementing. The way to overcome that weakness is to go on to read other books that do address these issues in more detail like Built to Last and The Innovator's Dilemma. The first part is familiar material about how the Internet is changing business. It goes on to focus on the IT department of a traditional company as the weak link in responding to Internet opportunities and challenges. The second part repeats Moore's shareholder value perspectives from The Gorilla Game (a book I liked much better than this one). Basically, he feels that management and the board should look at the level and direction of stock price as a litmus test on the company's strategy and implementation. Part three hits the high points of relating well in the middle of creating a competitive advantage while technology is changing. Part four discusses how top performance changes at times during a technological wave. This is probably the most interesting part of the book. It is quite well done. Part five examines the key concept of focusing on what creates competitive advantage internally, and getting rid of everything else by outsourcing and partnering. I thought this was a little too simple. In many cases, your internal perspective may be the worst place to try to do key activities. For example, Wal-Mart reportedly began to do better with Internet development after it did more outsourcing in this core area. Keep in mind though that apparently Wal-Mart is still struggling with the Internet. This section was really addressing The Innovator's Dilemma material and concepts. Finally, how do you institutionalize the way your company will attack the Internet and future technologies? This is routine material from a variety of books, and you can skip it if you are well read in business. If you like your business books highly condensed and simplified, you'll rate this book a 5 star. If you like more detail, you'll rate it lower. If you have to have lots of detail, skip this book. It is resistible for you. After you read this book, I suggest you think about when you may communicate at too high a level of generalization. People need it simple. See the excellent book, Simplicity, more more ideas!
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