The Emerging Networked World

Don't look now, but the networked collaborative enterprise is becoming a reality, enabled by the shift to the Knowledge Economy and networked 21st century workers and customers. However, to meet the needs of volatile global markets and technology-enabled competitors, enterprises need ways to achieve quantum leaps in innovation and adaptiveness.

Consumer Empowerment is driving change in enterprises' front-end processes. Web 2.0 and social networking tools and intermediaries enable individuals to connect with millions instantly. Customers have the increasing ability to drive their agendas with producers and governments. This is a rare chance for companies to collaborate with customers to create sustainable innovation.

Web 2.0 Misalignment. Consumer-oriented e-commerce emerged in the late 1990s, changed expectations and led to the e-business boom in the enterprise. Today, Web 2.0 is profoundly changing customers' expectations about how companies are run and what they produce. Blogs, YouTube and social networks will change enterprises even more than the Internet did because they enable customers to communicate among each other, independently of companies.

Enterprise 2.0 applies Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging and audio/video to the enterprise, and new case studies are emerging every week.

The Choice. These market forces represent rare opportunities and threats because the rules will change and remake business and government. The choice for executives is whether to act first and try to define the new direction or let other players set the agenda. I help leaders to act first.