Pushing the Digital Frontier

Life in the Digital World

In today’s digital world, change happens at warp speed and events occur at the pace of e-mail and Web site connections. Changes underway include:

• Expansion-minded leaders are using more information technology, digital content and digital networks to speed up core functions. New e-leaders need to direct and respond to changing alliances, opportunities, financial conditions and organizational structures.
• Companies are opting for co-opetition, in which two organizations alternate between aggressive competitors and partners in strategic partnerships or alliances.
• Knowledge workers are independent, often deciding to act as free agents, selling their professional and knowledge services to the highest bidder. This undermines organizational hierarchy, in that these well informed workers are better able to make unilateral decisions.
• The growth of teams and alliances reduces the need for hierarchy.

E-business has spurred an increase in the numerous types of electronic marketplaces or bazaars, which enable participants to use dynamic pricing, complex auctioning and sophisticated negotiation strategies with multiple...