[thelist] calling IT managers

[Peter Small]

Hi Teresa,

It isn't really surprising that you find apparent chaos when you transfer
from a bricks and mortar company to work for an e-business. The shocking
fact is that conventional ways to run a business don't work in the highly
changing, volatile environment of e-business. Planning is unreliable and
managed team structures are found wanting. A totally different mind set is
required.

I've spent the last two years studying this phenomenon (details are at
http://www.avatarnets.com).

You might care to glance through a chapter of a book I've just finished
which partially explains the problem:

http://www.avatarnets.com/prt2/ch07ugb1.html

The reality is that there is too much change and uncertainty for regular
business models to cope with. It needs more of a game theory approach. Here
are a list of initial assumptions it would be prudent to make when
contemplating e-business solutions:

1) All potential clients or customers are constantly deluged and swamped
with information.

2) Nobody knows all the answers.

3) The environment of the Internet and the World Wide Web is beyond your or
anyone else's ability to be able to understand it completely.

4) Everyone is occasionally unreliable.

5) Everybody is mostly too busy for you to be able to get their attention.

6) Most people haven't the time to listen to what you have to say.

7) Whatever you know, there are many more important things that you ought
to know but don't.

8) Nobody is going to co-operate with you unless they see there is
something worthwhile in it for them.

9) Whatever you know, somebody knows it better

10) Anyone you want to establish a communication relationship with has only
a very limited number of people they have time to write emails to.

11) Credibility and trust are very hard to come by.

12) Whatever you do there are thousands of others trying to do the same
thing at the same time.

13) Sudden and dramatic changes will occur constantly.

14) Whatever you do will be rapidly outdated by new technological developments.

15) Whatever you do or say will quickly be known to everyone else.

16) Whatever you do will be copied or bettered by your competitors.

17) All services and products will get progressively cheaper as increased
competition, reduced costs and increased efficiency bring prices and
profits down to a minimum.

18) Whatever you are offering, there will be a plethora of similar
alternatives in the market place already.

19) Nobody can have more than one area of real expertise.

20) The solution you have to come up with is beyond yours, or anyone else's
imagination.

21) Whatever technology, programs, tools, methods and techniques you use
will rapidly become unsuitable or irrelevant.

22) Any final solution you come up with will have to be abandoned or
radically altered within a very short period of time.

23) Everyone is going to distrust you until you have built up a
relationship of trust with them.

24) Nothing is free, even if it seems to be.

(Note: This is taken from the book "The Entrepreneurial Web". Rights belong
to Pearson Education Ltd. Any reproduction must be accompanied by this
notice)

peter Small
http://www.avatarnets.com


>Hey 'Volters:
>
>The situation: I'm heading off to my new job as a manager of client-side
>content
>shortly, and I'm getting a bit trepidatious about the move. It seems that the
>company exists in a start-up-like state of chaos; there's no organization,
>processes, work flow, etc. fully in place. My organizational skills are
>excellent, but I'm wondering if any of you who manage a team of Web
>develolpers
>(doing HTML, JavaScript, a little Perl, etc.) have any suggestions. Books or
>articles on creating smooth processes and managing quality control would
>be much
>appreciated. Any tips from personal experience would also be welcome.
>
>Thanks a bunch,
>Teresa
>
>
>
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