How Winning Companies Sense and Respond to Change Using Real-Time Technology.
Meet the future head-on with this incisive book that details emerging trends that will affect all businesses as they progress through the 21st century. Today's technology has become vital to the speed and performance of business. The fast-paced, high-stakes world of technology is infiltrating business everywhere, through the extensive use of high-speed networks, powerful desktop computers, the Internet, and integrated information across many systems. Customers are also demanding that everything be done faster, at lower cost without sacrificing quality.
How will your company compete and prosper in the new millennium? How can you raise your company above the ravages of creeping commoditization and gain that crucial, elusive competitive advantage? The answers lie in becoming event-driven. Event-driven companies (those that acquire, deploy, and wisely exploit real-time information) are the most successful at sensing and responding to the events that drive their businesses. They use the power of real-time information to drive the development and delivery of new products and services.
The winning approach presented in this book will benefit any company competing in this age of globalization, emerging technologies, and ever-increasing competition. After reading this book, you will be able to employ the technology to create real-time operations, and you will have the tools, mindset, and organizational structure that enable you to do the right thing at the right time. And the right time is now.
PREFACE
Over the years, I have been fortunate to interact with over 500
world-class companies that have taught me invaluable lessons. These
experiences have provided me with the advantage of a unique perspective
on how companies improve their competitiveness through technology. The
challenges of the world taking shape around us today -- the advent of
the Internet, wireless technology, global markets, and the
commoditization of everything -- will require every company to
constantly evolve its competitive edge.
The ideas presented in this book have their root in a technical concept
I helped develop in the mid-1980s. The concept was to create a software
technology that would facilitate the distribution of information across
discrete software applications. The technology we developed allowed an
exciting transformation in the way information could be distributed.
Information was no longer a passive resource but rather an intelligent
and active catalyst that could prompt meaningful business responses
automatically and in real time throughout the enterprise.
This ability for information to trigger productive responses within
organizations serves as the foundation for the central theme of this
book -- the event-driven company. Being event-driven is more than a
technological characteristic -- it is the infrastructure, culture, and
mindset that I believe is required for companies to stay competitive
today and in the future.
In writing this book, I took to heart a question often asked by a CEO
friend of mine in response to overly theoretical business models: "That
is all well and good, but what am I to do on Monday morning?" I have
attempted to focus on the concept of the event-driven company by
considering not only where we have been and where we hope to go, but
also practical instructions on how to get there. It is my belief that
the concept of the event-driven company has wide-ranging business
implications. It is my hope that this book can stimulate new thinking,
thus providing value to the readers who need to meet challenges that
await them Monday morning.
Vivek RanadivÉ
Palo Alto, California
July 1999
Copyright © 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
