e-Strategy, Pure & Simple: Connecting Your Internet Strategy to Your Business Strategy

Book excerpt: Senior managers know that the Internet demands new business strategies. But for many of these executives, much about the Internet and e-commerce remains enigmatic. This important new book by strategy guru Michel Robert demystifies the Internet for executives and provides a comprehensive framework for developing Internet strategies that dovetail with an organization’s overall business strategy.Based on Robert’s two decades of research and international consulting experience at more than 400 companies, the e-strategy model described comprises 10 e-drivers, corresponding to 10 key business strategies. These include: demand aggregation for obtaining better prices; build-to-order services that allow customers to configure products to their specifications; customer self-service; direct customer access for manufacturers; dynamic pricing; and others. Using many real-life examples, Robert describes how each e-driver works and how to combine them in a coherent strategy for making optimal use of today’s most powerful strategic tool, the Internet.