What's New, What's Not

Jay Chiat has worked for more than 30 years in the advertising business. In 1968, he founded Chiat/Day, a revolutionary ad firm that was responsible for such breakthrough classics as the Apple 1984 series campaign and Nike's 1984 Olympics campaign. In 1994, Chiat sparked another revolution -- in how work gets done -- by transforming his agency into one of the first (and most talked about) virtual offices in the world.

Chunka Mui

Partner
Diamond Technology Partners
Chicago, Illinois

Ask yourself a couple of questions: How would your bottom line be affected if every one of your customers got the best price on every transaction? How would you respond if your customers, by forming cartels, could easily share information with one another about their interactions with you? These are hypothetical questions, to be sure, but they suggest what is new about the new economy, and they point to the far-reaching impact of the Internet on how business gets done.

While the answers are changing, the basic questions remain: What do customers expect? What will the new industrial structure look like? How do you organize for a new environment? And how do you adjust the capabilities of your organization?

Chunka Mui (cmui@diamtech.com) is coauthor, with Larry Downes, of the best-selling book "Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance" (Harvard Business School Press, 1998). He is a partner in the digital-strategy practice of Diamond Technology Partners and executive editor of Context, a magazine published by his firm.

DeeDee Gordon

Director, Market Research
Lambesis Inc.
Del Mar, California

In traditional marketing, a bunch of people in a company say, "Okay, we hear this is cool, and we're going to target this group." That's where things like "Generation X" come from. Well, Generation X is a book. It's fiction! And it's offensive to kids. They don't like to be pegged to one bland category. Kids want to look at an ad or a product and say, "This company understands me. This company isn't talking down to me -- it's talking with me."

When you look through the eyes of what I call "trendsetters" and "early adopters," what you see is that kids are living in a radically different world from the one that most people who run companies understand. Kids can see anything on the Net. You hear that a lot, but think about it: They can see violence and destruction. They can learn about sleazy political officials. They can view autopsy pictures. As a result, they're much more pessimistic than adults.

All of this is leading to a huge shift in perception: Future generations are going to be expert editors. They're dealing with so much stuff that one of their basic life skills will involve scanning, sorting, and editing lots of information -- so that they can decide what to wear, what sports to play, how to decorate their rooms. You can already see this trend in musicians like Beck and the Beastie Boys, in stores like Urban Outfitters, and in movies like Pulp Fiction, all of which mix and package many different influences, eras, and styles. What's new in marketing? Think cultural sushi.

DeeDee Gordon, a pioneer in the art of "coolhunting," continues to scout trends in the world's edgiest cities. She consults for top retailers, movie studios, car companies, and apparel and cosmetics manufacturers. Gordon got her start as a coolhunter at age 22, when she worked for Converse -- but her favorite sneaker today is the Nike Air Rift.

Samir Arora

Cofounder and CEO
NetObjects Inc.
Redwood City, California

There's no getting around it: Internet time is shorter than ordinary time. Most companies today are grappling to keep up with the pace of change. To win big in this new environment, you need to understand that everything that you once considered to be fundamental has changed forever.

The economics of the Net allow a startup to come in and change the rules of an industry -- any industry. Consider eBay: This company, which holds public auctions on the Web, has enabled people to make transactions on a scale that was simply not possible before.

In that context, I've found leadership to be more important than ever. By leadership, I mean not simply the articulation of vision and values, but also a continuous dedication to being brutally honest -- with yourself, with your employees, and with your customers -- about the realities of this new business environment.

Before cofounding NetObjects, Samir Arora cofounded RAE Technology, a software-applications company. Previously, he held various management positions at Apple Computer. In 1997, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Information Industry Association's Emerging Business Council.