State of the New Economy

Robert M. Howe

Chairman and CEO
Scient Corp.
San Francisco, California

For the first time since I've been in business (and it's been well over 30 years), technology is in the hands of society at large. And it's being used to change the way that people and companies do business -- at large.

Buyers and sellers are getting together as never before. Consumers have so many choices. Prices are transparent. People are making deals that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable. They're touching the marketplace in ways that they never could before. Who would have thought -- even 10 years ago -- that we'd someday be able to trade stocks for $8?

Businesses are also getting together as never before. Look at all of the new marketplaces. Auto dealers are coming together, as are industrial suppliers -- likely and unlikely bedfellows. Who would have ever thought that a company like AOL would buy a company like Time Warner?

Globalization is becoming a reality, in many ways, for the first time. Go to a computer anywhere in the world, and you'll see that the person sitting at it is familiar with eBay and with Yahoo! I love that.

My biggest fear is that I'm going to die before the movie is over. I love what I do. I've waited a long time to see the integration of technology and business, and to watch this movie play out the way that I'd always hoped it would play out is really something. It's even more exciting than I thought it would be: It's bigger. The colors are brighter. And I don't know how it will end. No one has any idea what the end points are -- what the next plateau is. That heightens the excitement.

Robert M. Howe is chairman and CEO of Scient Corp., a professional-services firm that creates, builds, and operates complete e-businesses for its clients.

Kurt Andersen

Novelist, and Cochair
Inside.com
New York, New York

A friend of mine used to say, when talking about politics, that he was a member of the antiboredom party: He was in favor of almost anything -- and of anyone -- that made politics less boring.

I am a member of the same party. I like the fact that we're living in a time when there's a lack of certainty about where we're going, what's good, what's bad, and what's legitimate. You can't just cruise along on conventional wisdom today.

I also like being the age that I am -- 45 -- in the age that we're in. Whenever I throw myself into a project these days, it isn't nearly as terrifying as it was when I was in my twenties or early thirties. I think that I have just enough miles on the tires to draw some conclusions about how things work.

On the downside, I have a slight "embarrassment of riches" problem. I'm insanely fortunate to be able to do all sorts of different things. I used to have this fear that I would be pigeonholed, that I would be pushed to do the same thing all the time, but that fear has proven unfounded.

But just as it's hard not to smoke, not to eat too much, and not to drink too much, it's hard not to say yes to every new project that comes along. It's also hard not to spend all of my time with my children. It's hard to say no.

Kurt Andersen (kurt.andersen@inside.com) is cochair of Inside.com. Previously, he cofounded Spy magazine, was editor in chief of New York Magazine, and was a columnist for Time and for the New Yorker. He is also the author of Turn of the Century (Random House, 1999).

Rabbi Irwin Kula

President
CLAL (The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership)
New York, New York

The New Economy, as I see it, is part of a larger context in which we are redefining what it means to be human. We need to foster new conversations across many boundaries, because out of these conversations will emerge new ideas and new ways of structuring communities.

There is no way that the boundaries that have turned people against one another can stand in this new era. At one time, having boundaries meant saying, "Don't come into my land; don't come into my space." But today, boundaries are meeting places where people explore their differences. We're living in a time when pluralism on a global level is a genuine possibility.

There is also the possibility that in our haste to push technological and economic growth to their fullest potential, we'll end up falling behind in spiritual and psychological growth.

The first wave of any kind of technology brings a sense of freedom that is incredibly intoxicating. In a capitalist society, the first move is to apply that freedom toward the creation of wealth. That's absolutely understandable -- even necessary.