Fast Talk: The Old Economy Meets the New Economy

Lars Nyberg: Every one of our businesses is commoditizing. And that makes it a struggle every quarter, every year. But it raises a question: Are we talking about one market with millions of customers, or are we talking about millions of markets with one customer? We're number one in the world of ATMs. But when you think about it, ATMs are pretty stupid machines. Every time you walk up to one, it asks you the same question. It should know you. It should know what you want. The networked world makes it possible for you to know every single customer and to treat each one differently.

Eric C. Dean: So far, I'm hearing that our job is automatically to give customers something that they want. But people are so dissatisfied because it's just another product. I don't care how fancy it is or how slickly tuned it is to what I want. I don't want another product. What I really want is to be able to connect with other people. But business keeps retreating from the notion of human beings contacting other human beings. We get better and better voice-mail systems, but it becomes harder and harder to find a human being to talk to. The Web started out as a mechanism for people to collaborate directly -- people to people. It has become a facade that blocks people from reaching others. Speeding up in order to do more of that will just alienate more people. Instead, we have to learn how to let people touch other people.

Brad Brinegar: I think that we're putting too much emphasis on technology. To me, the issue isn't so much human connection as brand connection. People don't buy products or services. They connect to the whole experience of the brand. But the technology boom has created some problems. We've taken our eye off of how to connect with people as brands and put too much emphasis on how to push things out the door.

Amy Williams: When it comes to the best of both worlds, technology enables an old-economy company such as ours to do things at the front line that make our brand experience more consistent. Before, we had only face-to-face people and feet on the street. Now we can use technology to create a consistent brand experience across different channels. Whether our customers contact us through their agent, go over the Internet, or use a call center, they get the same experience, price, and service capability. And if they prefer one channel over another, we'll learn that and work with them to provide what they need.

Betsy Cohen: For Ralston Purina, the best of both worlds means that we not only have pet food, but we can also use our Web site to respond to all of our customers' pet needs. Those needs may mean working with an entrepreneurial group called "Petfinder" to adopt a pet, or they may mean learning about training, housebreaking, or taking care of the pets that our customers have. We have 100 years of history. We understand nutrition and behavior. We have trainers and veterinarians. But previously, our customers never knew that. All they knew was what we put in a bag. Now we have dialogues where our customers can interact with experts. When we launch a new product, we can bring in the whole team in order to make the nutritional information available online. The Internet allows us to bring our knowledge forward.

Mary Lee Schneider: One thing that distinguishes us as 100-year-old companies is that we view the Internet as a means to an end: It enriches the customer experience and bolsters the brand. For so many new-economy companies, the Internet was seen as an end unto itself.

Warren Holtsberg: The whole point of technology is to make your life more efficient and more enjoyable -- and to save what has become the most valuable commodity for all of us: time. So it's not about the technology, it's about the application.

Eric C. Dean: We're not going to solve anything with the next technological device. I have my cell phone, my PalmPilot, and my laptop. I have more devices to carry around now than I know what to do with. We don't need another device. We need to figure out what we're trying to do for each other, how to deliver that, and how to make it easy to get there.

Fred Crawford: When I look at technology in the Information Age, it's like watching a train wreck. There are a hundred different technologies and a thousand different options that I can choose to carry. The problem for consumers is that every time they are handed a new technology, their lives don't get better. They get worse. So it turns out that consumers are informed and aware. They are plugged in, but they're also confused and cynical. That means that we need to use the technology to make the mundane stuff mundane, and use the freed-up time to allow for a little human connection. People want community and connectivity.