Foreword
It is hardly original to observe that the popular view of the Internet has changed radically in its short lifetime. In the space of well under a decade, those perceptions have progressed from playground for geeks and scientists to curiosity to phenomenon to burst bubble. Yet to dismiss the importance of the Internet to companies today because of the failure of so many ill-conceived business plans is to miss the online medium's real and continuing impact. Many transforming technologies have gone through the same evolution that the Net has so many, in fact, that it seems a massive shakeout is not just characteristic but is almost a requirement somewhere along the way. The automobile, for one, followed much the same pattern in its early life; names such as Doble and Stutz were the Kozmo and Pets.com of their day. Yet for all the car companies that failed and money that was lost, no one today seriously argues the point that the automobile profoundly reshaped our lives. So it is with the Internet. With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, we can now see that the Net didn't force successful, established companies out of business, to be replaced by legions of unproven upstarts. Instead, its real impact can be seen in how many of those successful, established companies have embraced it to extend their reach, better serve their current customers, and entice new ones. We are no longer quite so starry-eyed about the Net, but we can see things more clearly now. And what's clearest is that the Net has in a few short years become integral to the way companies do business in the 21st century. Along the way, we have relearned some old lessons and learned some new ones. The most important lesson may be that the same things that make companies successful in the offline world the same standards, values, and commitment to the customer can make them successful online. The Internet, as all of us have conclusively seen (and some of us have conclusively demonstrated), won't turn bad ideas into brilliant ones or lousy companies into winners. But, intelligently utilized, it can make good ideas and companies better. And that's where this book comes in. The Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits is chock full of real-world examples and solid, common sense ideas for embracing the Internet and putting it to work for you. The goal here isn't to help you position yourself for that red-hot initial public offering. The goal is to help you use the Internet to build a solid, sustainable, and profitable business. Along the way, you'll get plainspoken advice about designing a successful Web site; about the strengths and weaknesses of selling goods online; about how to get noticed; about how to use the Net to hold down costs; and about how to use other, non-Web services of the Net (e.g., live chat, email) to establish a bond with your customers or audience. We who were involved in the early days of the Web explosion have known for a long time that if you look up the word "iconoclast" in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of Robin Miller. The Online Rules of Successful Companies doesn't disappoint on that score; it delights in puncturing the myths and pretensions of the medium and many of its champions. But its iconoclasm is matched by its down-to-earth advice and wealth of specific, vivid examples. Provocative and practical, it deserves to be read, studied, and followed not only by every Internet entrepreneur, but by every entrepreneur of any stripe interested in doing business in the Information Age. Rich Jaroslovsky |
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 88