Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy

Author: Christopher Meyer, Stan Davis
List Price: $25.00
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ISBN: 0201339870
Publisher: Perseus Publishing (March, 1998)
Sales Rank: 2,952
Average Customer Rating: 3.96 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5
Blurred
A book written about how changes in technology affect the way business is conducted, BLUR attempts to open the eyes of stable organizations, identifying old business rules as being subject to immediate change in order to support a new economy.

Davis focuses much of his attention on the following formula. (Speed x Connection) = Intangible. This formula attempts to show that the traditional roles of buyers and sellers are changing with the introduction of technology. Speed implies that immediate access to a desired set of information is available at any time of the day. Through connection, Davis infers that real-time information is available from virtually anyplace in the world. His use of the word intangible relates to expanded knowledge about a particular item of interest. BLUR shows how these three areas effect the way business will be conducted in the future, and how the relationship between buyer and seller will ultimately differ from that of today. There are new rules regarding the connected economy, and instead of trying to fit those rules into current day practice, Davis suggests that businesses first must become aware of them and then second, try to adapt to them.

BLUR challenges the reader to question every basic business assumption held, and encourages businesses to implement new ideas. New ideas that might even contradict past experience, but its those new ideas that just might be the key to launching businesses forward instead of becoming stagnant in an advancing economy.

I believe many of the ideas presented in BLUR carry merit worthy of in-class discussion and would recommend it as optional reading material for future classes.


Rating: 4 out of 5
The times, they are achanging
In the digitally connected economy, everything is moving so fast that it is a blur. Seller and buyer are hard to distinguish. Products and services merge. Transactions become exchanges. Physical assets become liabilities, replaced in strategic importance by human knowledge and imagination. The brightest employees become free agents who contract their services to the highest bidder.

This is the future that Davis and Meyer see, and many elements of it are already evident. Following their guided tour to this brave new world, Davis and Meyer tell you how to get ready for it. In the final chapter, they offer 50 ways to blur your business and 10 ways to blur yourself. And when the book ends, it really doesn't. The authors have an interactive Web site they invite you to visit. There you can partake of other readers' blurry ideas and add your own. So get ready for the new connected world. The fix is in, baby.


Rating: 3 out of 5
Not to the point
The authors did start with some new interesting ideas but as I kept reading, I somehow could not relate those ideas to the instances provided in the book. The examples provided are not particular to BLUR scenario but are general in nature and applicable to existing models too.

If you read the 60 points of BLUR summarized in the last section, you can skip reading the entire book.
Overall OK but lacks strong correlation to subject idea.

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