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Blueprint Not So Clear (A Book Review)

It's not easy these days to write a book that sheds new light on how technology is changing the way business and society operates. Such a book would need to achieve a true balance between providing historical context by restating what is already fairly common knowledge, and providing plausible visions for what is likely ahead. Any author, or group of authors, would find this a daunting task.

But, in Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business this is what editors Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy and David Ticoll of the Alliance for Converging Technologies have attempted. They set out to "offer insights and strategies designed to help today's businesses succeed in an emerging and highly competitive digital business environment." Depending on your tolerance for sifting through high-level strategy, that at times borders on ambiguity, and some highly readable scenarios, editors Tapscott et al, may have achieved this balance.

You may recall Tapscott from his early 1990's book, Paradigm Shift. That title exposed some of technology's impact on the workplace, and probably more than any other book before it, introduced in fairly concrete business terms the notion of paradigm. However, he seems either ill equipped or reluctant to provide a well-articulated framework for Blueprint and its contributors. So, despite the fact that all authors are members of the same think-tank devoted to ruminating and studying the impact of new technologies, Blueprint lacks a coherent and thoughtful structure to guide either their writings or the reader.

The text is divided into four broad sections:

- The New Rules of Competition. Only the first chapter, which outlines different types of electronic business communities, really addresses competition. The remaining chapters borrow more from organizational writings to sketch out possible organizational forms. Works by Charles Handy and Peter Senge provide further insight and more tangible strategies.

- Industry Transformations. This section is perhaps the most readable. Written mostly by business leaders, these chapters provide "complete pictures" of what is transpiring throughout specific industries.

- Enabling the Internetworked Enterprise. Perhaps the most potentially interesting section, this is the section that also suffers most from the lack of editorial and thematic coherence. However, the contribution by John Roth, highlighting Nortel's network, is the book's most readable chapter.

- Governance in the 21st Century. You might think this section was the easiest to write, given that the new millennium is but two years away. But, because this section proposes socioeconomic developments, it challenges more than any other section what we currently take for granted. Two chapters stand out as exceptionally articulate - Michael Nelson's examination of the evolving role of government and Steven Kobrin's analysis of economic policy-making in the digital age.

If you are a business entrepreneur looking for tangible, immediately actionable steps, this book may frustrate more than educate you. If however, you are new to the discourse on the impact of evolving technologies and have the patience to search for nuggets of true insight, Blueprint may be the perfect read for you. Undoubtedly the editors would like you to believe that Blueprint delivers on its promise of providing a "wealth of powerful strategies to help any business transform digital promise into bottom-line reality". While the book does not approach this target, Blueprint is an often entertaining, sometimes insightful read for those interested in building for themselves the "big picture" of how technology may alter our world.

Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business Editors: Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy, and David Ticoll. Publishers: McGraw-Hill; ISBN: 0-07-063349-5. Copyright: Alliance for Converging Technologies Corporation

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