It's a great adventure to write books about issues that change as quickly as the Internet does. What seems true one day can be considered completely passé the next. The latest fad that everyone invests in one week can be left behind the week after. And yet it is more important than ever to place the web, web strategy and the entire company's operation on the net in a larger context. To tell the whole story, not just fragments.
For too long we've settled for fixing a little bit here, changing a little
bit there. For too long has the company's work consisted of a patchwork of small efforts, each in itself not bad, but seldom part of a larger plan. The method of trial and error, of not planning big enormous projects is still okay. But it's just as important to look up and to think strategically. This is nothing new. What is new, however, is that the net is now generally accepted. Before, we could manage the net as a digital extension of our usual communication that often started in our shops, with our sales people, in newspaper ads or in TV ads.
In the future, these channels will end up further back in the chain.
From now on, the net is the starting point for the dialogue with our
customers - not as an appendix where visitors occasionally land. This is nothing new either, but for many, it is still quite distant in practice. For many, their web is perhaps not a necessary evil, but a very odd bird. And there are often quite a few who ask questions that haven't been investigated. Is it the marketing department, the sales department, the IT department or maybe the information department that owns it? Should we sell, offer customer service or market new products?
Are the CEO's letters important, or is it more important to
focus on our sales team? Today, we know that we need to be able to answer these questions. And we need to have good answers. For most businesses, their web service forms the basis for communicating to the outside world - regardless of whether they've realized it or not. That is where you can tell about what you do, it's where you can convince and argue, and it's where you can help customers that have questions or viewpoints. Over time, the net creates a whole new dialogue with the customer. The customers are no longer in the hands of a few suppliers, where customers would be happy to receive products or services at all. Now, in the digital economy, the competition is just a click away. And the competition is not the same old group that met for lunch at the Rotary Club or at the clubhouse at the golf course. In the future, your competitors will come from entirely different branches, from all over the world, and are as interested in your customers as you have been. This book is therefore more important than you realize. And believe me - we need a book like this. Many are tempted to believe that it's only blogs and quick lunch meetings that work in the digital economy. But experience shows that our need for answers to the big questions is only increasing, and for those answers both books and magazines such as Internetworld are excellently suited. Yes, the world is quickly moving forward, but it's when the wind blows hard that it's most important to have something to hold on to. This book is one of those solid points.
But the book isn't just something to hold on to, something to create order in a world that looks slightly chaotic. It's also a call to action. It's not enough to sit and wait for things to be solved on their own. And it certainly isn't enough to hope that someone else will get hings going. It starts with you and your co-workers. He who wants to succeed on the net can of course have help from others, but most importantly he needs to make sure that he understands, learns and gets involved. A lot can be bought from consultants, a lot can be achieved with modern tools. But the mentality, the engagement and the organization that is required can't be bought. It needs to start with you, in your own enterprise. Because if you don't do anything, you can bet that your competitors will.
Get going!
Magnus Höij
Editor-in-chief
Internetworld Sweden
