E-Strategy, Pure and Simple: Connecting Your Internet Strategy to Your Business Strategy

I am always amused by "reviewers" who trash another consultant's book. Every guy with a phone and fax who thinks he is a consultant finds it in their interest to degrade other concepts.This book is filled with valuable and memorable information that will help any senior executive get a grip on the Internet and it's future implications.I don't think the author ever intented for "E-Strategy" to be the encyclopedia of the Internet - I think he did a marvelous job of taking a complex topic that most managers don't understand and putting it in our language and context. I wish more authors took that approach.

There is nothing new or Earth-shattering in this book - it's about employing strategy within the context of e-commerce. The authors' agenda, from the preface, is to "... demystify the Internet ... which then empowers CEOs and their key executives to design their own Internet strategy and control their own destiny." The central theme of the book is wrapped in three imperatives: (1) clarify your business strategy, (2) construct an "e-strategy", and (3) integrate the business and e-strategy. While the ideas and approach are straightforward and basic, the real gems are contained in the interviews with key executives who have creatively conceived of viable (and innovative) e-strategies and have successfully integrated them into their overall business strategy. In my opinion the most interesting interview was with Philip C. Kantz (CEO, TAB Products). TAB Products makes folders, labels and other commodity items. Not the sexy stuff of e-strategies, but that's exactly what this executive crafted and it transformed his entire business. Not surprisingly the creative part of the strategy was minor compared to the leadership abilities that were required to transform a vision into action and results. This interview alone summarizes the entire message of the book. Each of the other four interviews provides insights about the creative, leadership and technical challenges of devising and implementing an e-strategy. As you read this book don't be so quick to conclude that it is only stating the obvious. There are some wonderful ideas to be gleaned, inspiration and encouragement from executive interviews, and some subtle nuances in the authors' approach. The structure and message of the book puts e-strategy and the Internet into the familiar framework of business strategy 101. You'll benefit from the interviews, and will have a path marked with familiar landmarks towards implementing an e-strategy.

I found this book to be a refreshing change from the technical jargon that most books about the internet subject you to. If you are a non-technical executive like me and you want to better understand how the internet can be used as a tool to deploy your business strategy, this book will be very helpful to you. I particularly liked the simple explanation of the twelve e-nablers.This section broke the internet down into its basic business functions allowing you to see pretty clearly where these functions can or can't be used in your business. I also thought the section on the killer.com was a stimulating way to envision how a competitor might infringe on your business by using the internet. The process Mr. Robert describes for developing an e-strategy sounds like an effective way to sort it all out and make sure whatever you're doing with the internet supports your basic business strategy.The interviews with the CEOs of companies that have used these concepts are very well written and give a good sense of how the process plays out in real life.I recommend this book to any business person who wants a simplified road map to the internet and how you can use its many capabilities in your business.

I would like to comment on how easy the book was to read as well as understanding the concepts. The e-nablers section really clarified what the internet was all about. I believe that senior executives should be reading this book and asking themselves whether their e-strategy is supporting their business strategy.