Thinking Beyond Technology Creating New Value in Business

by DiVanna, Joseph A.

• ISBN13: 9781403902559
• ISBN10: 1403902550
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-02
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book examines the value proposition of technology and its relationship with business innovation, social preferences, and its role as a mechanism of labor savings or revenue generation. In the same style as his first book, Redefining Financial Services , the author combines empirical knowledge with an historical approach revealing the explicit nature of technological advancement while analyzing the implicit impact on the process of business. The book presents the reader with a question: does society shape technology or is technology shaping society?

Author Biography

Joseph A. Divanna is CEO, Maris Strategies Ltd.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction	1	(3)
Technology Evolution, Invention and Transformation	4	(61)
Technology Invention from Medieval Agriculture to Computer Chip	15	(16)
Technology Acceptance and the Establishment of the Technoclass	31	(7)
Migration from Mainframe to Personal Computer	38	(7)
The Intent of Technology	45	(7)
Contemporary Technology Transformation	52	(5)
Technology's Global Challenge	57	(8)
The Timeless Behaviours of Corporate Bureaucracies	65	(53)
The Lost Art of Project Management	70	(8)
Technology and the Control of Information	78	(3)
Modern People and Dated Skills	81	(6)
Business Processes: The New Medieval Guilds	87	(8)
The Golden Age of Software	95	(8)
The Labour Shortages from the Black Death to High-tech Skills	103	(6)
Bloodletting the Bad Humours and Corporate Downsizing	109	(4)
Machiavelli and the Sport of Mergers and Acquisitions	113	(3)
Computer Viruses and The Black Plague	116	(2)
Disintermediation	118	(29)
Microsoft, the New Medici Merchants	123	(7)
The Internet and the New Revolution of Communications	130	(6)
Changing the Boundaries of Geography-free Business	136	(3)
Collaboration and the New Global Marketplace	139	(3)
Business Taxation and the Role of Governments	142	(5)
Customer Interaction	147	(26)
A Sense of Presence	148	(5)
Three Kinds of Product	153	(4)
Three Levels of Customer Engagement	157	(7)
The English Channel and Demographics	164	(3)
King Richard II and Branding Strategies	167	(6)
The Digitally Connected Renaissance	173	(32)
Medieval Social Change and the Digital Renaissance	174	(2)
Medieval Communities and Their Digital Counterparts	176	(3)
Corporate Castles, the Bastions of eCommerce	179	(2)
Parental Priories and the Quest for Values	181	(6)
Extranet Trading Partner Enclaves	187	(4)
The New Structure of Business	191	(14)
Conclusion Technology's Impact on Global Business	205	(4)
Notes	209	(9)
Bibliography	218	(5)
Index	223