Box掌门人：信息时代如何赢得竞争

    最近举办的一次活动中，一家大型保险公司的首席执行官很倒霉，坐在了我旁边。身为一家企业软件公司的创始人，我当然要追着他问他们公司的信息技术战略情况。从这次时间不长的聊天中我了解到，他的公司除了运用IT技术保持业务运营顺畅之外，并没有什么信息技术规划。而最近和其他一些“财富美国500强”（Fortune 500）企业的领导人就此问题的探讨也差不多都是这么收尾的，最好的概括就是响亮地来一句“这不是该我考虑的事情”。

    也许吧。但是这话还是留着说给DVD租赁公司百视达（Blockbuster）的首席执行官听吧。顺便提一句，正是他有一次谈起奈飞公司（Netflix）时来了句高论，“我们一点都不担心竞争对手”，结果名噪一时。最近，百视达关掉了剩下的300家店。因为数字化战略反应迟钝、混乱糊涂，它再也没机会东山再起了。

    与此同时，智能家居设备制造商Nest却让不可能变成了可能。它向业界证明，一家硬件公司如何从零开始，只用短短三年时间，通过让所谓的“傻瓜”家电变得智能，同时通过外包生产将产品迅速推向市场而让谷歌公司（Google）斥资32亿美元收购。我相信，直到一个月以前，霍尼韦尔公司（Honeywell）的首席执行官还从没想过可能要和谷歌这样的全球顶尖的信息技术公司正面交锋。

    但是把百视达的寿终正寝和奈飞的蒸蒸日上，并不公平，对吧？或者我们可以假设，霍尼韦尔早就看清了这个趋势。奈飞和Nest在很多方面都属于科技公司，背后的推手分别是里德•哈斯廷斯和托尼•法德尔，他们俩都是富有远见的技术专家。这算是个符合逻辑的推理，但它很快就要行不通了。

    商业规则正在飞速变化。上世纪能创造领导地位的那些壁垒、能力和流程要么正在消失，要么已经完全失效，取而代之的是一套全新的竞争势力。同时，在大家纷纷从工业经济过渡到信息经济的过程中，每家企业都需要像那些拥有数据挖掘技术的同类公司那样，按照它们的发展速度开展业务、进行创新。

    这种数字化颠覆的第一阶段在20世纪90年代就拉开了大幕。当时，随着互联网的崛起，传统的分销和贸易方式被彻底改变。在咨询公司的推动下，所有知名消费者品牌公司和工业巨头都纷纷推出了自己的网站，以期在这一全新媒介上击败竞争对手。最终每个行业都不同程度地经历了这一波所谓的“创造性破坏”。一些大卖场和报纸彻底消失了，但绝大多数公司基本上毫发无损，最多是受了点轻伤。随着互联网热潮逐渐退却，大多数企业都开始觉得，世界又回到了“老样子”。于是，它们也不再追加技术投资，转而把主要精力放到业务自动化和办公室的常规工作上。

    The CEO of a large insurance provider had the misfortune of being seated next to me at a recent event. As the founder of an enterprise software company, naturally I pressed him on his business's information technology strategy. The conversation didn't last long. His organization lacked a technology agenda beyond using IT to keep the business running smoothly. Recent discussions with other Fortune 500 leaders have ended similarly, best summarized by a resounding, "it's someone else's job to worry about that."

    Perhaps. But try telling that to the CEO of Blockbuster. Who, by the way, has the dubious distinction of having once said about Netflix, "As for the competition, we're not worried." Blockbuster recently closed the doors of its remaining 300 stores, having never recovered from its tepid, confusing digital strategy.

    Meanwhile, Nest pulled off the impossible, demonstrating that a hardware company could go from zero to a $3.2 billion Google (GOOG) acquisition in a mere three years by making so-called "dumb" household devices smart, and outsourcing manufacturing to bring them to market at breakneck speed. Until a month ago, I'm sure the Honeywell CEO never imagined the possibility of competing with Google, one of the greatest tech and information powerhouses in the world.

    But it's not fair to plot Blockbuster's demise alongside the ascension of Netflix, right? Or assume Honeywell (HON) should have seen this coming. Netflix (NFLX) and Nest are in many ways technology companies, driven by proven technology visionaries, Reed Hastings and Tony Fadell, respectively. This is a logical rationalization, but it won't be a useful one much longer.

    The rules of business are changing at exponential rates. The very moats, capabilities, and processes that created leadership positions in the last century are diminishing in relevance or being neutralized altogether, making way for a new set of competitive forces. And as we move from an industrial to information economy, every company will need to move and innovate at the speed of their data-exploiting technology counterparts.

    The first chapter of digital disruption played out in the 90s, when the Internet's rise upended traditional forms of distribution and commerce. With consultants in tow, every blue chip consumer brand and industrial giant launched a web initiative to stave off competition in this new medium. Each sector ultimately experienced the wave of "creative destruction" differently, with a handful of big box retailers and newspapers disappearing into the ether, but most corporations remaining largely unchanged, or at worst, slightly scathed. As the dot-com fervor showed signs of aging, most enterprises believed the world was back to "business as usual", with technology investments holding steady and internal efforts focusing on business automation and back-office tasks.