Box掌门人：信息时代如何赢得竞争

    最终，各行各业的物理和临时藩篱都将彻底消亡，IT技术将把供应商、承包商和客户紧紧联结起来。比如在医疗业，斯坦福医院（Stanford Hospital）就用软件让研究人员、病人和医生充分连接。它所采用的新兴远程医疗技术让这所医院得以进入了全新的市场，甚至有可能让远在帕洛阿尔托市千里之外的病人也能享受到它的医疗服务。而在制造业，像Jawbone、Nest和Ubiquiti这样的公司一开始只需要几个人就能开始运转，只要数天就能通过外包找到全球化的供应商和生产商，只要几个月就能和业内巨头分庭抗礼。企业与客户之间的这种无缝连接早在互联网兴起时就已经初露端倪，但直到现在才获得了充分认识，而眼下正是它开始打造一个更加平坦的世界，同时加速经济的发展。那些能充分利用好这些现代技术的企业由此所获得的灵活性能让它们对市场信息和产品趋势做出更好的反应，也让它们最终变得更有竞争力。

    在所有这些案例中，我们的工作方式，销售的产品，以及各行各业的运作方式都将被信息所塑造。所有那些能被信息改善的职能、功能或部门都将迅速发生转变。这样一来，信息以及能促成信息应用的技术正变成富有竞争力的武器，同时也会成为向客户交付前所未有的价值的基础。

    不管你是“财富美国500强”公司的首席执行官还是只有十个人的创业公司，现在都离不开信息行业。你打算如何投展开争呢？（财富中文网）

    亚伦•利维是Box公司的首席执行官。

    译者：朴成奎

    Finally, physical and temporal barriers are being demolished in every industry, with IT becoming the glue that connects vendors, contractors and clients together. In healthcare, Stanford Hospital connects researchers, patients and doctors using software. Its emerging telemedicine initiative moves the hospital into entirely new markets, with the potential of delivering care to patients far beyond the perimeter of its Palo Alto hub. In manufacturing, startups like Jawbone, Nest, and Ubiquiti can get off the ground with a handful of people, sourcing global suppliers and manufacturers in days, becoming competitive with large incumbents within months. Glimmers of this seamless linkage between businesses and their customers were exposed at the start of the web, but are now being fully realized, architecting a far flatter world and more rapid economic progress. For those that leverage these modern capabilities, the agility gained allows for better responsiveness to information on market and product trends, making them even more competitive over time.

    In all of these cases, the way we work, the products we sell, and how industries operate are shaped by information. Any role, function or department that can be improved by information will change, and rapidly. Consequently, information and the technology enabling its use are becoming competitive weapons, and the basis of delivering previously inconceivable value to customers.

    Whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a ten-person startup, you're now in the information business. How will you compete?

    Aaron Levie is chief executive officer of Box.