Corporate Internet Planning Guide

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for Corp.Strategic Internet planning
Review: Gascoyne does a great job of articulating the processes required to align Corporate Internet Strategy with core business Objectives. This is a critical component of any Strategic Marketing Plan.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Guide to Internet Strategy and Planning
Review: I ordered 3 books from Amazon.com on the development of an Internet Strategy for my company. This book is clearly the leader in the presentation and development of an Internet strategy. It is well written with relevant examples, tables and commentary. Don't waste your time and money on other titles -- this is the one.

Rating:
Summary: Trendy gushing over Internet possibilities.
Review: This is one of those treatments which would make an excellent article in a business publication yet, unfortunately, has been expanded to book length. Case studies are numerous, shallow, and typically one paragraph long. After the first couple of chapters I found it repetitive as the same points were made about the same companies, only under different chapter headings.

The title page lists Ozcubukcu as co-author, but the dust jacket does not mention him/her, focusing solely on Gascoyne. It is possible that Ozcubukcu wrote the book from interviews with Gascoyne. Given the wandering path with which the book covers its subject, this seems likely.

There are a lot of "old model" - "new model" comparisons in the numerous tables, usually over simplifying what business was like BI (Before the Internet) compared to the dynamic new possibilities the Internet offers. One wonders how anyone made any money in the past.

In one chart, the authors describe the "New" world has one without barriers to entry and two pages later wax eloquent about how an early Internet adopter has established substantial entry barriers by using an interactive Web page. This is but one example of the books internal inconsistencies. One wonders if they read their own material. The book also contains numerous editing mistakes.

The authors speak of the Internet as a "paradigm shifting" technology which will change how all businesses operate (I wonder if McDonald's has received the word yet) rather than just another new method for communications between businesses and their customers and partners- about as "revolutionary" as the telegraph and the telephone.

The authors make many good points and offer sound advice, but this is pretty much finished by the end of the first 50 pages. Compared to other business books I have read, it offers little meat, a great deal of cheering and waving of pom-pons, and a shallow treatment of the subject, not worth the purchase price nor the time to read it. It's main selling point is that it reinforces the latest business fad of waxing eloquent about how the Internet will change the world.