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Rating: 
Summary: ANTIDOTE TO OVERREACTION
Review: "Dot Vertigo" makes the case that industries, companies and the economy itself are forever and significantly changed by Internet technologies. There's thin ice here: the reader who wants to reject this technological revolution may, by superficial reading, see "Dot Vertigo" as an echo of hype from the dot.com glory days. Such a reading would be wrong. What Dick Nolan accomplishes is superb use of established analytical concepts from academia and management practice to explain and extend the implications of the new technology. Thus, he documents illustrations of leadership (as in the turnaround of IBM), and of systemic interaction of resources, organization and technology (as in CISCO in its heyday). He builds on established ideas like stages of organizational learning to lay out scenarios for challenges that different kinds of companies (incumbents, start-ups, dot-com survivors, and bricks-and-clicks) are now facing. This is the stuff a great course on management should include these days, the stuff every executive should read and reflect in strategic thinking and execution. The book is an excellent reflection of its author: a field-research academic with years of advisory experience and, significantly, a man as creative with ideas as he is with practical advice. Very few can match Nolan's combined understanding of information technology, organizational behavior, and the executive mind. "Dot Vertigo" shows the balance and the insight that make it the antidote to some current overreaction to the dot.com phenomenon. Ignore the impact of the Internet at your peril!
Rating:
Summary: ANTIDOTE TO OVERREACTION
Review: "Dot Vertigo" makes the case that industries, companies and the economy itself are forever and significantly changed by Internet technologies. There's thin ice here: the reader who wants to reject this technological revolution may, by superficial reading, see "Dot Vertigo" as an echo of hype from the dot.com glory days. Such a reading would be wrong. What Dick Nolan accomplishes is superb use of established analytical concepts from academia and management practice to explain and extend the implications of the new technology. Thus, he documents illustrations of leadership (as in the turnaround of IBM), and of systemic interaction of resources, organization and technology (as in CISCO in its heyday). He builds on established ideas like stages of organizational learning to lay out scenarios for challenges that different kinds of companies (incumbents, start-ups, dot-com survivors, and bricks-and-clicks) are now facing. This is the stuff a great course on management should include these days, the stuff every executive should read and reflect in strategic thinking and execution. The book is an excellent reflection of its author: a field-research academic with years of advisory experience and, significantly, a man as creative with ideas as he is with practical advice. Very few can match Nolan's combined understanding of information technology, organizational behavior, and the executive mind. "Dot Vertigo" shows the balance and the insight that make it the antidote to some current overreaction to the dot.com phenomenon. Ignore the impact of the Internet at your peril!
Rating:
Summary: ANTIDOTE TO OVERREACTION
Review: "Dot Vertigo" makes the case that industries, companies and the economy itself are forever and significantly changed by Internet technologies. There's thin ice here: the reader who wants to reject this technological revolution may, by superficial reading, see "Dot Vertigo" as an echo of hype from the dot.com glory days. Such a reading would be wrong. What Dick Nolan accomplishes is superb use of established analytical concepts from academia and management practice to explain and extend the implications of the new technology. Thus, he documents illustrations of leadership (as in the turnaround of IBM), and of systemic interaction of resources, organization and technology (as in CISCO in its heyday). He builds on established ideas like stages of organizational learning to lay out scenarios for challenges that different kinds of companies (incumbents, start-ups, dot-com survivors, and bricks-and-clicks) are now facing. This is the stuff a great course on management should include these days, the stuff every executive should read and reflect in strategic thinking and execution. The book is an excellent reflection of its author: a field-research academic with years of advisory experience and, significantly, a man as creative with ideas as he is with practical advice. Very few can match Nolan's combined understanding of information technology, organizational behavior, and the executive mind. "Dot Vertigo" shows the balance and the insight that make it the antidote to some current overreaction to the dot.com phenomenon. Ignore the impact of the Internet at your peril!
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Bad news for corporate executives: Any IT investments you made before 1995 are now obsolete.
That's the message from Richard Nolan, who advises companies to forget about updating their legacy systems and begin anew from scratch. Why is such a dramatic gesture required? Because technology advances over the past decade have totally revamped the competitive landscape, making speed and flexibility the business imperatives of the 21st century. Sure, there are echoes of '90s Net hysteria here, but we from getAbstract strongly recommend this book as a warning that, just because the bubble has burst, decision makers cannot afford to neglect their IT systems.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding the New New -- Really New Economy
Review: Dick Nolan takes as his theme the disorientation that Michael Lewis talks about in his book Next. If you are only going to read one business book this year, Dot Vertigo is that book. Dick Nolan has spent his life explaining things. He is an accomplished educator at the Harvard Business School. I was fortunate enough to work with him during the early days of his research on how computers impact and operate in organizations. `Suits' didn't know what to make of these machines. Dick was able to create the framework that made computers and computing understandable. In Dot Vertigo Dick applies his superlative analytical gifts to first understanding and then explaining what can be done about the apparent chaos surrounding us. Dot Vertigo - that dizzy, confused state of mind where your surroundings whirl about - is curable. The cure requires recognizing and then treating the seven symptoms of Dot Vertigo: 1. denying that the world has changed;
2. maintaining a complacent corporate culture;
3. responding with business as usual;
4. failing to cannibalize your product line before your competitors do;
5. letting egos get in the way;
6. always being in catch-up mode;
7. failing to adopt the new business model for the industry Misunderstanding lies at the center of many of these symptoms. Dot Vertigo goes a long way toward clearing up that misunderstanding.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding the New New -- Really New Economy
Review: Dick Nolan takes as his theme the disorientation that Michael Lewis talks about in his book Next. If you are only going to read one business book this year, Dot Vertigo is that book. Dick Nolan has spent his life explaining things. He is an accomplished educator at the Harvard Business School. I was fortunate enough to work with him during the early days of his research on how computers impact and operate in organizations. 'Suits' didn't know what to make of these machines. Dick was able to create the framework that made computers and computing understandable. In Dot Vertigo Dick applies his superlative analytical gifts to first understanding and then explaining what can be done about the apparent chaos surrounding us. Dot Vertigo - that dizzy, confused state of mind where your surroundings whirl about - is curable. The cure requires recognizing and then treating the seven symptoms of Dot Vertigo: 1.denying that the world has changed;
2.maintaining a complacent corporate culture;
3.responding with business as usual;
4. failing to cannibalize your product line before your competitors do;
5.letting egos get in the way;
6.always being in catch-up mode;
7.failing to adopt the new business model for the industry Misunderstanding lies at the center of many of these symptoms. Dot Vertigo goes a long way toward clearing up that misunderstanding.
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