A huge sigh of relief all round then from finance directors, IT directors and, in fact, any department head who feared for the sanity of senior management who had fallen under the spell of a digital Elmer Gantry. The thing is that this report comes as no surprise and the disillusionment, even disappointment, is to be welcomed. The thing is, the internet is revolutionary, but not in terms of making money. The revolution lies in changing the way we run and position our business. What the networked economy does is reposition business as a whole.
Customers have a new and different sort of power, as do workers.
But managers do too. This is not the power to make cuts or a quick buck, but to create new relationships between the business, its suppliers, its customers and within the organisation. But this is not the point. The net is not about saving money, but about spending it better. A decent internet strategy costs.