The word from the Silicon frontier is that you can kiss your five-year plan goodbye. Or, for that matter, any plan that ends in -year. And that goes for the Rust Belt, too. Now the fast eat the slow.'' The impact on planning is revolutionary. Net-speeds force all sorts of cultural changes.
Hierarchies flatten out.
Budgeting cycles get compressed. Decision-making gets pushed out to the front lines. And customer expectations, not the executive board, guide the next big project. Certainly Web economics is a factor. As costs plummet for new entrants in businesses such as retailing or finance, new competition springs up faster and forces everybody to counterpunch constantly.