And, luckily this development has been much more in harmony with our concern for the environment, so it has not brought with it the myriad negative side effects the Industrial Era ushered in. Let's look at the whats, the whys and the hows of this transformation. The first thing we notice in the Knowledge Era is that the Marketing Department has been renamed the Listening Team. The team's task is to actively listen to and understand their customers' capabilities and aspirations. Engineering, no longer a self-contained little empire, includes customers and suppliers on the Product and Service Creation Team.
Operations consists of a network of independent vendors tied together as one by a robust network.
Human Resources is now called Knowledge Resources and Information Systems is now Knowledge Systems. The Training Department no longer exists, but learning has not stopped. Instead, more intense learning happens within and between teams. Legal has redefined its stripes and instead of playing the defensive game, it is an active business partner helping to shape virtual enterprises in real time. Jobs are gone, as are managers.