Part 5 : "Sizing" and the benefits of process

Sounds like a new wave of downsizing is in the cards, and not just for America!
Let's call it downsizing, sure, where that happens, but it also means upsizing, insizing, and outsizing, too.

I think I'm about to be sorry I asked...
Possibly. But let's take them one by one...

Upsizing, because the Web can empower not just individuals, but whole organizations too. A web-based, web-integrated team can solve problems faster, learn faster, and respond to opportunities faster.

Insizing, because adapting your company to the web means, before anything else, examining every single process your people do; not just communications, but every process that generates or uses information. And that means every process in the place, basically.

The Internet doesn't mainly empower the whole organization by bringing us new market opportunities, but by forcing us to find out how to exploit them. That means challenging everything we do, sooner or later, in order to learn how to adapt each process to the Net, perhaps replace it or even eliminate it altogether. It is this self-examination aspect of going interactive that offers the really big payoffs, because it means interrogating every cost and inefficiency.

Outsizing, because the Internet can vastly extend the reach of many, many companies, far beyond their present or traditional boundaries. Strong middle-sized companies can now realistically look at expansion plans to other regions, whether next-door, or on the other side of the planet.

The Web makes this kind of global reach possible even for small companies. Our company is global, for example, not as some ultimate goal, but from Day Zero. Reeves Studio in Australia is global, even though operating from a remote community out in the goldfields. The World of Fishing is based in a small Texas city and has visitors from all over the world, proving it's possible to be a dominant information resource in a very tiny niche.

Sounds like that outsizing bit could be as much of a threat as a promise, since it means others can more easily move in on one's home market.
Sure. But if the end result is that local companies have to work harder to protect their "native" markets, then the whole economy benefits. And if some of those companies fail, or refuse to adapt, then the process also helps ensure that their employees will soon find other jobs when the downsizing begins.

And organizational change?
I said I don't care, because it does not lead change, but always follows the real world. Many people are still convinced that the title or position on the chart translates into power. But we humans are suckers for display and hierarchical signaling, just like all other mammals.

What counts is that the Internet will cause communications within the structure to change. Power is, before anything else, control over information, so the power will inevitably seek out these channels and seek to manage them. It will doubtless succeed at it, too. Boring. Understand the process, instead, because that is where the economic benefits are.

Continued...