On the Road to the New Economy

An international tour of Internet financial applications and ideas supports ages-old, basic truths about business

By Nicholas Imparato

A recent series of road trips took me for two months across europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Visa International (London) sponsored the tour along with an assortment of supporting government agencies. The topic was the impact of the Web on financial services, and the engagement involved managers and executives from Motorola, Siemens, Barclays Bank, and other technology and finance firms.

A mix of strong personalities and diverse cultures added to the intellectual challenge. Yet, amid the separate impressions I gleaned in each locale, there was one overarching conclusion. Here is a location-by-location whisper and the lesson that developed.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Silicon Valley might be ground zero, but leadership is universal. The first impression is unmistakable for all of us who are new to this part of the world: The regard that visiting executives have for the South African bankers and technology vendors is high. They see these South Africans as insightful about industry trends (such as payment systems and e-commerce) and ready to prove that leadership can come from anywhere on the planet.

Malcom Williamson, the CEO of Visa International, is betting on a new security protocol called "3-domain" that will allow all parties to a transaction to know who they are doing business with. (The three domains refer to the authentication processes associated with the buyer, the seller, and the pipe that connects them.) The objective is to push 3-domain as an emerging global standard, as it adapts to European technology (the Secure Electronic Transaction system) and the U.S. protocol (Secure Sockets Layer). Williamson is a serious person and has traveled thousands of miles across three continents from his San Francisco base to share his vision and his ideas. It is clear in private conversations that the trip is about more than schmoozing with some Visa partners. There are lessons to be learned, technologies to be shaped, and a strategy that needs cultivation by tech-savvy leaders in financial services. Hence, South Africa.

In this setting it is easy to recognize that globalization is not just about distributed manufacturing and markets; it is also about intellectual leadership. Whatever the new economy holds for the future, one thing is certain: More people from more places will be mobilizing the economy than ever before. Consider one implication, that although India today might be a place where someone else's brainchild gets programmed or wired, it is only a matter of time before India escalates its activity to higher added-value functions, as in the selection and design of next-generation products. And that intimates an entirely new chapter of international competition.

Paris, France

Partnering skill can be a differentiator. Sean Geer, the European editor of Business 2.0, wins the audience with data that challenges Scott McNealy's dictum that the "only partnership is a purchase order." One part information arbitrageur and one part cheerleader, he eloquently reinforces his point with a litany of examples. Covisint (the B2B exchange involving Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler) is a search for efficiencies that each partner needs. Terra Networks and Lycos Inc. contribute, respectively, wireless technology and search engine expertise in an effort to leapfrog over competitors in the race for customer acquisition.

Whereas the initial challenge to partnering might come from a federal agency (in the case of Covisint - think monopoly issues), or from the marketplace and technology (for Terra and Lycos), the hurdle for a lot of companies is something more elusive. The talk during this tour in hallways and at lunch tables is less about mixing and matching technologies or co-branding programs than I had expected. It is almost always about styles of leadership, organizational cultures, customer expectations, and relationships. - you know, the soft stuff, the art of partnering.

Although it isn't represented at the meeting, Cisco is mentioned time and again in the same context: People have tremendous admiration for this company that has been so successful at digesting billions of dollars of acquisitions while building business worldwide. The key, so the buzz goes right there in Siemens AG's home territory (the European Union), is that Cisco focuses on helping to shape an ecology of interested parties: customers, employees, and other vendors. Based on the soundings in this meeting, Cisco does right all the things you have ever heard about partnering, only more so. And I can understand, in a way that goes beyond just an intellectual appreciation, that partnering acumen is increasingly going to drive new business over time. If nothing else, Cisco has raised the level of expectation.