Mind Your Own Web Business

The Internet still has an impact on just about everything

The dot-com craze seemed to dissipate even more quickly than it arrived. Everyone is realizing that many of the flash-in-the-pan e-business ideas didn't make any sense - and so those companies are no longer in business.

Unfortunately, numerous businesses with value propositions that customers supported were victims of the rapid demise of dot-com fever. Even though sales were ramping up, investors just couldn't continue to justify sinking capital into businesses that had no immediate path to profitability.

If you are a decision maker at your company, you are bound to wonder what your company should do about e-business now. Is there anybody still out there who cares about the Internet? Is there anyone who wants to see the Internet continue to thrive?

The answer to these questions is yes, your customers do.

The Internet has forever altered how customers want to interact with you. That doesn't mean they want you to drop everything and morph into a dot-com. What they want is much more fundamental than that. They want every interaction, every communication, and every transaction to be streamlined and enhanced through Internet technology. Customers don't necessarily want you to replace existing processes. Rather, they want improvement over entrenched processes.

In my previous column ("To E or Not to E - That Isn't the Question!," May 24, 2001), I asserted a similar position regarding customer behavior in the B2C market. This time I focus on the B2B market.

COMPLEXITY TO THE Nth POWER

The business market is a million times more complex and diverse than the consumer market. As consumers, we all share common behaviors: We eat, sleep, wear clothing, converse, and like to be entertained. And while there are endless products and services that can appeal to us as consumers, the process of communicating and transacting with consumers is pretty straightforward. This is not so in the business world.

Every business belongs to its own ecosystem. The ecosystems comprise organizations that share a common bond. Each of these ecosystems has its unique way of operating, and companies within those systems are unique in their operational practices as well.

REMEMBER THE BASICS

Despite the wide diversity in the B2B world, there is a rule of thumb you can use to reassure yourself that you are aiming at the right customer needs with your e-business strategies. I call it the "origin instinct."

The origin instinct is the subconscious drive that naturally directs our behavior to a starting place where we begin an ordinary task. The origin instinct is developed through habitual behavior that consistently results in success. People learn what methods work for beginning a task and repeatedly use those methods until they become second nature. The most critical thing to realize about the Internet is that it has changed how we approach our daily work routines - it has modified our origin instinct in performing our jobs. Where we begin many activities has shifted, with the Internet becoming a center of gravity for some of the workplace's most fundamental processes.

Those of us in the business trenches are acutely aware of how important the Internet has become to our daily success and realize that the Internet is not just about e-commerce. But I've heard some executives rationalize "because our customers don't want to buy online from us, we don't need to invest further in e-business." When you take the origin instinct perspective, however, you quickly realize that this viewpoint is dangerously myopic.

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The complex thing about the workplace is that each department or job function has its own set of daily activities, workflows, and procedures that involve the Internet. Here are some examples of how the origin instinct relates to specific departments:

• IT professionals begin the product selection process with online research of product specifications before buying; they download software products and try before buying; and when they begin to solve a technical problem, they troubleshoot technical performance problems online before calling the vendor's customer support line.
• Marketing professionals use the Internet to research competitors' new product prices; they poll customers to collect feedback before developing new offers; and they locate vendors online for new marketing projects.
• Salespeople use the Internet to keep up with their companies' new product offerings and pricing changes; they arrange appointments with prospects; and they answer questions online throughout the request-for-proposal (RFP) process.
• Purchasing professionals use the Internet to initiate new vendor relationships, submit RFPs, and source new products.

Use of the Internet is an inextricable aspect of doing business. These workplace behaviors will not revert to the old ways just because of dot-com disillusionment. The Internet will continue to become more deeply woven into the fabric of workplace activities. So make certain your company's leaders understand this vital message: You can't afford to dismiss the Internet as a critical business vehicle. If you attempt to sweep the Internet under the rug, you are making a big mistake.

LAURIE WINDHAM [lwindham@cognitiative.com] is the CEO of Cognitiative Inc., a management consultancy. She is the author of two business strategy books, The Soul of the New Consumer: The Attitudes, Behaviors, and Preferences of E-Customers (Allworth Press, 2000) and Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business (Allworth Press, 1999).