Internet-Working: Trend to Watch

Here is a new development in the business world to watch.

The Executive's November 2003 issue concentrates on networks-between firms and within firms, technological and cultural. The article on "Internetworking," from a professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, discusses how companies can develop online networks to transfer knowledge between far-flung employees. After highlighting some of the most successful "internetworkers", such as Cemex and Caterpillar, the authors discuss the results of a survey of executives about their firms' level of IT-enhanced networking, and admit that progress towards more networked firms has been slow. Their recommendations? Make sure leadership at the very top is committed to developing a better network; concentrate more on the goals of knowledge-sharing and efficiency than on the potential technical difficulties; and start with small experiments to make both employees and customers more comfortable, building to more complex operations later. Source: The Academy of Management Executive, November 2003 (Volume 17, No. 4)