????最近舉辦的一次活動中，一家大型保險公司的首席執(zhí)行官很倒霉，坐在了我旁邊。身為一家企業(yè)軟件公司的創(chuàng)始人，我當(dāng)然要追著他問他們公司的信息技術(shù)戰(zhàn)略情況。從這次時間不長的聊天中我了解到，他的公司除了運用IT技術(shù)保持業(yè)務(wù)運營順暢之外，并沒有什么信息技術(shù)規(guī)劃。而最近和其他一些“財富美國500強”（Fortune 500）企業(yè)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人就此問題的探討也差不多都是這么收尾的，最好的概括就是響亮地來一句“這不是該我考慮的事情”。

????也許吧。但是這話還是留著說給DVD租賃公司百視達（Blockbuster）的首席執(zhí)行官聽吧。順便提一句，正是他有一次談起奈飛公司（Netflix）時來了句高論，“我們一點都不擔(dān)心競爭對手”，結(jié)果名噪一時。最近，百視達關(guān)掉了剩下的300家店。因為數(shù)字化戰(zhàn)略反應(yīng)遲鈍、混亂糊涂，它再也沒機會東山再起了。

????與此同時，智能家居設(shè)備制造商Nest卻讓不可能變成了可能。它向業(yè)界證明，一家硬件公司如何從零開始，只用短短三年時間，通過讓所謂的“傻瓜”家電變得智能，同時通過外包生產(chǎn)將產(chǎn)品迅速推向市場而讓谷歌公司（Google）斥資32億美元收購。我相信，直到一個月以前，霍尼韋爾公司（Honeywell）的首席執(zhí)行官還從沒想過可能要和谷歌這樣的全球頂尖的信息技術(shù)公司正面交鋒。

????但是把百視達的壽終正寢和奈飛的蒸蒸日上，并不公平，對吧？或者我們可以假設(shè)，霍尼韋爾早就看清了這個趨勢。奈飛和Nest在很多方面都屬于科技公司，背后的推手分別是里德?哈斯廷斯和托尼?法德爾，他們倆都是富有遠見的技術(shù)專家。這算是個符合邏輯的推理，但它很快就要行不通了。

????商業(yè)規(guī)則正在飛速變化。上世紀能創(chuàng)造領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位的那些壁壘、能力和流程要么正在消失，要么已經(jīng)完全失效，取而代之的是一套全新的競爭勢力。同時，在大家紛紛從工業(yè)經(jīng)濟過渡到信息經(jīng)濟的過程中，每家企業(yè)都需要像那些擁有數(shù)據(jù)挖掘技術(shù)的同類公司那樣，按照它們的發(fā)展速度開展業(yè)務(wù)、進行創(chuàng)新。

????這種數(shù)字化顛覆的第一階段在20世紀90年代就拉開了大幕。當(dāng)時，隨著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的崛起，傳統(tǒng)的分銷和貿(mào)易方式被徹底改變。在咨詢公司的推動下，所有知名消費者品牌公司和工業(yè)巨頭都紛紛推出了自己的網(wǎng)站，以期在這一全新媒介上擊敗競爭對手。最終每個行業(yè)都不同程度地經(jīng)歷了這一波所謂的“創(chuàng)造性破壞”。一些大賣場和報紙徹底消失了，但絕大多數(shù)公司基本上毫發(fā)無損，最多是受了點輕傷。隨著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)熱潮逐漸退卻，大多數(shù)企業(yè)都開始覺得，世界又回到了“老樣子”。于是，它們也不再追加技術(shù)投資，轉(zhuǎn)而把主要精力放到業(yè)務(wù)自動化和辦公室的常規(guī)工作上。

????The CEO of a large insurance provider had the misfortune of being seated next to me at a recent event. As the founder of an enterprise software company, naturally I pressed him on his business's information technology strategy. The conversation didn't last long. His organization lacked a technology agenda beyond using IT to keep the business running smoothly. Recent discussions with other Fortune 500 leaders have ended similarly, best summarized by a resounding, "it's someone else's job to worry about that."

????Perhaps. But try telling that to the CEO of Blockbuster. Who, by the way, has the dubious distinction of having once said about Netflix, "As for the competition, we're not worried." Blockbuster recently closed the doors of its remaining 300 stores, having never recovered from its tepid, confusing digital strategy.

????Meanwhile, Nest pulled off the impossible, demonstrating that a hardware company could go from zero to a $3.2 billion Google (GOOG) acquisition in a mere three years by making so-called "dumb" household devices smart, and outsourcing manufacturing to bring them to market at breakneck speed. Until a month ago, I'm sure the Honeywell CEO never imagined the possibility of competing with Google, one of the greatest tech and information powerhouses in the world.

????But it's not fair to plot Blockbuster's demise alongside the ascension of Netflix, right? Or assume Honeywell (HON) should have seen this coming. Netflix (NFLX) and Nest are in many ways technology companies, driven by proven technology visionaries, Reed Hastings and Tony Fadell, respectively. This is a logical rationalization, but it won't be a useful one much longer.

????The rules of business are changing at exponential rates. The very moats, capabilities, and processes that created leadership positions in the last century are diminishing in relevance or being neutralized altogether, making way for a new set of competitive forces. And as we move from an industrial to information economy, every company will need to move and innovate at the speed of their data-exploiting technology counterparts.

????The first chapter of digital disruption played out in the 90s, when the Internet's rise upended traditional forms of distribution and commerce. With consultants in tow, every blue chip consumer brand and industrial giant launched a web initiative to stave off competition in this new medium. Each sector ultimately experienced the wave of "creative destruction" differently, with a handful of big box retailers and newspapers disappearing into the ether, but most corporations remaining largely unchanged, or at worst, slightly scathed. As the dot-com fervor showed signs of aging, most enterprises believed the world was back to "business as usual", with technology investments holding steady and internal efforts focusing on business automation and back-office tasks.