The Invisible Continent: Four Strategic Imperatives of the New Economy [Anglais] [Broché]

Kenichi Ohmae's invisible continent is a moving, unbounded world, consisting of four dimensions: There's what you can see (old economy commerce, like bricks-and-mortar retail); a borderless world in which capital moves around, chasing the best products and the highest investment returns regardless of national origin; the cyber-world, which has changed not only the way we do business but the way we interact on a personal level; and the high multiples awarded to new economy stocks, which are the basis of not only present wealth but what anyone with a retirement plan hopes will be future comfort.

By Ohmae's reckoning, the invisible continent was born in 1985. Microsoft released Windows 1.0, CNN launched, Cisco Systems began, the first Gateway 2000 computers were shipped, and companies like Sun Microsystems and Dell were in their infancies. Back then, the economic outlook was gloomy and few saw this embryonic continent forming. Now, of course, it affects virtually every business. Ohmae throws his arms around the entire continent and looks at how decisions are made on the invisible continent (the "platforms," which are created by businesses rather than governments), how money moves around the globe, how old-economy monoliths can become new economy Godzillas, and even how all of it might collapse. (Imagine that the Euro overtakes the dollar as the currency of choice; arbitrageurs "short" American currency; inflation soars; the stock market crashes.) The Invisible Continent is a bold and visionary attempt to not only explain the present, but project the future. (Bill Gates as U.N. secretary-general? It could happen.) The possibilities he raises--good and bad--are equally mind-blowing. More important are the practical questions that arise: Who's running this new continent? To what end? And for whom? We'll have to wait and see what the real answers are. But for now, Ohmae's speculation is nothing short of fascinating. --Lou Schuler --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

In this timely, well-written, and well-organized book, Tokyo-based Ohmae, a well-known corporate strategist and author (The Borderless World) discusses the four dimensions that influence the new economy. The economy is visible because consumers will still have local services delivered; it is borderless because products are made with components that are provided both here and abroad; it is cyber because platforms such as Microsoft Windows and the Internet have influenced both communication and the manner in which business is transacted; and, finally, the soaring stock prices of some e-commerce companies give them the capital to take over and/or merge with other companies (i.e., AOL and Time-Warner) to further economic gains and perpetuate growth in this sector. After explaining in detail the four dimensions, he offers scenarios about their implications, elaborating in areas such as organizational change, deregulation, and information technology. A good consideration for large public and academic libraries.DSteven J. Mayover, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

If Kenichi Ohmae did not exist, those of us who have tried our hands at explaining Japan to America would have had to invent him. Ohmae is the former director of McKinsey & Co.'s Tokyo office, author of numerous books (The Borderless World, The End of the Nation-State) and veteran of many campaigns to reform Japanese government and society. As one of the few Japanese who knows how to theorize and articulate ideas in the American "thought leader" mode, journalists have turned to Ohmae many times for a pithy quote or a new metaphor for U.S.-Japan economic interactions.

At the height of Japan's "bubble economy" in the late '80s, for example, Ohmae illustrated the staggering overvaluation of Japanese real estate with a personal story: He had taken out a mortgage on his garage in Tokyo and, with the proceeds, bought eight homes in major cities around the world. To his credit, he thought this was a ridiculous aberration of values. Even back in those heady days, Ohmae was a critic of Japan's unpreparedness for the incipient new economy.

Much has changed in the relative fortunes of our two nations, but little has changed in Ohmae's thinking, as reflected in his new book, The Invisible Continent. Ohmae continues to be fascinated with the waning influence of nation-states, the growing influence of global corporations, Japan's weaknesses and America's strengths. This was thought-provoking a decade ago, but Ohmae is now a prophet whose prophecies have largely come true.

Particularly little is to be gained from Ohmae's central metaphor: the new economy as an "invisible continent" far richer than the "new world" of yore. Does anyone need to be told the new economy "easily moves information across all kinds of borders"? That success will go to those "willing to give up their old ways of thinking"?

Ohmae makes some useful points along the way, though. He explains why brick-and-mortar companies of the old, "visible" variety are still relevant, just as gravity remains relevant even as physicists turn their attention to non-Newtonian quantum physics. And he has interesting ideas about how to become a "Godzilla company" (like America Online or Microsoft ). In the old economy, companies went for the huge horizontal spread represented by General Motors and General Foods. In the new economy, Ohmae says, there is no "General Internet." The victors will be companies with focus and vertical depth.

Most interesting, he pushes past his earlier formulations on globalization, stressing not so much the role of the borderless corporation, but that of the borderless platform. Thus, the "Wintel platform" is not only a coalition of two American companies, but one of constituencies all over the world who benefit from these companies' success. Almost all the important platform plays are dominated by Americans, Ohmae observes, even suggesting that the English language and the U.S. dollar are platforms of a kind. But this can be a boon. These platforms, Ohmae says, have done more to create global prosperity than even the likes of the Marshall Plan.

Unfortunately, this book was put to bed long before it reached readers' hands. One can almost see Ohmae struggling to get a sentence in about the riots at last November's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Elsewhere, Ohmae refers to former hedge-fund gods George Soros and Julian Robertson in passages obviously written before both fund empires foundered on the very rocks of Ohmae's "invisible continent" this spring.

Likewise, Ohmae's emphasis on Microsoft's virtues - and his suggestion that Bill Gates might someday be a candidate for president of the United States - seems quaint in light of Judge Jackson's recent rulings. At least one platform is subject to more state control than either Ohmae or Gates would like to think.

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Dan Burstein is managing partner of Millennium Technology Ventures, a New York-based venture fund. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Le continent invisible est le nouveau champ d'exploration des entrepreneurs.
Univers sans frontière, il existe grâce à l'exploitation et au renouvellement de standards, à la révolution technologique et aux capitaux qui y sont investis. Il est cependant très ancré dans le monde réel et y puise les ressources nécessaires à la satisfaction de consommateurs devenus tout puissants.
Pour pouvoir y entrer, gouvernements, entreprises et citoyens doivent abandonner leurs anciens schémas de pensée.
Pour les gouvernements, ceci implique d'entreprendre des réformes afin de libéraliser les secteurs clefs, de bâtir les infrastructures nécessaires et d'ouvrir leur économie au marché global ; pour les entreprises, d'adopter de nouvelles formes d'organisations ; pour les citoyens, de renforcer continûment leurs connaissances et d'accepter la mobilité.
Le continent invisible interfère de plus en plus dans le monde réel, celui-ci profite de l'enrichissement apporté par la nouvelle économie et voit le taux de chômage de certaines régions baisser. Toutefois, les forces du continent invisible peuvent aussi jouer négativement et remettre en cause l'équilibre mondial. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Durant les années 1980, tous les experts annonçaient le déclin du modèle américain. Aujourd'hui, les Etats Unis n'ont jamais été aussi forts. La domination des sociétés américaines est presque totale dans les industries nouvelles et de croissance. Le plus surprenant est la jeunesse de ces sociétés. Microsoft a 20 ans ; Cisco, première capitalisation boursière mondiale, a 10 ans ; Amazon.com, leader mondial de l'e-commerce, a 5 ans.

Kenichi Ohmae, tente d'expliquer ce revirement aussi spectaculaire que rapide. Je retrouve, dans son analyse, beaucoup d'éléments qui ont ponctué mes études et mon expérience depuis 10 ans au sein des sociétés généralement américaines en Europe. La réussite américaine est liée à la compréhension qu'ont eue, non seulement les chefs d'entreprises américains, mais aussi les responsables politiques, des changements structurels fondamentaux.
- La globalisation du monde. Pour y répondre, dès les années 1980, les Etats Unis ont ouvert leur marché domestique en déréglementant les télécommunications, la finance et les transports. Grâce à cela, le marché américain a eu un accès immédiat aux meilleurs produits et services, et aux chercheurs les plus pointus. La côte Ouest, perméable aux idées nouvelles et peu réglementée, est devenue le centre mondial de la créativité.
- Le développement de nouvelles plates formes d'échange. Al Gore a institutionnalisé le changement en prônant, bien avant l'explosion de l'Internet, les autoroutes de l'information. Les Etats Unis, qui possédaient déjà la langue anglaise, le dollar et la culture de la créativité, ont gagné par K.O. en développant de nouvelles plates formes qui intègrent la cyber économie (informatique et Internet).
- La focalisation sur le consommateur. En quittant un monde de pénurie, seules les offres les plus focalisées sur le consommateur l'emportent. Dans le monde global, les plates formes gagnantes deviennent des quasi-monopoles. Après Microsoft et Cisco, Amazon.com est sur le point de le prouver dans la distribution, qui est par essence le secteur le plus proche du consommateur. Ses trois sites (amazon.co.uk, amazon.de et amazon.com) étaient les 3 premiers sites d'e-commerce en Europe en décembre 1999.
- L'espoir. Un dernier aspect, qui me semble important, n'est pas développé dans le livre. Ce développement sans précédent tient aussi à une vision optimiste du futur, une certaine négation des contraintes du passé, de l'histoire et de la morosité. Les valorisations élevées sont aussi bien dûes à des éléments structurels (puissance de la marque, connaissance des consommateurs, potentiel énorme de croissance), qu'à un besoin d'espérance. Le retour sur investissement d'une fusée sur la lune est négatif. Pourtant, des millions de $ ont été investis sur le programme Apollo.

Tout ceci semble bien loin des préoccupations de nos responsables politiques et de beaucoup de dirigeants français:
- En France, de nouvelles réglementations ou taxes apparaissent (35 heures, RDS et CSG), la protection d'entreprises nationales continue (France Telecom, EDF et Air France). Les décisions, prises en fonction de données historiques, doivent maintenir l'équilibre actuel. Le don de matériel informatique à une école primaire fut refusé car les ordinateurs étaient étrangers et allaient créer une inégalité entre écoles. Cinq ans plus tard, ces écoliers n'ont toujours pas d'ordinateur. L'Internet n'est connu que par ceux qui ont assez d'argent pour en avoir un à la maison.
- La plupart des grandes entreprises françaises ont trop vécu sur des marchés protégés. Au lieu d'être obsédés par leurs consommateurs, de nombreux dirigeants français définissent des stratégies pour défendre des positions chèrement obtenues.
- Enfin, alors que la presse critique les valorisations élevées de certaines sociétés, les managers de ces dernières investissent et gagnent des parts de marché. Le cours de la bourse n'est qu'un outil de financement. Espérons que, pour la France et ces sociétés françaises, il ne soit pas déjà trop tard. -- Denis Terrien -- --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Ohmae, Japan's best-known management strategist, was a consultant with McKinsey and Company for nearly a quarter of a century, and he has written nearly 50 books. He formed his own political party in Japan and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Tokyo. He is author of The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy (1990) and The End of the Nation State (1995). His latest book expands on the prophetic theme of those two books. Ohmae attempts to chart the four dimensions of a new frontier that cannot be found on any map, visible and borderless at the same time. Goods and services will still be delivered locally but the financial infrastructure for such commerce will transcend political boundaries. This infrastructure, as well as communication technology, will be based in cyberspace. Companies that stake an early claim will be able to leverage themselves powerfully, as with AOL's takeover of Time-Warner. With arguments and examples that are erudite and worldly, Ohmae proves himself to be a citizen of the "invisible continent." David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

"Ohame challenges business status quo with provacative statements."

Kenichi Ohame looks ahead to the future of business in the age of the Internet and sees a rapidly changing landscape -- one to which we must adapt or face the consequences. Ohame unveils this new economy's four basic forces and shows how a dramatic and volatile battleground is forming between companies and the countries that try to regulate them.

Just as The Borderless World foresaw a globally interlinked economy, The Invisible Continent maps out the coming technological revolutions and the impact they will have on the businesses around the world. A must read for anyone seeking to attain and keep a competitive advantage in today's markets, The Invisible Continent is a "timely, well-written, and well-organized book" (Library Journal).

Kenichi Ohmae is a Tokyo-based top corporate strategist and adviser to governments around the world. The former director of McKinsey & Company and chairman of its Asia Pacific operations, he is a speaker, educator, entrepreneur, and author of seventy books. He writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, Japan Times, and other publications.