I realized the other day that I had fallen into a bit of a trap on my blog. I had some thoughts on e2.0 and had jumped into posts about it, when in truth I had never defined what I was talking about. I've built an initial model and started refining that but the most basic thing, a definition, was lacking. Now truth be told I had a taken an approach of "you'll know it when you see it". So what are we talking about when we talk about e2.0, is it simply Web 2.0 applied to business? I think it's a little more than that, although that's a big part of it today. Here's what I think e2.0 is: applying emerging technologies like Web 2.0 accompanied by organizational, cultural and process changes to improve business performance in an increasingly connected global economic environment. Let's dissect that a bit more. The most basic part of this is why do we need an e2.0 initiative? e2.0 is an imperative for business because of the shift created by the growing use of the web in business. This shift has created a connected, global economy where any local business can rapidly become a global enterprise on everything from sourcing (global supply chain) to distribution (global customer base). A new competitor used to be the new brick and mortar store down the street (which had to be constructed, you saw that competition coming), now it could easily be an unknown established firm from half-way around the globe (and could appear almost instantly). Competitive advantage comes from conectedness in this environment, the word ecosystem, or a symbiotic relationship between your business and suppliers, outsourcers, partners and customers has taken on a very different meaning today.
e2.0 is not about the technology, but instead about the business transformation, that is organizational, cultural and process change necessary to apply emerging technology to greater advantage in this new connected economy. It's also not just Web 2.0, although Web 2.0 certainly created the first wave of technology and concepts that are providing a response to the connected business imperative. This business transformation is happening in a different way than transformation in the past, which is also the Web 2.0 influence. e2.0 is happening, at least in its initial wave, from the outside in and from the bottom up, not just top down. I read an interesting post recently in a Harvard Business Publishing blog on bringing the core of the business to the disruptive edge, very appropriate, in my opinion, to what's happening in the e2.0 transformation.
The other underlying factor in the e2.0 definition is that business is becoming social again. In the era of the local small enterprise (which lasted into the 1970's), business was social. That changed in the 1980's with the impersonal enterprise hitting everything from grocery stores to banks (some have argued that this impersonal approach to banking is a key contributor to the current financial crisis, makes you think anyway). The internet, and more accurately Web 2.0 is changing the definition of social, friend, acquaintance and changing the way we interact socially. This same model is being applied to the enterprise, building new relationships based on interaction and value.
