Well, we moved. After 10 years in one house, Nancy and I packed up dog and computers and trucked off to a new home -- Stately Swaine Manor II. The move was prompted by Nancy's entrepreneurial plans; as for me, I work in cyberspace: I could live anywhere.
Don't get me wrong; I love our new home. My office is bigger, for one thing. And there are other things: Six and a half fertile acres, fruit trees, mountain views, river nearby. Plus the entrepreneurial opportunity Nancy was looking for, or make that opportunities: an herb garden, organic farm, and restaurant. Yes, it's good to be here. Although getting here was something else: Moving is back-breaking labor and back-breaking labor is a pain. But not the biggest pain, I soon found out.
We had just begun to unpack boxes when cousin Corbett arrived.
"When does the restaurant open?" he wanted to know.
"Restaurant? We don't even have a refrigerator yet."
A look of panic came into his eyes, until he saw the pizza on the counter. "So, how did you find this place?" he asked around a mouthful of pepperoni pizza.
"Nancy found it on the Net." I pulled up a box to use as a chair and got myself a slice. "It just shows how pervasive the Internet is these days. She found this place, researched loans, and found software to help her run the restaurant -- all on the Net. She even took some farm-related courses via Internet distance learning."
"That doesn't mean the Net is pervasive," he said, "It means you're living with a nerd."
I could have challenged that, but I didn't want to encourage him.
"To what do we owe the honor of this visit, Corbett?"
"There must be something around here to drink," he said, opening cupboards.
"You came for something to drink?" I asked, thumbing through the phone book to the restaurant section.
"No, no, I'm here to keep you from making a big mistake. I want to make sure you're setting up this business right. Tell me what you've done so far."
"Well, I've started planning our network -- "
"Your intranet. Is Anchor Steam all you've got? No microbrews?"
"Where did you find those? Give me one. Um, intranet, right. But there are just the two of us so far, so I think of it as an 'intimnet.' And allocating the hardware. Nancy's office inherits the three generations of obsolete Macs. My office -- "
"Yeah, but have you begun evolving an EBC yet?"
I was only half-listening, concentrating on the pizza, trying to make sure I got a few pieces. I've never seen anyone like Corbett for eating and talking at the same time, and doing both of them very fast, I might add.
"Huh? EBC?"
"E-business community. That's your first step. Your network of suppliers, distributors, commerce providers, and customers. You need to get the relationship grid wired up. The day of the megacorporation that controls the whole food chain is over. It's about relationships now."
"I think the position of a farm or restaurant in the food chain is pretty much fixed."
"That's Newtonian thinking. You need to adopt the bionomic model. The business of the future is chaotic and self-organizing."
"Well, we've got the first part down."
"Mike, you're stuck in Newtonian economics. The new economy is a steaming tropical rain forest, aswarm with fiscal organisms eating and feeding one another in an orgy of 'coopetition.'"
"Oh, I think the health department would come down on us for that."
"And another thing," he said, taking the last slice, "offices are out. The new corporation is a transient virtual company formed over lunch by like-minded people to solve a particular problem, then disbanded before dinner."
"Like Hollywood movie deals?"
"Exactly. Business alfresco con latte. So get the restaurant open soon, so we can talk business. And now, is my room ready? You do have cable, don't you?"
Michael Swaine
editor-at-large
mswaine@swaine.com