Wisdom Without Waiting: Eulogy for E-Biz--Stage One
© John L. Mariotti 2001
It's over folks--tulip-mania and the first painful stage of the E-Business mania. The few real businesses and concepts that existed are establishing their merit. Auctions work great on the Internet. So do a few powerful portals with their associated content , functionality and search capabilities. As for the rest of them "requiem in pace" (that's rest in peace for you non-Latin folks), and I used Latin, a so called dead language of yesteryear on purpose.
There have been some awful fallouts from the e-biz and dot-com mania. Many na=EFve investors were swindled out of their life savings by the potentially fraudulent or at least misguided maneuvering of investment bankers posing as investment advisors. If the Justice Dept. ever finishes investigating the exploits of former President Clinton and his wife "The Senator", it might want to look into some of these bogus investment deals perpetrated on the American people.
Instead of the SEC, maybe we ought to sic the Anti-Trust folks onto the big investment banks who both funded many of the inept dot-com and e-biz companies, rode their stocks to dizzying heights and then exited early leaving the poor, "normal" investors to take the real bath.
What ever is done, one fact is dramatically clear. Fundamentals of business matter-profits, execution, sound plans, viable business models, and of course cash flow-these were the bane of the early stages of e-biz and dot-com. It's over now, revealed for what it was, and the real businesses are following along picking up pieces of the wreckage to see if there is salvage value.
The only unfortunate thing is that the crash of this mania coincided with a surge in oil prices (thanks to the Clinton Administration's laissez-faire energy policy, and over-reaction in interest rates by the Fed, and labor shortage driven wage inflation (led by United Airlines "Bandit" Pilots).
Now we all have some "sucking it up" and doing the right things the right way to attend to. Dig out those Business textbooks and begin with a business plan, financial projections to profitability, operational execution plans, and, yes, by the way, factor in the newly discovered power, speed and reach of technology. Then let's stop mourning the loss of our e-biz and dot-com balloon and get back to work, a little wiser and a lot poorer-on paper that is anyway.
Right now business is not sure whether we're entering a recession, in one, or just barely avoiding one. One thing is sure, we have a company, or a country and an economy to run, and it is still a good, strong and viable one-unless we screw it up! So stick to your knitting-sell hard, innovate, watch expenses, control inventory, take care of your customers, and get connected to the digital world around you.
The fun is just beginning, now that the bloodbath is about over. See you at the next quarterly earning report time! The second stage of e-biz should be exciting.
