E-volve or die warning to Asia-Pacific region

By ADAM GIFFORD

Research company Gartner Group believes 85 per cent of organisations in the Asia-Pacific region lack the management and structure to make it in e-business by the year 2003.

And, since most business is expected to be e-business by then, it is time to evolve or become extinct.

Australia research director Geoff Johnson said traditional business structures may hold companies back.

"The biggest challenge is how you foster productive creativity inside a corporate setting, if you are going to focus on e-business and move to e-business initiatives," he said.

The best practice seemed to be a "tiger team" approach of small groups with fixed budgets, deadlines and minimum "deliverables."

Mr Johnson said few companies here realised the extent of the e-business revolution in the west and northeast coasts of the United States. It was driven at a superheated rate by share options handed out to everyone from senior executives to secretaries.

The market was obsessed with quarterly reporting. Companies changed direction from quarter to quarter as they sought to drive the share price up, or burned huge amounts of cash to capture market share or mind share.

"In Australia and New Zealand we see more prudent behaviour. Burn rates are not the same as in the US, where superannuation fund money and venture capital is too freely available, so you get good money chasing bad ideas."