thoughts on upcoming visit louise ,
i thoroughly enjoyed our telephone conversation several weeks ago . as
promised , i am following up with some thoughts on how we might best use the
time i have on your calendar next week . i am very much looking forward to
the visit with you and some of your team members . joining me on the visit
will be yoko sugiura selden . she works with me in my consulting business
and is also helping me with the course . she is a former investment banker
and joined my firm after we were married . i thought i might indicate some
of the discussion areas i would like to explore .
just to remind you , i have launched a brand new course at columbia
university , graduate school of business , titled internet financial
management . the theme of the course is how companies can use the internet
to create sustained excess shareowner returns . this theme applies equally
to pure - play b 2 b and b 2 c companies as well as to the bulk of traditional
companies that are trying to figure out how best to leverage the internet in
their " normal " course of business . to describe this process i have used the
term " e - tizing " . by that i mean the total transformation of a firm ' s
business processes such that all relevant operations and communications ,
whether they are internal ( i . e . , among operating units and functions ) or
external ( i . e . , between a firm and its customers , suppliers and alliance
partners ) , are performed on the internet . obviously the decision of where
to " e - tize " and where not to is ultimately an roi question . ( by the way , ge
uses the term " digitizing " for roughly the same notion . )
in order to make the course experience for the students especially valuable
and to provide a much broader exposure for columbia in the internet area , i
have departed from the typical course format in two key ways . first , since
everything is moving too quickly for a textbook to exist , i have assembled a
world - class group of lecturers who have kindly agreed to make the time to
join us . second , the students are grouped in teams to work on specific
action learning projects with corporate sponsors . in addition , geoff colvin
of fortune and i are writing up the lecturers and will craft them into a
series of fortune articles . so far we have been very fortunate , the
speakers have been extremely accommodating and absolutely outstanding in
both content and delivery - not to create any pressure ! ! to give you a
feel , terry jones , the ceo of travelocity , will be spending a good deal of
time on this coming monday discussing the implications of what he has
learned , in creating one of the most effective internet sales and marketing
machines , for traditional companies that sell to consumers .
as further background , the student teams are working with applied materials ,
travelocity , trilogy and barnes & noble . com . this small set of companies
represents a nice cross section of b 2 b , b 2 c and more traditional brick and
mortar companies . irrespective of the company setting , each student team
will be focusing on projects that deal with using the internet to create
sustained excess shareowner returns . the target fortune audience will also
cover a broad cross section of companies , but with an emphasis on
traditional non - pure play internet enterprises .
louise , with respect to your presentation , i would like for you to explore a
fairly specific set of issues so that ( a ) the student teams will be able to
use the learnings to leverage their projects with their sponsor companies
and ( b ) the series of lectures will mesh together very effectively for our
writing for fortune .
for the non - pure play internet companies , i want to use ge and enron as best
practice examples . i have been meeting extensively with the ge folks and am
beginning to get a pretty good handle on what they are doing today and what
they are likely to be doing over the next few years . in the same vein , i
view my visit to enron as having three primary goals : ( i ) getting to know
you and some of the enron management team , ( ii ) getting a good understanding
of how your business is using the internet to create shareowner value and
( iii ) establishing a working outline for your session in april . clearly ( i )
and especially ( ii ) will form the basis for ( iii ) .
i have scheduled the following times with tammie to meet with you and / or
your team :
february 21 : 12 : 00 - 3 : 30 - - louise ( work on ( ii ) and plan for feb . 22 )
february 22 : 8 : 00 - 2 : 30 - - work with other team members
february 22 : 2 : 30 - 5 : 30 - - louise ( review learnings and plan ( iii ) )
a sampling of the kinds of questions i would like to investigate would be
the following :
- is the essence of what you have accomplished the creation of a totally new
business or " e - tizing " a pre - existing business ?
- how pervasive is the use of the internet in the day - to - day running of
enron ? for example , has enron gone the route of cisco and ge in trying to
e - tize sufficiently to close your books globally on a daily basis ?
- to what extent is the approach of your business to the internet creating
or forcing compatibility of technology / information systems between you and
your " customers " ( i . e . , trading partners ? ) and " suppliers " ( participants in
the physical value chain ? ) ?
- we discussed the critical role of process definition and detailed mapping
to your success . could you outline for us the process and what are the 5 - 10
major success factors and 5 - 10 " failure " factors ?
- from a technology perspective , i believe you mentioned that you first
looked outside for a solution and found that typical erp type approaches
would have required such massive modifications , that you felt " starting from
scratch " would be more valuable . i would like to discuss that in more
detail . also , how did you systematically tackle the task ? what was the
timeline ? having been through the experience , what are the key learnings
for next time - - - what not to do , what to do more off and how to go faster ?
- also , on the technology level i would be very interested in learning about
the full set of technology building blocks - - including telecom , hardware
( servers , routers , etc . ) , storage ( software and hardware ) , content software .
also along those lines , what are the costs - - capital , set - up and
maintenance ? ( should this be 2 % or 10 % of revenue ? )
- how is the overall technology investment managed so as to get optimal
synergies and yet not impinge on the distinctive diverse needs of various
different businesses in enron ?
- how are you measuring " customer , " " supplier , " and operational metrics
differently due to your internet efforts ? how has this change the form ,
content and use of your financials ?
after reading this e - mail , if you have any thoughts please don ' t hesitate to
give me a call ( 212 - 688 - 2034 ) or send an e - mail message .
yoko and i are really looking forward to our visit ! !
thanks in advance . best regards ,
larry
thoughts on upcoming visit
louise ,
i thoroughly enjoyed our telephone conversation several weeks ago . as
promised , i am following up with some thoughts on how we might best use the
time i have on your calendar next week . i am very much looking forward to
the visit with you and some of your team members . joining me on the visit
will be yoko sugiura selden . she works with me in my consulting business
and is also helping me with the course . she is a former investment banker
and joined my firm after we were married . i thought i might indicate some
of the discussion areas i would like to explore .
just to remind you , i have launched a brand new course at columbia
university , graduate school of business , titled internet financial
management . the theme of the course is how companies can use the internet
to create sustained excess shareowner returns . this theme applies equally
to pure - play b 2 b and b 2 c companies as well as to the bulk of traditional
companies that are trying to figure out how best to leverage the internet in
their " normal " course of business . to describe this process i have used the
term " e - tizing " . by that i mean the total transformation of a firm ' s
business processes such that all relevant operations and communications ,
whether they are internal ( i . e . , among operating units and functions ) or
external ( i . e . , between a firm and its customers , suppliers and alliance
partners ) , are performed on the internet . obviously the decision of where
to " e - tize " and where not to is ultimately an roi question . ( by the way , ge
uses the term " digitizing " for roughly the same notion . )
in order to make the course experience for the students especially valuable
and to provide a much broader exposure for columbia in the internet area , i
have departed from the typical course format in two key ways . first , since
everything is moving too quickly for a textbook to exist , i have assembled a
world - class group of lecturers who have kindly agreed to make the time to
join us . second , the students are grouped in teams to work on specific
action learning projects with corporate sponsors . in addition , geoff colvin
of fortune and i are writing up the lecturers and will craft them into a
series of fortune articles . so far we have been very fortunate , the
speakers have been extremely accommodating and absolutely outstanding in
both content and delivery - not to create any pressure ! ! to give you a
feel , terry jones , the ceo of travelocity , will be spending a good deal of
time on this coming monday discussing the implications of what he has
learned , in creating one of the most effective internet sales and marketing
machines , for traditional companies that sell to consumers .
as further background , the student teams are working with applied materials ,
travelocity , trilogy and barnes & noble . com . this small set of companies
represents a nice cross section of b 2 b , b 2 c and more traditional brick and
mortar companies . irrespective of the company setting , each student team
will be focusing on projects that deal with using the internet to create
sustained excess shareowner returns . the target fortune audience will also
cover a broad cross section of companies , but with an emphasis on
traditional non - pure play internet enterprises .
louise , with respect to your presentation , i would like for you to explore a
fairly specific set of issues so that ( a ) the student teams will be able to
use the learnings to leverage their projects with their sponsor companies
and ( b ) the series of lectures will mesh together very effectively for our
writing for fortune .
for the non - pure play internet companies , i want to use ge and enron as best
practice examples . i have been meeting extensively with the ge folks and am
beginning to get a pretty good handle on what they are doing today and what
they are likely to be doing over the next few years . in the same vein , i
view my visit to enron as having three primary goals : ( i ) getting to know
you and some of the enron management team , ( ii ) getting a good understanding
of how your business is using the internet to create shareowner value and
( iii ) establishing a working outline for your session in april . clearly ( i )
and especially ( ii ) will form the basis for ( iii ) .
i have scheduled the following times with tammie to meet with you and / or
your team :
february 21 : 12 : 00 - 3 : 30 - - louise ( work on ( ii ) and plan for feb . 22 )
february 22 : 8 : 00 - 2 : 30 - - work with other team members
february 22 : 2 : 30 - 5 : 30 - - louise ( review learnings and plan ( iii ) )
a sampling of the kinds of questions i would like to investigate would be
the following :
- is the essence of what you have accomplished the creation of a totally new
business or " e - tizing " a pre - existing business ?
- how pervasive is the use of the internet in the day - to - day running of
enron ? for example , has enron gone the route of cisco and ge in trying to
e - tize sufficiently to close your books globally on a daily basis ?
- to what extent is the approach of your business to the internet creating
or forcing compatibility of technology / information systems between you and
your " customers " ( i . e . , trading partners ? ) and " suppliers " ( participants in
the physical value chain ? ) ?
- we discussed the critical role of process definition and detailed mapping
to your success . could you outline for us the process and what are the 5 - 10
major success factors and 5 - 10 " failure " factors ?
- from a technology perspective , i believe you mentioned that you first
looked outside for a solution and found that typical erp type approaches
would have required such massive modifications , that you felt " starting from
scratch " would be more valuable . i would like to discuss that in more
detail . also , how did you systematically tackle the task ? what was the
timeline ? having been through the experience , what are the key learnings
for next time - - - what not to do , what to do more off and how to go faster ?
- also , on the technology level i would be very interested in learning about
the full set of technology building blocks - - including telecom , hardware
( servers , routers , etc . ) , storage ( software and hardware ) , content software .
also along those lines , what are the costs - - capital , set - up and
maintenance ? ( should this be 2 % or 10 % of revenue ? )
- how is the overall technology investment managed so as to get optimal
synergies and yet not impinge on the distinctive diverse needs of various
different businesses in enron ?
- how are you measuring " customer , " " supplier , " and operational metrics
differently due to your internet efforts ? how has this change the form ,
content and use of your financials ?
after reading this e - mail , if you have any thoughts please don ' t hesitate to
give me a call ( 212 - 688 - 2034 ) or send an e - mail message .
yoko and i are really looking forward to our visit ! !
thanks in advance . best regards ,
larry