Other organizations can also become b-web based by relying on Internet infrastructure to slash the costs of business communications and transactions while delivering a unique new value proposition that renders the old way of doing things obsolete.

Simply put, by “internetworking” you can gain three types of knowledge assets…

• Human capital without owning it.
• Customer capital from complex mutual relationships.
• Structural capital that builds wealth through new business models.

Organizations are now able to bring together the contributions of many participating enterprises including customers, who both receive and contribute value to the b-web. Context providers provide the interface between the customer and the b-web, and content providers design, make, and deliver the goods, services, and information that satisfy customer needs.

There must also be commerce service providers, who enable the flow of business, including transactions and financial management, security and privacy, logistics and delivery, and regulatory services. In addition, there are infrastructure providers, who deliver communications and computing, electronic and physical records, roads, buildings, offices, and the like.

Nevertheless, the owners of b-webs still engage in “competition,” because participants both cooperate and compete with one another to maximize return on invested capital. They are customer-centric. Rather than making something and then trying to sell it, b-webs focus on meeting customer needs.

Some b-webs allow participants to “discover” prices like eBay, a sell-side Internet-based auction. FreeMarkets, a buy-side auction, enables a buyer to receive bids from several sellers, becoming an innovative, on-line business procurement site. Economic theory suggests that auctions and exchanges are more rational than fixed-price systems because they can continually adjust prices to meet supply and demand.

You must also understand that you can replace the self-defeating tactics of the gross profit business agenda with the customer satisfaction business agenda by selling a lot of product, and not worrying about making a large gross profit on each item you sell. If you have as your number one priority making people happy, no matter what it costs, they will do business with you again and again. In essence, you shorten the trading cycle, thereby getting people to buy from you more often.

Some b-webs may want to emulate Wal-Mart or Woodbury Commons by positioning themselves as a value-adding intermediary between producers and consumers. Another model is HomeAdvisor, Microsoft’s home buying web, offering a total solution, from searching to financing, to crime and school statistics, all under one virtual roof.

In a “Value Chain,” the context provider structures and directs a b-web network to produce a highly integrated value proposition. The output meets a specific customer order. It might be an individual’s purchase of a Jeep with custom trim or Quaker State delivering of 20,000 cases of oil. In both cases, the seller has the final say in pricing.

Meanwhile, “Distributive Networks” keep the economy alive and mobile. In addition to the roads, postal services, telephone companies, and electrical power grids of the industrial economy, “Distributive Networks” would also include data network operators and infrastructure providers.

The point is that everyone has become interconnected, and those who are not connected …will become disconnected.

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