The goal of this book is to create awareness for a change in mind-set
that we will all have to face and go through. The necessity for this new
mind- set is being driven by the situation that a completely new
business world, a new reality, is being created at the point where the
phenomenon commonly referred to as the "new economy" converges with the
well-known old economy. During the very late 1990s, this new reality was
being driven by an almost incredible increase in yields in the financial
markets, where conventional but value-driven and stable stocks such as
Philip Morris, General Electric, or Bayer, did not attract as many
investors as before - if we can call some of them investors at all.
Companies in the high-tech or the new market segments are all part of
the new economy. This new economy has created new business ideas,
business models, and a new reality, in which chief executive officers
(CEOs) were in the mid twenties and had basically no clue as to what
real business is and how much a dollar counts. Now, as this convergence
is happening, the painful reality and the business rules of the old
economy get us back down to earth. The CEOs become more senior, business
plans are validated more carefully, and just having the famous ". com"
in your company name does not get you any further or lead you to any of
required money.