Funky Business Talent Makes Capital Dance-2Ed-2002

Walter Wriston, the former chairman of Citibank, was
right: information about money is now more valuable than
money itself.

In the funky village, however, change is a

constant and instead of reducing uncertainty the emphasis

will be on reducing friction

n an info desert – lack of

information or asymmetrically distributed information – the

seller knows things that the buyer does not have a clue

about, like when you buy a used car – all prevent the reali-

zation of market perfection. But in an info jungle, sooner or

later, friction-free capitalism will happen.

real-time feedback enables organizations to

respond much more quickly and more accurately to cus-

tomer demands. We can get better service

You don’t want inventory – you want instant information.

As noted earlier, the key to success is replacing information

Firms, supply chains, industries, markets and even entire

economies are being transformed into ultra-sensitive systems

where changes anywhere are instantly registered everywhere.

It’s like pulling in a fishing net – no matter where you start

pulling, kinetic energy will be reproduced throughout the

entire net.

In the wired world supply chain feedback

is instant. When something happens in Milan, the partners

in New York, Montevideo and Sydney know about it imme-

diately.

Advances in IT have pushed us into a connected econ-

omy. And connected systems allow for real-time feedback.

smarter. They do what they are really good at, maybe 100

Instead of working harder, funky people work

smarter.