Virtual-finance

Since 1994, at least nine books have been published dealing with the topic of agility or agile manufacturing. The first book, published in 1994 was my own, Agile Manufacturing: Forging New Frontiers (Addison-Wesley). The ninth, published in 1999, entitled The Agile Virtual Enterprise: Cases, Metrics and Tools (Quorum Books) is by Ted Goranson. I have all nine on my bookshelf and I have read them all! Books two through to eight (I won't mention them by name) all have one common specific feature - they are largely unrelated to each other. They are also not much related to the topic of agility either, but that's another story. Moreover, books two to eight are not much related to books one or nine. In fact there is a massive gap, nay gulf! However there is a common thread between the first and the ninth book.

In Agile Manufacturing: Forging New Frontiers I insisted (and I still do) that there were no agile firms. Also I was keen to point out that the notion that one could figure things out in advance and then design a strategy or an enterprise configuration based on this specification was, dead in the water. This approach simply does not work well when one is faced with significant change and uncertainty. In this kind of environment a whole new approach is needed. Ted Goranson's book makes a significant contribution to the development of this new way of working.

To be found in Ted's book are accounts of the development of virtual enterprise from the days of whaling and the importance of trust, lightweight agreements and case law in supporting the formation of agile virtual enterprises. Also to be found are discussions on what agility is and what agility is not, and why agility is important, along with comments about how agility relates to flexibility, electronic commerce and lean production. There is a detailed Agile Virtual Enterprise Reference Model and also descriptions of some agile virtual enterprise practices based on a number of case studies. From these case studies comes confirmation that agility tends to be isolated within specific parts of a firm and is often fortuitous and unplanned. These agile practices are not institutionalised and are not part of some grand agility strategy.

The book makes an important contribution to measuring agility. There is a detailed description of a modelling technique, based on communicative acts, that allows one to generate simple metrics that one can use to establish and compare the agility of different candidate processes that form part of the Agile Virtual Enterprise Reference Model. This is a novel and useful development.

This book contains a lot of substantial material and is very stimulating. The only minor point of criticism is that the description of flexibility does not make use of the frameworks and literature on that subject. I believe this would have helped to improve the positioning of agility in relation to flexibility. However, the theory of agility is still very much in the early stages of development, and this omission just highlights the fact that a significant amount of work still remains to be done on the development of agility theory.

I have no reservations about recommending this book. This is the first time that I have been able to do so, because quite frankly, most of the other books dealing with the topic of agility are embarrassments and do nothing at all to recommend the topic to industry managers. Ted Goranson's book is a milestone in the development of the topic and should help people to better understand the subject, as well as help them to deal with the real and pressing problem of unexpected change.

Paul T. Kidd

This book offers a impressive review and explanation of agility and virtualness, describing through the examples how these both concepts influenced our past, present and future.

I am personally using it as a reference for establishing in Brazil a Virtual Organization as well as for my under and post-graduation courses.

I highly recommend this book for people who really intend and need a strong basys for working with agility and virtualness.

Congratulations for Ted Goranson for this excellent work.

Agility is a term that is ventilated for a long time in the academic and some business community. However, so far the question remains broadly unanswered on what it really is about and what difference Agility makes.

This book makes a difference, saying that agility is about managing dynamic change and what consequences this has for the entire company management.

Ted Goranson does a great job in giving the reader strong pictures and cases about Agility first. But he does not simply stay with some (war-)story telling. Instead he ventures to develop general concepts and models with scientific rigour.

Linking his models to existing mainstream theories and some innovative developments allows him to show, what agility is - and what it is not.

And it allows him to trace the consequences of becoming agile into such distinct management functions as corporate finance, human resource management, manufacturing and innovation or information systems.

A book invaluable for all, who plan to apply the concept of agility and even more for those who develop methods, tools and system to support agile enterprises.

Bionic eTeamwork carves new ground for me. Dr. Kostner has proven herself knowledgeable and well connected, given the array of businesses who have shared their stories with her. Her access to how teams in the virtual age have succeeded is very useful.

Her main point is: technology without the human element can never reach its potential. But if we merge human priorities with technology, you can achieve the "super" leverage of the bionic. Not all of us will be Steve Austins, obviously, but we can certainly use this book to make our team collaborations much more effective -- faster.

Another significant point is the challenge of speed - how can distance teams work as fast as teams sitting within the same conference room? Dr. Kostner shows how distance teams can achieve at least the same speed of decision making and collaboration as on site groups - and may even work with greater productivity.

Dr. Kostner's style is well paced - she gives down to earth, doable guidance. This is a must read for leaders and team contributors who are looking to up their own ante in terms of their collaboration and team effectiveness.

Dr. Kostner latest book, Bionic eTeamwork is much different from her last one, Knights of a Teleround Table. In the last one she wrote a business novel about King Arthur mentoring someone across time on virtual teams. A quick and entertaining read, it delivered a good message, but lacked the practical application I look for.

In her new book, Bionic eTeamwork, she has abandoned the business novel and gone to telling stories of successful eteams that have really achieved extraordinary results. Her theme is similar (the importance of the human element), but she seems a lot more inclusive of the technology. As she states at the beginning "we have the technology" ala Steve Austin and she goes on to tell us we need to humanize the way we use it.

I'm more of a left brained person so let me tell you what I really like about this book. Whenever I go through a business book I like to highlight it and then I pull all the highlights out and type them out for later review (sort of my own cliffnotes). Almost every page has a a sentence or two of an important statement on the margin in a grey box. Basically she has done it for me. Just by reading this you get the jist of what the message is and after you've read the book, you've got a quick review.

The message is still keep the humanity going, but she has added some features I really found useful. Almost every chapter has one or more summaries entitled "Things you can do today to..." or "eteamwork Checklist." From these we get such suggestions as "Designate a technology champion" to "stop trying to collaborate by e-mail with attachments. Those methods are in the Dark Ages. Get up to speed with Adobe Acrobat Exchange." In summary, you have a quick easy read with a lot of practical advice.

By definition the focus of a project team is the deliverables. It does not matter if the team is collocated or dispersed. That means the focus on cost, risk, change and scope management remains the same.

If the team is dispersed, the authors content, the people side of the effort assumes a different cast. Processes and procedures that deal with client satisfaction, vendor satisfaction and team morale become more complex.

The authors provide a five-step model to assess the maturity of the team. They describe various methods to motivate different personality types to achieve the best project results.

Reliance on virtual teams is growing. If you are attempting to lead one, this book is a must. Its insights, worksheets and assessment tools will save you time, money and aggravation.