Virtual-finance

In slightly under 200 pages, The Offshore World contains an illuminating summary of the global "offshore" system, which comprises offshore banks, export processing zones (EPZs), international banking facilities (IBFs), offshore financial systems (OFCs) or tax havens, flags of convenience, the Euromarket. Note that if you want to do business with one of these entities, you will do better to head for London, Tokyo, Liechtenstein or New York than anywhere outside territorial waters. "Offshore" is a virtual space defined by its exemption from taxes, regulations and other annoying features of the nation-state.

Ronen Palan brings an outstanding depth of knowledge of his subject to this book. He traces the roots of the offshore system to the late 19th century, when the concept of sovereign states was developing in ways that often presented obstacles to international traders. The result today is a system of non-sovereign states that has grown in parallel to, and generally with the support of, nation-states. Most of that growth has occurred since the late 1960's, at the time of the profitability crisis and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Today an estimated $2 trillion per day passes through the offshore foreign exchange market and 20% of total private wealth is parked in tax havens. And those figures are growing.

Aside from the breath-taking sums that flow through a system outside tax or regulatory control, what are the political implications of offshore? Palen's thesis is that nation-states have lost control of the monetary system: The offshore tail is wagging the sovereign-state dog. Wealthy individuals and multinational corporations can simply pick up their financial assets and take them offshore if nation-states don't lower taxes and regulatory requirements to their dictates. And without sufficient funds democratic states are in no position to provide either their populations or offshore facilities with the services and security they expect. The paradox is that offshore has been an inevitable outgrowth of the division of the world into sovereign states.

Professor Palan sees the growth of offshore accelerating. Sooner, rather than later, its dark matter will dramatically impact our visible world in ways we cannot yet foresee. "Offshore can end only when either the state system has ended its long half-millennial journey or capitalism itself has been replaced by another system."

This is an excellent review of all the implications of using the Internet to conduct on-line research. Methods and ethical issues are discussed in much detail to provide an innovative yet higly specialized contribution in the area. Anyone who wants to use the Internet for the collection of data or wants to know what this really mean should read this book. I found it an exciting reading too!

I work for a leading on-line community and for me this book was required reading. The concept of virtual communities and the transfer of power from the provider to the consumer through the control of information is spot-on.

Check out sites like Deja.com, Zagat.com, Restaurantrow.com, Consumerreports.com and Comparenet.com and you'll see the evolution of the transition to a member generated content community. There is a reason NBC just bought 66% of Xoom and Yahoo paid $4.7 billion for GeoCities. Today these community web-sites are built around sharing interests and ideas, in the future they will have a much more practical utilitarian function - the sharing of information which leads to an enlightened experience and purchase decision. The companies that foster this developement will surely profit from it.

Notwithstanding the many new books on on-line communities, I still keep this book on my bookshelf as a useful reminder of the conceptual framework around which many new businesses - failed or otherwise - were subseqently developed.

It has been nearly six years since I attended a seminar organized by the consulting company McKinsey at which the two authors (both McKinsey consultants)presented their book and what seemed, at that time, to be its somewhat radical proposition about profitably developing self-organizing on-line communities around the passionate interests of their memberships.

As I become more familiar with Amazon and how it is organizing the community through which you are reading this and other reviews, I am reminded about the fundamental concepts that Hagel and Armstrong laid out in their book regarding the economics of virtual communities. Amazon attracts member-generated content which is a key part of its business model which uses the passionate interests of its own customer base to increase its business value. Many doubted the vailidity of this proposition when this book came out, but the evidence does appear to increasingly support it.

Arguably, many might now say that this book is dated, on-line businesses having mushroomed and failed since this book appeared, yielding new lessons that this book could not have foreseen. Many of its claims now seem overhyped.

While this and other criticims may all be well and true, I suspect that this book will come to be regarded in future business histories of the on-line business as one of the seminal pieces of strategic business thinking in the late 1990s. I shall keep it for posterity, if not profitability. In any case, there must now be enough second-hand copies for you not to have to make the investment at the full original cost!

I read this book pretty much cover-to-cover and found it very thought provoking. It does a great job of explaining the opportunities in creating "Virtual Communities". Virtual communities are described as areas where a group of users sharing common interests gather to learn about and discuss information. These communities create an information source that shifts power from the vendors to the customers. Longer term, vendors can capitalize on this community by selling directly to the community members, and more importantly by using the customer interaction to create word-of-mouth advertising. Who are you more likely to trust: another user of the product or some sleazy salesman?

Up until this book, I have seen little written on the longer term business models on how to make money by aggregating users. This book will explain the rationale of why there is enormous value in web sites with a large base of users.

The book has a very interesting chart which describes the return on various strategic investments for a startup trying to build a virtual community. The conclusion was that far and away the most important investments were vendor acquisition (i.e. companies wanting to sell products to the members of the community), member-generated content, and member acquisition. Interestingly, usage fees for the site had an enormous long-term negative impact for the site (despite their short term ability to generate revenue).

There are a couple of points that I think were not well addressed in this book:

1) I don't believe that the authors make a compelling argument about how to sell the first vendors on the advantages of being a part of the virtual community. From my experience, vendors don't sign up for a new product or service because "that's where the market is going". They need to be convinced that there's an advantage for them to be first, and that reason was not adequately described in the book.

2) The book states the importance of member-generated content as a way to build up the community and keep traffic coming to the site. It was never clear to me from the book how to do this through a commercially sponsored newsgroup versus the already existing Usenet newsgroups today (which already have a pre-existing and active community). For instance, there are already many Usenet newsgroups related to Travel. Why should potential travelers use a commercially sponsored site instead of a Usenet group? Clearly there are sites that have been successful at creating their own newsgroup areas so I believe that there are justifiable reasons. I'm just not sure what those reasons are and the book didn't explain them.

Overall, an interesting book and well worth your time.

I was disappointed by the lack of real world examples. Most of the examples were "human resource groups". Now, to be sure, there are many really fine checklists for managers included in this book. Although they are basic, most managers find them useful and thought provoking.
Unfortunately, as with most books on virtual teams, the authors have not focused on the critical operations which use virtual teaming: marketing, sales, program/project management. This book also neglects to leave the reader with a future focus --like: what is the new work and how will the businesses have to 'virtually' restructure or lose the "command and control" model of management.

Duarte and Synder provide thorough coverage of the tools and techniques required for effective use of virtual teams. The writing style is basic, here's-what-to-do stuff, offering 'x' critical success factors, abundant check lists, and tables comparing alternatives, such as video or electronic displays. From my experience, they are right on target for team leaders and team members.

Interspersed are jewels of wisdom. For example: communication and collaboration are the two most important factors in team success; sometimes it's better to wait until team members get to know one another as dependable and competent before initiating in-depth team building; trust depends on performance and competence, integrity, and concern for the well-being of others; information overload can slow down a team's decision-making process. I was pleased to find they documented that video conferencing requires a different skill set than running regular meetings.

I sometimes yearned for more real life stories and persuasive arguments, in other words, a less formulaic style. But that's my bias as a reader and not their intent.

The authors provide an excellent treatment of the problems associated with starting and maintaining virtual teams. An excellent concise presentation of working with differences in culture is presented. Many technology alternatives to facilitate group interaction and collaboration are also presented. The strengths and weaknesses of each technology are given for several different problem solving situations. I would recommend this book to anyone who must solve problems with others who are off site.

So far, most serious publications about 'virtual organizations' I came across are fragmented and theoretical. There seems to be a lot of talking and thinking about the subject but there is little experience and accomplished successes to report on. Under these circumstances, the editor of 'Managing Virtual Web Organizations in the 21st Century' did a remarkable job to introduce a converging conception of the virtual organization (VO) and include theoretical knowledge, practical solutions and recent experiences with VO's.

The book contains 17 articles that elaborate on various issues ranging from the general conception of VO's to its legal format and from the business point of view to the underlying ICT-architecture. From the number of contributors and their various positions and geographical locations I might conclude that the undertaking of writing this book required a virtual organization itself. For many contributors this seems to be nothing new. In many articles it is stated that VO's have existed ever since people started to work together on the basis of trust. The new thing that the 21st century brings is the addition of ICT, which adds potentially more structure and scale to the VO. The book focuses largely on the design and management of such organizations. In most cases it takes the production and ebusiness environment as its object. Occasionally there is attention for web organizations in the professional services industries. For those who want to know on what the European Commission spent much of her billions for the 'Information Society' (IST-program), the book provides a number of references to relevant IST-projects.

Some effort seems to be taken to make all articles fit into a general framework of the book, which could not prevent many contributors to start with a description of what they regard to be a virtual organization themselves. Happily for the editor, most contributors agree more or less on the underlying concept, which is remarkable, where-as the book lays out a quite specific and practical framework for this kind of organization.

For its riches in issues and practical models the book is a useful source for professionals and decision makers that want to keep up to date with key concepts and developments regarding 'web organizations'. However, I don't think it is going to be 'The Bible of VO's'. Therefore it is too specific on some issues and not encompassing enough on others. On many issues the book provides insight and useful ideas, but overall it leaves the reader with a lot of critical thinking to do himself. It seems the editor does have a clear view on the basic concept he likes to introduce. On top of that he is gathering and analyzing additional data and models. Little doubt next time he will come out with his bible after all.

Understanding the issues and challenges associated with virtual organisations is a subject area in its ascendancy. Whilst more structured ways of working (such as vertically integrated companies and long term supplier partnerships) will continue, virtual organisations will become an increasingly relevant feature in developed economies.

This book provides an essential contribution to the subject area. It is useful to readers seeking to gain an academic perspective on the issues and to practitioners and industrialists seeking to deploy these new ways of operating in order to deliver competitive advantage. Hence I thoroughly recommend it.

Ulrich Franke and his co-authors give a broad overview over the Management of the relatively new organizational form of virtual enterprises. For all business people who are interested in strategic management or involved in networked economy this book is essential. The topic is structured quite well and shows a collection of different views given by international experts in the field of virtual organisations.

I rarely write reviews, and as an author myself I'm loath to criticize another's work. But this one I couldn't let go by...

At 147 pages (main text) there was nowhere near enough "meat" to justify ...[the price tag.]

The writing style was boring and pedantic.

Most of the chapters just skimmed the surface and lacked
substance; the topics are covered much more thoroughly by other
authors.

Chapter 6, Networking Technology, at 12 pages, was much too
"thin" and already out of date; less than 2 full pages
were devoted to the 'section' on securing the network -- a
major concern these days.

I have really looked a long time to find a book that has a practical management perspective. Most of the books I've read on virtual teams either focus on bits and bytes (which I don't need since I'm an IT Director) or high level organizational theory. This book had some really practical suggestions that I could implement to improve communication and control for my team.

If you are managing geographically distributed teams this is a "save your life" kind of book. Short and to the point with techniques based on actual research instead of myths or stories. I found the 4 key principles for effective distance communication very helpful. I saw immediate improvement in my team's communications once we began using the ideas.

This author has brilliantly anticipated the need for a "How To" manual on the principles and practices of how to get scattered, disparate -- even dissimilar professions and people to work in harmony as a team -- without even meeting.

With the postmodern world's global, multi-national corporate and governmental activities -- the challenge facing project managers has become one of producing results from a workforce that is so far-flung it's impractical, even impossible for personnel to take the time and incur the expense to have the face time ordinarily necessary for a "team" to form, coordinate, and effect its mission.

Willmore has succeeded admirably in laying out the principles involved in forming a "virtual" team -- and the practices involved in guiding it to success. He discusses these issues from the standpoint of every participant in the venture -- whether consultant, member, manager, etc., and does so comprehensively with examples, checklists, and real-life scenarios that seem to cover all the bases. He deals with logistics, likely attitudes, communication, training, and just about any issue that might come up -- including the pros and cons of virtual teams themselves.

I give it five stars for readability, relevance, and usefulness for anyone interested in effective team work from spread out team members.

I'm an aerospace engineering manager with an extensive background of working in Europe, the Middle East, and various locations in this country. I have a keen appreciation for the problems facing any project manager whose task force is scattered, difficult to assemble, and facing continual deadlines. Willmore's tutorial on virtual teams describes the problem and proceeds to solve it with a book that tells me "everything I needed to know - but didn't know who to ask." I only wish such a useful book had been available years ago. But now that it's here, I fully recommend it to anyone who wants to know everything involved in getting the best work product out of a workforce that is too scattered to bring together to conduct normal face-to-face team building/bonding activities. Willmore's book takes you from Step One fundamentals right on through to the completion of the team's task. Along the way he covers everything from personality differences and communication to logistics and training. He not only explains the theory and the principles in a clear, concise, and complete way - he gives authentic case examples to illustrate what to do. His book is five stars in my book

This book is a must-read for anyone who works with virtual teams in any capacity, whether it be as a member, leader, manager, facilitator, coach, or consultant. Willmore provides real-life examples and in-depth scenarios, along with helpful tools and checklists. For instance, he concludes every chapter with questions for consideration as a way to facilitate reflection and learning. I particularly appreciated the matrix that laid out the relationship between different types of technology and various group work activities. The book covers the fundamentals without being too basic, beginning with how to set up a virtual team to building trust and cohesion to management and virtual learning. The information about the values, benefits, and distinctions of virtual teams from face to face teams is useful for anyone attempting to champion this mode of working. I have no doubt that the book will serve as a useful resource for years to come