Impact of Globalization
Electronic Commerce: Reshaping Business in the Global Economy
Mr. Michael J. Butcher
President and CEO
Lucent Technologies Asia/Pacific
Electronic commerce, encompassing direct selling and the activities of online trading communities as well as e-business practices, has enormous potential and cannot be ignored. Companies and countries alike are looking to e-commerce to achieve efficiency gains and access to new global markets. However, the opportunities promised by e-commerce are not being uniformly distributed on an international scale.
The continuing deregulation of the telecommunications sector is both a catalyst for the growth of the new Internet-based economy and a consequence of the changes it represents. Today, most Internet traffic in the Pacific Rim is running over legacy systems but to embrace e-commerce, new infrastructure will soon be needed. The region's markets are irrevocably opening up and developing nations have an opportunity to leapfrog to high-bandwidth next-generation technologies.
Rapid change is inevitable. Telecoms and IT technology is now developing at an incredible pace - causing massive disruption in the marketplace and impacting the business strategies, technology adoption plans and growth forecasts of companies in all spheres. Lucent's thinking on these challenges centres around what we call the "networked virtual enterprise." We expect this business model to transform the global economy in the long run.