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To be sure, the Internet has permeated every aspect of business
today -- from customer service to supply chain management, recruitment to product
development. From Fortune 500 titans to the hippest web-based startups, every
company must learn to compete on the basis of speed, creativity, and collaboration
-- or prepare to be devoured by those who do. Perhaps
the most profound implications of the Internet revolution are for leadership.
In E-Leader, Robert Hargrove argues that the key distinguishing element
of the "new" economy is the degree to which people with different talents,
perspectives, and ideas can be brought together to generate products, services,
business models, and even organizations never before possible. The most important
role of leaders at all levels is to sculpt these new patterns of relationship
and interaction-and harness the resulting energy. Catalyzing this alchemy will
require an entirely new approach to leadership, in both mindset and behavior.
Through colourful, in-depth profiles of such mavericks as Pehong
Chen of BroadVision, Jeff Taylor of Monster.com, and Avram Miller of Intel, Hargrove
provides eye-opening insights into the fundamental shifts a leader needs to make
in order to succeed from "CEO as steward" to "CEO as entrepreneur,"
from "game player" to "game changer", from "top-down
management" to "lateral leadership" -- and provides practical guidelines
for making the transition. He also points out that many dot.coms have failed because
their leaders mistook the new technologies and channels themselves for real value-creating
innovations. E-Leader is not about how to run
a successful e-venture. Rather, it's an invitation to embrace the creative qualities
and attitudes of the Internet culture and apply them everywhere, to unleash innovation
and inspire a sense of possibility throughout the organization. Robert
Hargrove is founder and co-CEO of Masterful Coaching, Inc. An expert on organizational
collaboration, coaching, and leadership, he consults worldwide and speaks and
writes regularly on these issues. Author of Mastering the Art of Creative
Collaboration and Masterful Coaching, he lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
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