e-Business Innovation: The Next Decade

Innovation is invention or application of technologies or theories that radically alters business and the economy. For many years, innovation and the economy have been locked in 80-year cycles, which might imply that innovation is an economic driver, and vice versa. Based on this, some forecast that innovation and the economy might decrease sharply due to several forces: a) decreasing economic growth, b) increasing demand for custom services, c) more entrepreneurial work environments, and d) urban and environmental degradation. Should such forecasts hold true, business may need to alter its offerings, operations and organization to survive. Such a scenario may also require applied e-Business innovation by combining existing internet, wireless, broadband, and video technologies. One possible result: flexible front offices integrated with efficient back offices. Such an e-Business could comprise: a) a customer-based and transaction-based organization, b) functions for adaptive offerings that anticipate need, c) highly responsive, real-time, operations having no inventory, and d) value-based front-end, and automated back-end, decision making.