Chapter Three: Diginomic Lifestyle

Chapter Three: Diginomic Lifestyle

“A new civilization is emerging in our lives. This new civilization brings with it new family styles, changed ways of working, loving and living; a new economy, new political conflicts, and beyond all this, an altered consciousness as well.”

Creating a New Civilization

Alvin Toffler (1995)

“(T)he world, the economy, and all the rules of business are changing … This new global situation is turning the world economy upside down … The economy for the Age of Networked Intelligence is a digital economy.”

The Digital Economy

Don Tapscott (1996)

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In light of today’s global upheavals, these ancient words seem to be ripped right out of this morning’s “Op-Ed” section of the newspaper. In our transition into a globalized world, the laws of Entropy seem to be in full swing. More about that in our next chapter.

As the world reshapes and redesigns itself, it is rapidly and optimally adopting the technologies required to maximize convenience. Why sweat? There’s no need to. Just push that button.

Like the car commercial whose ubiquitous mantra is “Zoom! Zoom!” – they have effectively captured the mindset of the new global culture of speed and ease. In the evolving Diginomic Lifestyle, the speed of Life needs the speed of Light to thrive and prosper.

Click-n-Buy

“There can no longer be any doubt that the future of business is inextricably bound up with the Internet,” the president/CEO of Cisco, John Chambers, was quoted in DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION as saying in 2000.

Michael Robert and Bernard Racine agree. From their 2001 work entitled, e-STRATEGY PURE & SIMPLE, “e-commerce is changing the rules everyday – making it even tougher for brick-and-mortar companies to develop strategies for survival in the new economy.”

As of this writing (May 2009), the total world population sits at 6.7 billion souls, 1.6 billion of whom have access to the Internet … fully one-quarter of the earth’s population. That’s a lot of people coming to visit!

For the third quarter of 2007, the Department of Commerce reports that online electronic retail sales totaled nearly $35 billion – a 3.6% increase over the second quarter of 2007, and a 19.3% increase over the same period in 2006. As compared to total overall retail sales, online shopping accounts for 3.4%.

Jonathan D. Freidan, E-Commerce Law:   “Though online spending is still a fraction of total consumer spending, it is growing at a rate of more than 25 percent annually.”

There are over 4 billion global subscribed users of cell phones today … over 67% of the world’s population. Aside from making phone calls or texting, the cell phone is on a fast track to being your electronic wallet whereby wireless purchases are made on the fly. It’s also being used as your personal scanning wand for food, clothing and department store purchases.

The December 2007 issue of Baseline magazine announced, “Cell phones may soon make everything from digital coupons to mobile marketing possible.” In its lead story reporting on forthcoming innovations that would impact and change the retail industry, the magazine went on to say that “cell phones could also house RFID chips, making them an alternative to credit cards as a payment vehicle.”

International business consultant and author, Kenichi Ohmae, in his book, THE NEXT GLOBAL STAGE, writes: “The interconnected, interactive, global economy is a reality. It is often confusing and disorienting. It challenges both the way we see business and the way we do business.”

“The mobile Internet – mobile commerce – will dramatically change what has already dramatically changed the world,” says Richard Silber of Accenture. “The wireless world will be a truly global market … Get ready for the ride of your life!”                  ■

Next: Diginomic Globalization