July 28-29,1999 in London, England
BT Labs
July 27, 1999
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In his book The Innovator’s
Dilemma, Clay Christensen discusses how seemingly well-managed,
customer-focussed,
highly-competitive organizations can suddenly lose
their position of leadership when disruptive changes
in technology enter their industry. We have recently
seen examples of the displacement of market leaders
occurring as a result of new competition from Internet
commerce pioneers. Yet this is surely just the beginning
of a very significant set of marketplace disruptions
due to Internet technologies and business models.
At
this conference, we will look at the many different
ways in which Internet technologies will potentially
create business discontinuities. It is clear that
all corporate communication networks are blending
towards
the Internet model. From Intranets, to Virtual Private
Networks, to Extranets, to the public Internet itself,
there is an adoption of the world of packet communication,
mediated by different degrees of control and openness.
Security and quality of service are paramount concerns
in the corporate world. Meanwhile, the traditional
telecommunications’ carriers are planning and
implementing the packet revolution in their networks,
new entrants are constructing IP networks from the
ground up, and the government is funding a next generation
Internet program.
The emergence of this universal
and ubiquitous communications system is extremely
significant. It creates a new
economics of communication that affects both corporate
and home
users. Traditional barriers to entry based on technological
advantage or access to distribution channels are
diminishing. For example, MP3 threatens to turn
the music industry
on its head. Existing players must create new sources
of competitive advantage, and find new roles, in
order to protect their leadership position.
Just
how far will this revolution take us? How connected
can we be to each other, and to the devices
around
us? What are the ultimate limits of the technology?
And most importantly, what can we expect in terms
of the behavior of people in this uncharted new
world? Drawing from real world examples in specific
industries
today and from recent research on Internet traffic
and usage, we will try to anticipate the disruptive
events and trends for which businesses need to
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Allen Atwell, Director of
Telecommunications, SWIFT
Professor Patrick "Paddy" Barwise, Director
of the Centre for Marketing, London Business School
Gordon Bell, Senior Researcher,
Microsoft Corporation and TTI/Vanguard Advisory Board
Member
KC Claffy, Principal Investigator,
Distributed Cooperative Association for Internet Data
Analysis
Sheridan Forbes, Founder
and Partner, The Mezeron Group
Hermann Hauser, Co-founder
and Director, Amadeus Capital Partners Limited
David Isenberg, Founder,
isen.com
Leonard Kleinrock, Chairman,
TTI/Vanguard
Mike Lubin, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer, Global Music Network
Bill Moore, Director of
Enabling Technologies, Perot Systems
Richard Schroth, Chief Executive
Officer, Executive Insights and TTI/Vanguard Advisory
Board Member
Professor Will Stewart, Chief
Scientist, GEC-Marconi Technology Centres
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BT's principal center for innovation
and technology development is BT Laboratories. The
people at this laboratory have established themselves
as being at the forefront of technological development.
Their purpose is to take the technologies that they
develop and experiment with them. Unlike architects
who put up buildings and leave, they create electronic
futures and live them.
BT Labs has a very simple mission
statement: "To
boldly go and be first technologically, managerially
and operationally".
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