e-Business strategy - Charting a way through uncertain waters of electronic commerce

In the 15th century, the Portuguese Rudder was the tool for navigating uncharted waters. Today, e-Business strategy serves a similar purpose on the ocean of electronic commerce. Some forces of electronic commerce create uncertainty and hurt businesses: a) declining transactional value, b) displacement due to an industry standard solution, c) shift from commodity- to solution-based selling, and d) displacement due to electronic intermediation. This paper discusses these forces and presents e-Business strategy for mitigating their unwanted effects: a) strategically aligned legacy systems and organization, b) value-based e-Business connections, c) defined intermediation strategy, d) reach and immediacy of e-Marketing, c) ethical, regulatory and privacy rules for trustworthy operation, and f) XML-based business-to-business contracts.