any company without an internet presence in 18 months will
either fail or be taken over
james hein
i have been giving a lot of thought to the issue of web presence versus physical presence for a company hoping to survive in the coming millennium. after looking at the industry pundit's comments, i maintain my earlier stance: if your company is not in the process of working towards an internet presence you are probably working for a dying company.
having said that let's take a look at some broad divisions in the basic kinds of companies. the easiest to consider is the company that does not have any kind of real physical presence as far as the public is concerned. this would be some kind of service-based company or perhaps a widget maker that sells through a distributor or retailer.
in the first example this is a real case of internet or die. the company without a physical presence that does not have an internet presence will be soon replaced by a similar company that does have the internet worked out. in the second example the situation is more complex because the company will be relying a lot on the retailer's internet presence.
in this case advertising and product information becomes important and the internet will play a significant role in this area in the very near future. the conclusion is they will need to do something with the internet to survive.
if you are a net-only concern like, say, amazon.com you are already on the internet but you could also make extra money and get additional customers by having some physical presence. for the time being many people are still more comfortable talking to a human being.
if you sell goods and services from a storefront then an internet presence will help you grow your customer list. if you can take orders online, then this will add to your competitiveness.
while the above summary is generic, i still feel comfortable predicting that any company without a real internet presence within 18 months, including e-commerce services, will either fail or be absorbed by a larger or better company within five years.