The premise behind the book was to explore the differences between business strategies that concentrated on a broad ‘reach’ with a set of standard products and services that appealed to a large number of people, or they could focus on ‘rich’ information, specialised products and services that were highly targeted and naturally very expensive. They explore the way that the new internet at the time was eroding the differences between these two separate markets, bringing niche products to a wider audience, how suppliers will have direct access to customers and that the most profitable parts of your business are likely to be targeted by your competitors.

I have had this kicking around for ages, and never quite got round to reading it. Just to give some idea of how old this book is, Google is not even mentioned! The authors make some good points on how businesses can react to the fast changing markets, and the way that greater access to the end consumer will radically change the market, but alas a lot of what they are saying is now very out of date. The think that does come across that can never be lost is that you can never be complacent in business; whilst the actions they were advocating at the time have changed, you should never take your eye off the ball. ( )

Hard work ( )

The central thesis is that the economics of information is very different from that of physical objects, and that in general the information and the physical are bound together in products. New technologies can rapidly "melt the glue" and then the two aspects of the product can go their seperate ways - recorded music for example. This process is still going strong, so it is still worth trying to apply the general ideas from this book. Many of the details are obsolete but the authors try to step us through the thinking out of the implications. But the book is so poorly written that it is not clear that it is worth reading. ( )