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"The Nudist on the Late Shift"

Did I Get Your Attention? ... There's a marvelous phrase in "The Nudist on the Late Shift," Po Bronson's book about Silicon Valley. Here's a salesman describing the difficulty of selling a new technology: "To sell software is to ask people to willfully become temporarily incompetent." ... I think of this phrase often because it vividly captures the tensions within real estate firms as they seek to incorporate the net into their business practices.

Over the last couple of months I've flown around the country and spoken to many organizations, including Binswanger, NNCREW, Colliers International, CRESA, BOMA International and Timberline Software. Hey, I love getting groups excited about the future, and I frequently begin with a quote from Paul Saffo: "The future has arrived. It's just not evenly distributed." But it always hits me as I'm flying back to SFO after a long day on the road that, as an industry, we've got a long, wrenching, expensive journey ahead of us.

For fantastic insight into how all-consuming this journey will be, read "Futurize Your Enterprise," David Siegel's brand new book, which answers one of the most frequently asked questions I hear: "How should we develop our web site?" Hint: that's the wrong question. You should ask: "How can we develop an e-business?" For as Siegel points out, "Today's web sites mirror their companies; tomorrow's companies will mirror their web sites." Oh-oh.

PikeNet 2000! ... Check out the preliminary program for PikeNet 2000, "Commercial Real Estate Internet Strategies" -- Apr 5-7, 2000, in San Francisco. There's a link at the top of the home page. I've some great speakers lined up, a new product showcase, a dot-com tour of San Francisco's SOMA and a boat cruise on the Bay. You'll enjoy meeting your fellow movers and shakers. Hey, the net's not about technology. It's about making connections to people.

--Peter