During the past two decades three major revolutions have transformed world markets, and continue to do so. The combination of globalization, new management thinking and technology has created vast new open deregulated markets, wired together by a converging information highway and dominated by new and transformed organizations that are re-writing the rules of business.

The important resources of the Industrial Economy were raw materials, real estate and cheap labor - all finite and limited. This economic phenomenon became to be called 'the economics of scarcity' and spawned the concept of the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' - you either had access to these scarce resources or you didn't.

Today all of that has changed. The most competitive countries of the new Information Economy do not have raw materials, real estate or cheap labor to speak of. In fact the world's top 5 most competitive countries also have amongst the highest cost of labor on the planet. They have learned that information, knowledge, skills and ideas have become more important than raw materials as competitive weapons!

These 'Information Age' resources are increasingly available to anyone, and they are totally unlimited! You simply can't use them up and no one has ever limited you to just one good idea per day. The economic model has shifted from 'the economics of scarcity' to 'the economics of plenty'. Anyone can have access to these resources, if they choose to. Today there are only the 'haves' and the 'want-nots'! The Information Economy really represents 'the Economics of Attitude'!

New technologies, including computers and telecommunications, new materials, biotechnology and emerging nano-technologies continue to provide ever cheaper resources and tools to enhance business competitiveness and to capitalize on these intangible resources.

Escalating customer expectations have spawned competitiveness based on innovative customer service, flexibility providing better, cheaper products faster, tailored exactly to customer needs. Unprecedented access to product information (on networks such as the Internet) has meant that increasingly purchase decisions are no longer made locally. The customer can call up a vast menu of product choices and prices and choose instantly from a global a la carte menu. The world has become a global supermarket of products and services.

Market power, once reserved for the very large dominant manufacturers, has moved to the channel during the past two decades. Today we see another dramatic shift as market power moves inexorably to the consumer. The effect on business operations, marketing and customer service will be profound.

These 'rules-of-the-game' have profound implications for business. They demand strategic thinking and strategic action. We have summarized these business challenges as 'Ten Business Commandments' - essential business imperatives for the information age.