This morning I woke with a start and realized that, like a stray cat, a new term had entered an open window of my vocabulary and taken up residence without my noticing. I credit this realization to a friend of mine who, the night before, had come to me with a question. Sheıs an intelligent person whoıd been studying a trendy Internet companyıs Web site in preparation for an interview. Somewhat annoyed, she asked, "Whatıs all this about The Enterprise? Do they just mean a business, or is it something different?"
My initial response ı based on my usual cynicism ı was, yes, enterprise is just a dressed-up word for business, just as employ and utilize appear where the simple verb "use" would suffice. But after considerable thought, I had to grant that enterprise is a valid term unto itself. It isnıt a sell-out buzzword but an accurate reflection of the evolving way in which we relate on an organizational level.
Think about it. In the past year or so, the terms company, business, institution, and corporation have been dropped like hot potatoes in favor of enterprise. A simple glance through the four-foot-high stack of press kits in my office, dating back as far as the Informix/Illustra acquisition, proves this point. (The glance also proved that a box of Rice a Roni has a longer shelf life than most companies in our industry, but Iıll save that discussion for another column.) What is different today from a year ago? Is it just an evolution of terminology or are we truly experiencing, and I hate to use this term, a paradigm shift?
Itıs not just the fact that enterprise has three syllables and business only two. Company also has three syllables, and it hasnıt fared better than business. The distinction goes deeper. Whereas corporation implies a business entity with strict physical and legal boundaries, enterprise suggests a more collective undertaking by individuals in diverse locations. Enterprise also connotes an underlying sense of drama, optimism, and intense effort toward a common goal. It is a dynamic term compared to which business or corporation carries the cachı of a cardboard box. You donıt see Captain Kirk boldly going where no man (or woman) has gone before in the U.S.S. Business, now do you?
Thereıs also no denying that enterprise suggests hope and striving, whereas the older terms are mired in negative and tired imagery. You struggle to climb the corporate ladder. We are told to mind our own business. Parents worry endlessly about the company their organizationally impaired children keep until finally they need to be institutionalized. Yet all is well once you replace these images with that of enterprising young lads and lassies hard at work in their cubicles.
The mention of cubicles brings me to another, more subtle notion of the enterprise, namely, that it implies a collective intelligence that spans organizational boundaries. Developing in parallel to the metaphoric enterprise is the preeminent so-called "virtual organization." More and more companies restructure their processes to cut expenses and gain a competitive edge. Large corporations shrink in size as a result of downsizing, but these downsized organizations rely on the many spin-off industries that crop up to fulfill their outsourced functions. These spin-off industries often have their vital information systems and processes linked to these larger companies via corporate extranets. In this way, although they are separate entities with separate corporate cultures and policies, they inadvertently make up a third, virtual company with its own culture and shared knowledge.
The notion of "The Enterprise," then, is no more than the embodiment of this utopian concept. And we are all mere comrades working together for a higher and greater purpose than that of the individual. I like that idea. But, while we somewhat casually throw around the terms "The Enterprise" and "The Virtual Organization," we had best remember that these constructs are still mostly dreams in the making ı at the heart of the ever-evolving information society.
Clara H. Parkes is executive editor of DBMS magazine and will soon become part of the virtual enterprise from her new earthquake-proof brick home in Portland, Maine. When not meandering the cobblestoned streets of the Old Port, she welcomes your emails at cparkes@mfi.com.