ScientSpeak

By , CRN 7:46 AM EST Sun. Oct. 10, 1999

If you're going to create a new model for doing business, you need to create a new way of speaking about it as well. Here's a glossary of the terms that Scient execs sprinkle into their conversations. Use it to create some "paradigm violence" in your organization.

Attack businesses: E-businesses created by established companies to attack competitors online.

Colleagues: Scient staffers are called colleagues. Scient pays a great deal of attention to hiring and retaining new colleagues. Colleague satisfaction (sat) ranks above Client sat and Shareholder sat in Scient's credo.

Do, sense, learn: Scient says it's better and more effective to try something fast and fail and learn from it than to spend time researching while competitors are moving into your market space on the Web.

Execution risk: Venture capital term for the amount of time it takes a new company to get up and running. Web integrators like Scient seek to minimize this risk by getting clients online fast.

First mover: The first e-business in a given space. For example, Amazon.com is viewed as having first-mover advantage.

Ginormous: Silicon Valley term. Used for describing the size of dot com company market caps.

Intellectual capital assets: The collected knowledge of a company that can be added to or harnessed by any "colleague" in the organization.

Knowledge liaisons: The "colleagues" at Scient whose job it is to compile and research Scient's "intellectual capital assets."

Paradigm violence: Scient advises its clients to inflict paradigm violence on their respective market spaces by changing the rules and business models in the spaces where they compete.

Smart mover: If you can't be the "first mover" into a market space, then it's best to come into that space with a better plan. EBay wasn't the first auction house on the Web, but it was the smart mover in the space.

Virtuous circle of learning: If you employ a "Do, Sense, Learn" methodology, you learn to continuously rebuild your e-business to compete in the ever-changing Web market space.