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B to B names the business etite behind the e-commerce revolution
IN THE INTERNET ECONOMY, it's not enough just to evolve. it's not enough for the fittest just to survive-they have to thrive. The demise of the less fortunate won't be slow and naturally occurring. Ariba Inc. Chairman and CEO Keith Krach recently said it's not the big that are going to eat the small, it's the fast that are going to eat the slow. Such an assertion begs the question: Who's at the top of the food chain?
We've chosen 25 executives-- e-commerce champions who get it. They've moved their businesses online and changed their industries. Whether dealing in plastics, steel, software or networks, these are the people working out the kinks of e-business, making possible the realization of recent predictions that b-to-b e-commerce will jump into multitrillion dollars. These are the b-to-b Internet revolutionaries.
J. ERIK FYRWALD
Company: CapSpan, Wilmington, Del., and Wayne, Pa. Title: CEO Age: 40 B-to-b mission: "To revolutionize the b-to-b e-commerce market using our unique reach and wealth of experience to deliver on a global scale in complex markets." Prediction: "We believe the Forrester predictions"-that b-to-b ecommerce will reach $1.3 trillion in 2003-"and think they may even be conservative."
ERIK FYRWALD has been taking on, and then shuffling off, job titles in Internet time. In August, he became DuPont VP of e-commere and business development after being named VP-corporate plans less than a year before. Then, in February, Fyrwald suddenly had a new job: CEO of CapSpan, DuPont's Web venture with Internet Capital Group.
The companies plan to create--in as-yet-undetermined vertical industries--e-marketplaces that will be anchored by DuPont's buying power. "We have already launched 'hunting parties' in construction, apparel, chemicals, and are forming several others," Frywald says.
The CapSpan venture is representative DuPont's forays into the Internet, which have focused on supply chain logistics. The company has quietly crafted Internet ventures with companies such as Ariba Inc., Chematch.com, e-Steel Corp. and Healtheon/WebMD. -S.C.
DICK ANDERSON
Company: IBM Corp., White Plains, N.Y. Title. VP-Internet sales and operations, IBM.com Age: 47 B-to-b mission: "To be the easiest place to do business within IBM by combining the strengths of our call center and Web site operations to support our customer."...