This April, the new economy suddenly entered a new phase: the Next Phase. Just when we'd all grown accustomed to dueling business models, high-flying IPOs, built-to-flip companies, and less-is-more balance sheets, the game changed. The Next Phase featured funerals for once-proud dotcoms, sputtering IPOs, and the rediscovery of the power of profitability. The question now is, what will it take to win in the Next Phase? To get answers to this question, Fast Company gathered 17 thought leaders and change agents from top Silicon Valley companies. The session tackled issues and challenges in four major areas: The New Ecosystem of Business; The New Money Game; The Care and Feeding of Talent; and Predictions for the Future.

"It may not be the glory years, but buyout shops are back, raising billions--and heading into uncharted waters." An interesting look at the LBO world and the changes it is seeing. Discusses the idea of PIPE (private investments in public equities) and raises the question of whether LBO managers are out of their depth in the New Economy.

More and more B-schools are starting ''business incubators'' to launch startups. Is it education or business? Well, it's both

VCs are supposed to earn their substantial keep by identifying promising opportunities and turning them into profitable businesses. Following the pack would seem to undermine the very principle of venture investing. Yet VCs have largely mirrored the public markets, first pouring irrational sums into Net retailing plays, and then moving on to b-to-b, and then to infrastructure, and then to wireless, and then to fiber optics.

Editor's Note: the original site is out of business so I am linking to the archive.org archive of the article - it can be quite slow at times...

This 9 piece article claims "The secrets to successful e-business aren't secrets at all. They've been taught for years in the nation's top business schools." Provides an excellent discussion of the need to apply fundamental business principles regardless of the industry or 'new economy' nature of the firm.

Fortune uncovers 12 truths about how the Net really changes business in this six-part article. The 12: (1) The Internet isn't as "disruptive" as we thought; (2) If it doesn't make cents, it doesn't make sense; (3) Time favors incumbents; (4) Making a market is harder than it looks; (5) There is no such thing as "Internet time"; (6) "Branding" is not a strategy; (7) Entrepreneurship cannot be systematized; (8) Investors are not your customers; (9) The Internet still changes everything; (10) The Internet changes your job; (11) The distinction between Internet companies and non-Internet companies is fading fast; (12) The real wealth creation is yet to come; Also includes inteviews 8 New Ecnomomy folks.

Those of us who drive along highways in the Northeastern U.S., stay at Marriott Hotels worldwide or shop for consumer goods on the web are experiencing the benefits of conjoint analysis, a research methodology used to measure consumer preferences that was first developed by Wharton marketing professor Paul Green in the late 1960s. In a recent talk with Knowledge@Wharton, Green discusses, among other things, new ways to "bundle" information, the pharmaceutical industry's targeted advertising campaign, and the role of the Internet in the global marketplace.

Article discusses the American Bar Association's opposition to any change in the rule of ethics that says lawyers can't practice in partnership with nonlawyers, such as accountants.

When it comes to buffing results to please Wall Street, a wildly popular move now is to stuff discounts and shipping costs below the gross profits line, says accounting analyst Jack T. Ciesielski. They belong above it. The shuffling of expenses doesn't affect the bottom line--often negative in any event--but it does affect the ones closer to the top of the income statement, lines that Internet investors pay a lot of attention to. The same games are being played with shipping costs. Read more...

Marc Pollick runs the Giving Back Fund, an umbrella nonprofit that manages foundations of athletes, entertainers and others. Pollick's pitch is simple: quick startup, low overhead and no scandal. And he guarantees noncharitable overhead will be no higher than 5% for the minimum donation of $250,000, down to 1% for a $5 million gift.

Donald Winkler is profoundly dyslexic. He is also a startlingly effective leader at one of the world's biggest companies. The two are related. He sees the world in ways that we can't or won't. Read about his ideas on "breakthrough leadership" and his 10 principles for effective leadership.

When change programs are doomed before they start ... When old leaders are stumped by new challengers ... When change itself is changing ...

Atiq Raza was in position to become CEO of one of Silicon Valley's old-guard giants. But he left to create Raza Foundries, a company that helps build other companies. Just don't call it an incubator.

Includes a sidebar of three leadership lessons learned by proteges of Atiq Raza: never take a dollar at face value; deal with the customers who count; and focus on the deliverables.

David Allen says work in the knowledge economy requires a new kind of mental calisthenics. Information management is not a science but an art -- a martial art -- and it's time to start training.

As the stock markets have begun to pull back from their historically high levels, the boards of directors of corporations that have used stock options to attract and retain employees have found themselves under increasing pressure to modify or replace previously issued stock options that have gone "underwater." (i.e. options whose exercise price is above the current market price of the corporation's stock). To address this problem, corporate boards are confronted with the prospect of "repricing" these existing options in order to allow them to retain their incentive value.

If baby boomers had their own Faust, he'd be Larry Brilliant, a man who's found himself at the center of almost every defining moment of his generation. His biggest battle: taming the devil of ambition.

As the biggest technology vendors increasingly act as venture capitalists, what are they getting in return?

E-commerce requires companies to integrate processes at many levels with multiple partners.

Napster-style computing is going corporate. What's in it for business? In addition to being good for swapping soundtracks, peer-to-peer networking is a way to harness the dormant processing power in desktop PCs.

Article heading states "Agencies develop sophisticated ways to gauge an ad's success at brand building, driving sales" but in fact it seems to conclude more that that is the goal than the reality. Along the way, it presents some interesting online ad issues however.

Online software lets smaller businesses cope with floods of information (vendors discussed include: Correlate Technologies, HotOffice Technologies, iHarvest, NetDocuments, and Webforia).

IT bristles as Washington tries to define its role in regulating the Internet and the technology industry

IT has traditionally been a mna's world, especially in the upper echelons of management. But women who've made it to the top ranks of technology managers say there's never been a better time for women to succeed in IT. Article discusses this issue by profiling 10 prominent women in IT.

So what do the words "new economy" mean? Three articles in this issue of _The Region_ from the Federal Reserve Board of Minneapolis investigate that question, but with an emphasis on economic fundamentals and, ultimately, on the implications for policymaking. The articles are: "Improving our Understanding of Productivity," "The New
(and Improved) Economy," and "Old Ideas at Work in the New Economy."

The steep drop in the U.S. personal saving rate over the last decade has fueled speculation that Americans are spending recklessly. But alternative measures of personal saving show that households are actually setting aside a larger share of their resources than the official figures suggest. In addition, government saving has risen markedly, leading to an increase in overall domestic saving that has helped finance a surge in U.S. investment.