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The hallmark of PROMETHEE’s original approach to networks is to help capture the deeper nature of change (1) by addressing technological, economic, political and regulatory aspects as one integrated transformation, (2) by facilitating cross-fertilization across different types of networks and different regions and (3) by combining long term analysis of the “broad picture” (e.g. European integration, technological change…) with focused research on “micro” issues of critical importance (e.g. interconnection of European stock-exchanges after the euro).
Networks are the modern equivalent of the steam engine in the ongoing industrial revolution. Networks foster new combinations of competition and cooperation, of dis-intermediation and re-intermediation. But what are networks?
For PROMETHEE, all types of networks -whether electronic, legal or strategic- are “linking machines”. They allow to deal productively and predictably with the three fundamental dimensions of relationship-management: contact, contract and commitment. Again, e=mc3 (in other words, excellence in networking implies the mastering of contact, contract and commitment).
This “R-tech” perspective goes beyond IT to bring to light the combination of infrastructure, infostructure and shared values (infoculture) characteristic of each network. Networked markets, interactive distribution, the “network life-cycle” and networked corporations are some of the key building blocks to analyze the role of relationship management as a source of competitiveness.
Networks also blur the lines between “domestic” and “international”, thereby calling for new types of governance for global companies as well as among countries. PROMETHEE has closely followed pace-setting initiatives in Europe (from the Single Act of 1985 to the “Europe 1992” internal market and to the euro) as well as in North America (NAFTA, in cooperation with six of the ten leading Mexican companies) and at the global level (WTO, OECD etc.). As described in PROMETHEE publications, co-production, co-regulation and co-sovereignty take us beyond free trade and beyond what most analysts call "globalization" toward the “integration age agenda”.
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These conversations can take the form of customized workshops with one member or a subgroup of members (e.g. on fostering synergies between electronic delivery channels and the traditional branch network of a major bank). They can also involve all PROMETHEE members with regulators, experts and policy makers as in the “Networked Markets Study Group”.
Published with Ernst & Young International, The euro at the vanguard of global integration (1998) and The two-currency world (1999) illustrate how PROMETHEE research and concepts are supportive of – and also refined through – strategic conversations with eminent CEOs regulators and political figures.
In 2000, the three books of In the company of visions added a visionary element by including artists and thinkers together with CEOs and regulators in a fruitful dialogue on the emerging global networked society. Nobel laureate Robert A. Mundell, John Reed, then co-chairman of Citigroup, Sir George Mathewson, CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor of Banque de France, Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Financial Services Authority in London, Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the SEC, are among the eminent persons who have kindly accepted to take part in these strategic conversations.
In 2001, Capital markets of the 21st century and Business models @ the financial frontier continue this high-level dialogue with the addition of eminent participants from China and East Asia such as Liu Mingkang, chairman and CEO of Bank of China, Joseph Yam, Chief Executive of the Hong-Kong Monetary Authority, BG George Yeo, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore, Mervyn Davies, Group Executive Director, Standard Chartered, David Eldon, Chairman HSBC Ltd, Philippe Paillart, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Development Bank of Singapore, Richard Li, Chairman and CEO of PCCW, and David K. P. Li, Chairman of Bank of East Asia.
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One decade ago the “Tokyo Declaration” of May 1990 presented “the path toward a global networked society”, calling attention to new patterns of globalization and to new risks of fragmentation. It included concrete proposals to foster the development of common infrastructures and to promote international debate on critical issues such as global competition law, access to networks, standardization and co-regulation. PROMETHEE worked closely with NTT and NEC in Japan to make this global visionary exercise possible. The spirit of the Tokyo declaration was illustrated by the publication in Japanese language of Networld (Toyo Kezaï publisher).
Since then PROMETHEE has convened similar meetings in New York, Atlanta, Budapest, Genoa, Mexico City, Monterrey, Frankfurt etc. to foster the sharing of visions and insights about the emerging global networked economy.
In the company of visions, the three-volume book published by PROMETHEE to celebrate the millennium, opens new avenues in this “art of vision”, drawing on insights from eminent artists, thinkers and doers.
Value and values: in cooperation with notably EDF, Ernst & Young and Shell, visions of “the corporation of 2020” are also developed to spell out the implications of the global networked society for companies. In the PROMETHEE tradition, this involves interactive scenario-building backed with original analysis of the long-term sequence of organizational changes (the “four flying geese” of R-tech, interactive distribution, networked value-chains and societal change). A key theme is the changing relationship between market value and society’s values.
