3B Limo

When the Atlanta-based rock band REM. went on tour in 1995, the first time the supergroup had played so extensively in five years,
much of the promotional effort was focused on the Internet. The dates for the North American portion of the band’s tour were posted on the World Wide Web (WWW) in Januaiy, just days before the first concert in Perth, Australia. Fans could look in the REM. folder created by MW News not only for the schedule but also for audio and video interviews with band members, as well as concert footage. Want more? Well, just tap into the WWW for the entire list of R.E.M. bootleg records, band photographs, all the song lyrics, and even the sounds from some of their famous guitar riffs.
And coming soon? Click on your favorite hit from any singer, sit back, and enjoy the video. The marketplace for R.E.M. is an electronic one— Na! Can it be long before R.E.M.’s distribution system is the Net as well? What will happen to their current publisher, Warner Brothers Records? What is the role of a record store in this new world? Or what will happen to the radio station when REM’S music can be accessed from the Net with the push of a button from the digital radio in your car? What will happen to MW itself when you can say to your television, “Play me the first cut from REM’S new album?”
In music, and in everything, the times they are a-changing. A new age is upon us and no one can halt its progress. Unlike revolutions of the past, however, the opportunity to share more fully in the largesse of this revoluHon is huge. Aspects of this new age already exist; the rest is being born daily. Amid the apparent chaos of change, there are rhythms at work, and patterns are beginning to appear.
We are at the dawn of an Age of Networked Intelligence—an age that is giving birth to a new economy, a new politics, and a new society. Businesses will be transformed, governments will be renewed, and individuals will be able to reinvent themselves—all with the help of the new information technology.
There is a vast new promise but also new perils. A looming dark side holds the potential for severe social stratification, unprecedented invasion of privacy and other rights, structural unemployment, and massive social dislocation and conflict. The future will depend on what we as businesses and as a society do—on our decisions and our actions.
Look at what happened in April 1995 immediately following the blast at the federal government building in Oklahoma City. The Net became a focal point for all sides of the debate. Some messages went so far as to allege that the FBI was to blame. Others, posted by extremist gun cults, exhorted fellow members to more rebellious acts. But the Net was also the focal point for helpful information. The FBI, using its Home Page, quickly posted descriptions of the suspects. And the Net was used to spread pleas for heavy equipment that could be used in the rescue operation. The promise and the peril.
Even Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who became speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995, made the disruptions of the new age a major theme upon taking office. “The most accurate analogy to what is happening to us now is to look at the period between 1770 and 1800, when America was changing from a rural to a manufacturing society,” said Gingrich in a speech. “What is happening to us now—the transition from the industrial era … is forcing us to ask very similar and profound questions about ourselves.” But how can companies transform themselves for the new economy? In the 1980s, the main management tool for change was quality. The total quality and continuous improvement movement helped many companies respond to the newly emerging global situation.
In the 1990s the attention shifted to business process reengineering (BPR), a management technique that swept through corporations and governments around the world. It is true that the old business processes, management practices, organizational structures, and ways of working have become inappropriate for the new volatile, global, competitive business environment. Clearly, many large companies needed to reengineer to reduce their cost base.
However, by all accounts, BPR is in trouble. A survey by Systems Reengineering Economics, a newsletter published by Computer Economics Inc., of Carlsbad, California, found that companies will spend $52 billion on business reengineering by 1997. Of that, $40 billion will go to information technology. Will corporations be satisfied? According to Inform.ation Week, two-thirds of such projects fail. According to management consulting firm Arthur D. Little Inc., only 16% of companies are “satisfied.” Of the rest, 45% are partially satisfied and 39% are dissatisfied. Other companies have simply wasted money; Citibank has frankly admitted that the $50 million it spent on reengineering produced no results.
The idea behind BPR seems to be a good one. So, what’s the problem? The number one culprit on everyone’s list is resistance to change. A study by Deloitte & Touche listed 60% of respondents as indicating resistance to change as the main factor behind the failure of BPR. Among the top five reasons, three were variants on resistance—lack of executive consensus; lack of a senior management champion; and unrealistic expectations.
Old business processes die hard. They have built-in resistance to their own transformation. But scratch the surface and you’ll find that much of this so-called resistance is rational—at least from the perspective of the human subjects who are reengineered. Notwithstanding the lofty stateinents of BPR theorists about improving customer service, the real goal of most reengineering projects is to streamline processes and reduce costs— specifically head count. People, having heads, reflect that theirs might be one of those to be counted, and decide to resist. They openly resist. They passively resist. Or they superficially comply rather than buy in. But resist they do. And such resistance is basically rational.
Don’t get me wrong. All companies need to control or reduce costs. )ld 1tocesses, from the old economy and old enterprise, are an obstacle to competitiveness. They need to be reengineered for efficiency and high performance. This becomes especially clear when your customer calls on Friday and says that you must reduce prices by 10% by Monday or they will no longer do business with you. The 10% isn’t going to come from reducing margins, which are already razor thin.
But increasingly BPR will not be adequate for success. Although downsizing may be laudable in some situations, it is not a strategy for the future. A vision for transformation beyond “neutron bombing” your enterprise is required. Success in the new economy will require inventing new business processes, new businesses, new industries, and new customers— not rearranging old ones.
For the 1990s and the next millennium, corporations need to get beyond reengineering to the transformation of the corporation enabled by information technology (IT). The goal should not just be cost control but the dramatic and profound transformation of customer service, responsiveness, and innovation.
Business process reengineering does not a strategy for the new economy make. Like quality, reengineering is a necessary but insufficient condition for competitiveness. The reason is that the world, the economy, and all the rules of business are changing.

B&M offers a full line of transmission performance accessories, but five are of particular interest to hunters and fishermen. All are designed for easy do-it-yourself installation.
1. Auxiliary transmission oil cooler. If you want more than
100,000 miles out of your transmission, get one of these. For what it does, it just may be the most inexpensive performance product on the market. ($60)
2. Deep oil pan. In a nutshell—more oil, better cooling. This is a must for 4×4 owners who tow. B&M deep pans also offer a drain plug that allows easier service of the transmission. The pan has a filter extension, which places the filter down toward the bottom of the pan where it can draw in the coolest oil.
($45—s 125) 3. Remote Transmission Filter.The other transmission killer is contamination of the fluid. A remote fIlter makes it easier to access and change the filter. ($30)
4. Temperature Gauge.The optimum operating range of the transmission fluid is between 160° and 200° E Above that, the fluid starts to lose its lubrication qualities.The B&M gauge is an analog model that displays temperatures from 100° to 3500 F. ($45)
5. Valve Body Recalibration Kit. Improves shifts. More important, it helps reduce slippage, which reduces heat. (Shift Improver Kit: $30; Transpak: $55)

It didn’t think me very long to learn how to tell a brown trout from a rainbow or brookie. And I easily mastered the differences
between a pumpkinseed and a bluegill. But when confronted with the redear, redbreast, or longear sunfish, things got a good deal more complicated. Even now, I occasionally consult a field guide to be sure. So it is with tires for a 4×4. With so many designs available, how can you identify the correct tire for your pickup or sport utility? Consulting the simplified “field guide” below can make things easier. Use it to narrow the choice to a particular type of tire.Then go to a dealer for information on the specific model within that tire type.
Essentially; there are four types of tires of concern to outdoors- men: 1. highway rib; 2. highway/all-season; 3. offroad/all-terrain; and 4. maximum-traction offroad.
1. Highway rib tires are most commonly used in commercial applications. (A rib is the standing tread that circles the tire.) The design provides good, even wear, low noise levels, and a smooth ride. Highway rib tires usually have a four- or five-rib design. Each rib is siped, which means the ribs have little slashes that help provide biting edges for traction in dirt, slush, and snow. The grooves between the ribs can be jagged to provide even more of a bite. The shoulders (the inner and outer ribs) are wider to help cornering and braking performance. These tires are designed primarily for highway use, but will perform adequately in light to moderate snow and on level gravel and dirt roads.

2. For the most part, unless you specify an offroad tire option, highway all-season tires will probably be original equipment on your 4×4. Sometimes these tires have low rolling resistance, which helps increase fuel economy. The highway/all-season tire maintains the rib-type look, but the ribs consist of small, independent blocks positioned around the tire, which help it deliver greater performance in dirt and rain. The zigzag sipes in the blocks also help traction on snow and ice. This type of tire is an evolutionary step up from the highway rib tire. The more aggressive tread design helps it better deal with dirt and snow, so that as loose dirt and snow are compressed into the openings, you actually end up with more traction. At the same time, the all-season design provides good on- road perfirmance. The highway/all-season tire works well on dirt roads, gravel roads, sand, and in moderate snow, and provides a quiet, more comfortable ride.

3. The offroad/all-terrain tire has much more capability off the road. The tire features an interlocking tread design, which means that before the leading tread block leaves the ground, the following tread block has already come into contact with it. This allows the individual blocks to work together to help maintain ride quality and promote even wear. The multilitceted tread blocks also help deliver traction from any direction on dirt, sand, and gravel; provide handling, acceleration, and stopping ability that helps you quickly avoid a rock or a stump; and enable the vehicle to negotiate other obstacles as well. The lugs on the shoulder of the tire and the pockets between each lug foster good offroad steering response and traction.This is a tire for dirt trails, rocky trails, shallow mud, and moderate to heavy snow; it remains fairly civilized for highway use, though there may be some noise and comfort penalties.

4. As the designation suggests, the maximum-traction offroad tire is focused on offroad travel. Nonetheless, the newest designs can be acceptable for highway travel, though you will experience increased noise levels and potential traction loss in some highway driving situations. Notice that the interlocking tread design now features large, free-standing blocks. Also, the siping has been replaced by large gaps.The goal of this tire is to bite into loose or muddy surface areas for maximum traction and propel the vehicle forward. The very large opening between the lugs helps make the tire self-cleaning: The mud is compressed as the tire gets a grip and is then expelled as the tire rolls on. (Smaller grooves allow the mud to pack in between the lugs and not be expelled.) The wide grooves also help the tire perform well on loose shale and rocks. (Grooves that are too close together can’t get a grip, like a rock climber who can’t spread his fingers.)
The tire’s shoulder area has two designs to further enhance traction on loose or muddy surfaces. The varying shoulder width offers different biting edges for traction, which makes the tire the only choice when you are likely to encounter deep ruts.To take full advantage of this feature, deliberately alternate right and left turns of the steering wheel; this will gently pinch the tire against the edges of deep ruts, which allows the shoulder lugs to claw at the sides of the rut and pull the vehicle forward. In effect, this tactic gives the impression of an additional lower gear. Though it’s probably too aggressive for deep sand, the maximum-traction tire is best on loose surfaces, mud, and extremely deep snow.