Oh, for the good old days of huge corporations which told you what to buy and when and how much you would pay for it. All gone now, says Baldock: net-driven nimbleness is the key trait of success in the third millennium. If big companies are to survive at all, it will be only by acting like small ones.

To anyone familiar with business literature, these points are not particularly new. Baldock, however, does a good job of knitting a number of issues into a whole, around the general theme of how the internet has changed the market, the consumer, and the very notion of selling goods and services. The net provides, first and foremost, information: the capacity to compare, communicate and choose. If consumers are not happy with what they are offered - if it is not tailored to their specific requirements - they can easily go elsewhere. The pivot of power has swung from the seller to the buyer.

As a result, says Baldock, even the largest companies can suddenly lose major chunks of any given market to a firm with short production runs, flexible design, and instant access. For a large (traditional) firm to customise a particular product is a slow process, if possible at all. They are likely to still be re-tooling while their small competitors have moved onto the next generation.

Specialisation is the key, says Baldock. Forget about vertical integration: it only reinforces the inertia. And becoming larger by merger or acquisition is more likely to be part of the problem than part of the solution. Trying to manage all aspects of the business cycle means doing nothing very well.

Baldock looks at a number of examples where large companies have made the transition to the new world. Hiving off a unit as a separate e-commerce company seems to be a popular solution, although a few traditional firms have managed to graft new methods of selling onto the old organisation. Unfortunately, the book tends to deal with such cases in a fairly perfunctory way: more in-depth analysis of the reasons for success or failure would have been appreciated. The impact of personal e-trading of shares on the staid stockbroking industry, for example, is an area ripe for much more exploration than the book provides.

Baldock presents a new model of company organisation, based around being buyer-centric rather than seller-centric, and of "virtualising" non-core activities. Fair enough, although one suspects that the concept of business models might be a bit contrary to the idea of un-organised organisations.

One also suspects that the book might use a brush that is a bit too wide. Many of the companies Baldock looks at the involve personal goods or services: selling insurance or airline tickets, for example. But are all large companies so vulnerable to smaller competitors? It is hard to see, for example, how the internet will affect industries like mining or shipbuilding. Some business activities are intrinsically geared to the big and the long-term: not everything can be effectively scaled down. Nevertheless, 'The Last Days of the Giants?' has a range of interesting things to say. Business is changing, without doubt: the last days of one breed are the first of another.

In this, his second book, Robert Baldock continues in his visionary vein to tackle the problems, challenges and opportunities that the year 2000 onwards will bring for old-style "giants' of the last century.

The subject of this book are the problems facing big business, especially if they stand still instead of moving with, and even ahead of, the times. The greatest threats to the so-called 'giants' can come from the most unexpected quarters. Suddenly a small, independent company from the other side of the world can, without warning, take large chunks of your market share. They can do this because they are quicker of thought, more flexible in attitude and more closely attuned to the real needs of their customers than you are.

In this book, Robert Baldock looks at the ways in which you can change the nature of your business so that you can begin the 21st century on at least an equal footing with your hungry, determined competitors. This includes looking at the nature of what you offer to your customers, the relationship you have with your customers, and the level to which you should continue trying to do everything internally against the option of outsourcing.

The author concludes by giving us a three-dimensional mental model to visualise when thinking about the kinds of things we should be doing.

Robert Baldock (1955- ) was, until recently, a global managing partner in Anderson Consulting, the management and technology consultancy, responsible for eCommerce, Customer Relationship Management and Mergers and Acquisitions within the Financial Services Industry. He led a team within Andersen's global financial services practice in developing a set of scenarios for the future of the financial services industry as well as an initiative looking at the future shape of the consumer serving industries. He is the author of Destination Z.

While the cases referenced in this book are interesting cases to study, reading each case was difficult because much of the information is repeated and extraneous information is added. The book could be condensed to 25% of its size easily with a big red pencil.

An interesting history of some classic business failures. However the book does not really deliver on the second part of it's title, `and how to avoid them...'. It is true that it leaves you to draw your own conclusions, but I for one would have preferred some marketing analysis and some tips or rules that might have prevented these failures. Suitable primarily for business historians or others interested in this field.

I like business case studies like this book and while I enjoyed it, it did not "wow" me. The studies are clinically written and as a reviewer already stated, it really doesn't address the second part of the title, "how to avoid them". I didn't learn from the book but it was mildly interesting. I particularly like the Montgomery Ward story where you have to almost laugh at the companies stupidity. Read if you like the subject and have the time but don't expect a "bestseller".