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Duane Ackerman
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Steve Andriole
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Hispanic Women
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E-commerce
is here to stay
By Tatiana Prophet
tprophet@atlantalatino.com
Atlanta,
Sep.20.- The message was clear on day two of the U.S. Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce Convention: Dot-com failures or not, e-commerce
is here to stay. And Hispanics have a tremendous opportunity to
participate in it.
"Bienvenidos al mundo digital," or, welcome to the digital
world, said BellSouth President and CEO Duane Ackerman, one of
the keynote speakers at Thursday's plenary session on e-procurement.
"That pronunciation may be a little strange, but I believe
those words more than ever."
The session's other speaker agreed. "The digital revolution
is just getting started," said Steve Andriole, who taught
USHCC President George Herrera at The Wharton's School's e-business
program, where Herrera is now a fellow.
"In a sense it was undermined by its own enthusiasm."
"Venture capital was way too easy to get," said Andriole,
followed by laughter in the audience. For example, he said, at
one point, there were 31 sites on helping someone get a job.
"That's
too much," he said. "Stupid questions got too much attention."
Now that the dot-com frenzy has ended, companies are realizing
that there is one simple yet important question that should be
asked when ntering e-commerce, which is: Do people come to your
website to buy things?
Both Ackerman and Andriole stressed the importance of sticking
to off-line fundamentals and sound business principles while forging
ahead on the Web.
"Technology is not going to replace creating value for your
customers. It will not replace a sound business model," said
Ackerman.
And Hispanics have a tremendous opportunity to enter e-commerce
in business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer transactions-through
sheer buying power and through the already successful number of
Hispanic-owned businesses in the nation.
"The Hispanic community is going to be a member of the trillion
dollar club in terms of economic power," said Andriole, referring
to the national figure of $452.4 billion in Hispanic buying power
reported by the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic
Growth. "That's humongous."
Ackerman also stressed the importance of Hispanics in business.
"I think it's interesting to see America become aware of
this buying power. That…is no small number and cannot be
ignored."
Both speakers expressed thanks to the audience for attending the
convention in spite of last week's terrorist attacks."So
many of you here in spite of last week's occurences show unwavering
unity and the strong Latin spirit in the face of adversity,"
Ackerman said.
"I have a lot of respect for the people in this audience
today who have chosen to come in these trying times for the nation,"
Andriole said.
The two also agreed on one thing: to be successful in the future,
a business must enter the digital world.
"Failure is not an option." said Andriole. "You
can't say, I'm not going to be on the Internet. The rewards are
significant. If you can successfully integrate off-line with e-business,
and stick to fundamentals, there's a lot of money to be made."
(www.atlantalatino.com)
