Unforeseen Circumstances. Strategies and Technologies for Protecting Your Business and Your People in a Less Secure World

Berglund Authority Level 3

Review by Jeffrey Barlow <barlowj@pacificu.edu>
Editor, Interface

Gutzman, Alexis D. Unforeseen Circumstances. Strategies and Technologies for Protecting Your Business and Your People in a Less Secure World. American Management Association, New York: 2002.

The author of this work, Alexis Gutzman, a familiar name in both e-business and Internet-related publications, seems to echo one of the theses of the other book interviewed here, Jack Cassidy's dot.con. Cassidy argues that it was in large part a sense of American omnipotence that inflated the new economy bubble. Gutzman goes well beyond a loss of omnipotence, carrying us into the dark alleys of corporate and individual fears for financial and physical safety.

I suspect that this was, as of September 11, 2001, a book already in progress: a rather conventional business-related tone telling its intended audience briefly and succinctly how to understand the high points of electronic communications. And Gutzman does an excellent job of surveying various sorts of communications technologies, from teleconferencing to e-mail. She also fills the work out with lists of web sites useful for further reading and research.

The book, however, adds to the cheery summaries darker advise on how to prevent physical and electronic intrusion and on how to protect "your" people. It is sometimes hard to see what the intended audience is for this book. It is written for those at a neophyte level and may serve to give them an introduction to possible problems. But such a person would have to call on specialists to solve most of the problems outlined, and one suspects that those who need such specialists already have them available.

Review article by
Jeffrey Barlow,
Editor, Interface