Interesting study from McKinsey. Lots of highlights. Would be great to see this data for New Zealand and Australia.

• Most of the economic value the Internet creates falls outside of the technology sector: companies in more traditional industries capture 75 percent of the benefits. The Internet is also a catalyst for generating jobs. Among 4,800 small and midsize enterprises surveyed, it created 2.6 of them for each lost to technology-related efficiencies.

There are clear implications:

• Enterprises need to sharpen their focus on Internet-related opportunities – especially new products, distribution and customer satisfaction
• Enterprise strategy needs to embrace the positive or negative threat of the Internet to reinvent business models and competitiveness. We talk about Efficient IT at Dell and the Internet is a clear enabler.
• Government leaders need to step-up promoting net access – since “Internet usage, quality of infrastructures, and Internet expenditure are correlated with higher growth in GDP per capita”
• Education inside society and business will matter more than ever – Internet IT skills are needed in every job