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David S. Pottruck, president and co-CEO of Charles Schwab, and Terry Pearce, founder of Leadership Communication, are among those who believe the Net will forever change the way business is conducted--if it hasn't done so already. In Clicks and Mortar, they draw on personal experience to suggest corporate officials prepare for this new reality by refocusing their practices, principles, and passions on the real needs of a 21st-century company. The book's first section, "Culture at the Core," identifies corporate culture as today's primary driver of growth and explores ways to create, improve, and sustain it ("through language, image, and ritual") for the wired era. The book's second section, "Leadership Practices," examines the way our technology-dominated environment impacts organizational behavior and the qualities leaders must possess (personal integrity and open communication) to inspire the "breakthrough thinking" needed to thrive. The third section, "Management Practices," investigates basic tools like measurement, marketing, and customer relations and describes how they can be updated for this brave new cyberworld. An additional chapter brings together eight business and academic players, including Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Novell's Eric Schmidt, to speculate on the future of commerce. If you're not afraid to use "organizational transformation" and "personal change" in the same sentence, you'll find value here. --Howard Rothman
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