Web 2.0 Knowledge Technologies and the Enterprise

Appendix: A case study¹

This story is located in a fertiliser and sands processing company operating in central-north USA which exports most of its products to overseas markets, including China. It is a complex, enthralling and sometimes brutal environment, dominated by harsh geography and the unforgiving edges of the industry. The story straddles two epochs in a single year, separated by the schism of the global financial crisis of 2008. The first epoch was one of rapid, almost breathless, expansion in productive capacity to meet the world’s hunger for natural resources: achieving 12 per cent annual growth in GDP, building a new city of 2 million persons each month, manufacturing half the world’s televisions and most of its pillowslips, China ...