Market forces have always dictated that the performance and nature of the work place balances. If you acknowledge that the principles of supply and demand will ensure that the correct, or required, products and services are offered by successful companies, then the impact of the Internet Business expansion may well adjust the familiar economic paradigm.

Traditional business models are based on a partition of function which arguably resulted from the mechanisation of industry through the Industrial Revolution. In order to improve efficiency the work place “scientists “ such as FW Taylor argued that separation of tasks would improve production rates. Consequently the specialisation of function (innovation, design, production and sales) would be designed to ensure that the greatest opportunity for suppliers and retailers was achieved by encouraging rivalry at both ends of the chain (in producers and retailers).

This model composed around silo’s is now at risk from the Internet, the very nature of the ability to share data instantly has had the effect of bringing together those conventional silo’s. It is now perfectly possible that a collection of designers can get together, design an item or service online, in real time. If the result is a product then via 3D printing technology that product can be produced and advertised via a website. An complete supply chain can in fact Work From Home producing goods and services via Online Jobs.

This sort of activity will affect the world of work as we know it today, Online Jobs will be the standard as opposed to the exception as design, manufacturing and fabrication, sales and marketing and distribution are all achievable through a broadband connection. Old fashioned barriers to entry in markets, such as accessibility, market knowledge and skill sets will become less of an issue as a start up Internet Business can, easily source appropriate skills online and have no need to co-locate a team who can all successfully Work From Home. Any market is accessible when sales pitches and customer contact is made through effective use of today’s communication technology. Business forums and blog sites can also give useful local and regional business information through debate with organisations already working in that market – evidently there is an issue around sharing information that could be useful to your competition.

There is no doubt that the technicalities of production as we understand them today will still be needed for some elements of manufacturing and production, it would be nearly impossible for a local supplier to build a car and for an internet business sales team who work from home to sell it. It would also be foolish to suggest that some of the more technologically advanced goods we use on a daily basis could be designed over the internet by a team who had never met. However there are millions of products which are straightforward in design construction and production which could be produced in this way. Who knows, some of them may even benefit from design improvement as hundreds of much smaller groups take a look at those designs and add their own individual innovation to them.