Not so long ago, experts told us the world was the dotcoms' oyster. For so-called dinosaurs of the old economy, extinction was only a matter of time.

But now, savvy leaders of long-standing enterprises are fighting back and, increasingly, beating the once world-beating start-ups at their own game. They are leveraging their firms’ traditional strengths - image, reputation, expertise, markets - by applying digital technologies, transforming their organizations, and spurring them to newfound success.

D2D relates the stories - and lessons - of 20 companies that moved from supposedly moribund occupants of the old economy to over-achievers of the new. Here’s how firms such as Bertelsmann have succeeded by confronting and obliterating the stifling constraints of outmoded corporate cultures; how companies including Merck set up their e-businesses as separate operating units, achieving greater profitability in both net-based and traditional lines of business; how supposedly outmoded ’intermediaries’ such as Rosenbluth International have exploited the Web to win more customers and increased market share.(text from the publisher)