These days, many dot-com start-ups are getting their comeuppance. The stock prices of once high-flying Internet companies are losing altitude, and the value of stock option packages is down sharply. Investors are finally taking a skeptical look at the shoddy business practices of some rapacious Internet entrepreneurs, such as hyping revenues, stacking the board of directors with friendly insiders, and doling out equity shares to family and friends. You can almost hear grizzled Wall Street veterans mutter, "Hah. I told you so. So much for the New Economy."

Hold on. We are still at the dawn of the Internet revolution. Fact is, Internet-driven growth is accelerating and the competition is heating up. The dot-com poster children are confronting a serious challenge from established, brand name companies that are now restructuring their operations around the Internet. Management knows there is no going back to a business model where brokers can earn hefty commissions on stock trades or where car dealers can post the highly-inflated manufacturers suggested retail price instead of the more market-driven invoice price.

How established companies will do along the Internet frontier is far from clear. Yes, they have deep pockets and powerful brand names. But organizational resistance and bureaucratic barriers to change hamper many corporate leviathans against fleet-footed dot.com entrepreneurs. As Alfred Sloan, the management genius who rescued General Motors from the brink of failure some 70 years ago and built an industrial enterprise that dominated the auto market for another half-century said, "The circumstances of the ever-changing market and ever-changing product are capable of breaking any business organization if that organization is unprepared for change."

No matter what companies come out ahead in the battle for market share and profits, the clear winner is the consumer and the economy.