I am always surprised when someone's PA rings to tell me her boss is on the phone, before, after a status-laden pause, connecting me to the great man (and it is nearly always a man) himself. An alarming number of directors also have their emails printed out for them. These people clearly feel they are far too busy for mundane tasks like dialling a number or going into their inbox—or even turning on their computer at all—but such an attitude leaves them dangerously isolated from the real world of customers, staff, social trends and world events.

Because, whether people like it or not, the new internet-enabled economy is here to stay, and those who persist in treating it as irrelevant or peripheral for their business are living in a dream world. Back in 1999 many dyed-in-the-wool old-worlders felt vindicated by the dotcom crash, but the market value of the world's top five internet companies now exceeds the entire value of the sector eight years ago.

Internet companies have turned "established" businesses, from book selling and auction to travel and encyclopaedias, upside down, capitalising on the complacency of existing players in the sector. And the technological revolution is unlikely to stop there. Glasses Direct was set up in 2004 by a 23-year-old horrified by the margin traditional opticians were making on sales of prescription spectacles. The company now has over 100,000 customers.

More and more "wired" young people are set to take advantage of missed opportunities by older, far more experienced business people to capitalise on the one billion-odd customers, who represent 89 per cent of global GDP, who are now connected to the internet.

The internet has transformed our business and personal lives, and the success of Google exemplifies the sea change over the past eight years. In 1999 its global turnover was a mere $200,000; last year that rose to $6.1bn, and in the first three months of this year it had already achieved sales of $3.6bn. It recently topped Millward Brown's annual BRANDZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking, with a brand value of $66,434m, but, unlike many of its old-economy peers, it is also popular. It leads this year's list of consumers' favourite brands by marketing consultancy Joshua, which also ranks Amazon number three and eBay five.

Despite their size, these brands feel friendly and warm, rather than dominant and aggressive. They were quick to tap into people's desire for social networking and the wisdom of crowds. And, ironically for "virtual" organisations, their customer service is excellent and getting better all the time, based on continuous customer feedback. All these things are facilitated by the internet, as is the rapid spread of word-of-mouth recommendation—by far the best way to build a brand.

Some wise and more established physical organisations have sought to emulate these online pioneers, who have raised the bar in terms of customer service and expectations. Some have even used the internet to shift their business from a national to a global platform. But many more treat the internet as a sort of "bolt-on" to their operations, an approach that turns away customers who try to do business with them. You can be sure that those companies whose bosses are still hung up on status or who are otherwise removed from the real world are the worst offenders.

Google is obsessed with improving the user experience, it is idealistic—its motto is "Do no evil"—and it is driven by aspiration and a healthy degree of humility. What's more, its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are still in their early 30s, are famously informal. Nikesh Arora, vice-president of European operations at Google, told delegates at the Institute of Directors annual convention in April that his first interview with Brin and Page took place while walking around the British Museum. At his second interview, Brin lay on the floor and had his bad back massaged. 

"It was just a very informal attitude that I had not seen in any other company before, and they haven't changed much," says Arora.
Status junkies, take note.