"The invisible continent" is Kenichi Ohmae’s name for the vaporous new world economic order that respects no borders. Unfortunately, The Invisible Continent: Four Strategic Imperatives of the New Economy is nearly as vaporous. The ideas in it beg for a more careful analysis.

The book attempts to build on Ohmae’s groundbreaking books on globalism, which correctly predicted the emergence of a new economy and culture that cross political boundaries. He foresaw the rise of geopolitical blocs such as Nafta and the arrival of an affluent class of globe-trotting executives who often have more in common with each other than with people in their own countries.

In The Invisible Continent, Ohmae sets out to link the borderless world of global capital that he described in his earlier books to the borderless on-line world created by the Internet.

He starts by contrasting the old world with the new world but only offers up ideas that are, by now, old hat—such as that the Old Economy is based on physical assets, while the new world isn’t. Ohmae then moves to his four "strategic imperatives," the four things that every company and country must succeed at if they are to flourish on the invisible continent.

First is the "visible dimension," the physical world that continues to exist even with the rise of the Internet and the decline of nation-states. People still need to eat, wear clothing, and live in homes. Even Internet companies live in this world. This is the mortar in the clicks-and-mortar paradigm.

Second is the "cyber dimension," the world of the Internet, the clicks in clicks-and-mortar.

Third is the "borderless dimension." This is the world that Ohmae has previously described so well, a world in which capital, intellectual property, culture, and talent move freely around the globe.

Fourth is the "dimension of high multiples." This is the leverage that Internet companies get because of the high valuations investors have given them.

But the dimensions are barely more illuminating than the new world/old world contrast. The bricks-and-mortar dimensions have been well-covered elsewhere. Ohmae, himself, already has covered the borderless dimension. The dimension of high multiples doesn’t even seem to be true. The high valuations accorded to Internet start-ups appear to have been transitory.

The four strategic imperatives aren’t tied together very well, either. In contrast to Ohmae’s other books, this one seems to have been thrown together. Many of the ideas are ill-formed.

Ohmae has all the right credentials. He is a former director of McKinsey’s Japanese consulting practice, as well as an entrepreneur and a globe-trotter. He does make a few interesting points in the book, particularly on the larger political-economic implications of the Internet. One chapter is an interesting critique of Japan, a country with which he is very familiar. He offers a number of ideas for new government policies to pull the country out of its economic doldrums. A chapter on the "new cold war," listing the ways in which economic warfare between countries might play out in the future, also is intriguing.

Yet his attempt to describe the impact of the Internet on globalization frequently doesn’t work, because he doesn’t have a particularly strong grasp of digital technology and the Internet. His discussion of technology’s impact on business, and his analysis of various technology companies, is often superficial. Here are two examples where he is simply wrong:

He writes: "America Online has virtually cornered one significant part of the on-line market: the most attractive first point of contact for many customers." Nope. His assertion is only partly true in the U.S., where Yahoo! is a strong competitor. It is far from true in Europe and the rest of the world, where other companies are ahead of AOL.

Describing Dell Computer’s business model, he writes: "Arguably, the most crucial, core part of this business—the delivery—is handled by FedEx." Wrong again. Dell’s competitive advantage hinges on its approach to taking orders and manufacturing. How Dell ships its products has nothing to do with its success.

The book goes after the right subject and makes a handful of thought-provoking points, but it just doesn’t do enough to cut through the fog.

Nee figures he must be a resident of the invisible continent. But he hasn’t quite figured out how he can apply the four strategic imperatives to his personal life. Nee can be reached at eric_nee@timeinc.com.