To implement a successful internet strategy, a company's culture must first be overhauled.

David S. Pottruck, co-CEO of Charles Schwab Corp., has a strong grasp of that concept. Schwab has been an acknowledged leader in the bricks-to-clicks transition in the financial services industry. Over the past four years it has transformed itself into an Internet company-it manages more than 40% of total online assets, more than double that of its closest rival-with a bricks-and-mortar base of more than 350 branches. Yet, even in that environment, there has been resistance to change within the company.

Pottruck chose a dramatic gesture to overcome that resistance. Gathering almost 100 of Schwab's senior managers at one end of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, he gave them all jackets embroidered with "Crossing the Chasm" and led them on a march to the other side. He refers to the symbolic event as "the beginning of the reinvention of our company."

Of course, leading a bricks-and mortar company's transition to the New Economy is not without personal risk for the CEO involved. Julie Wainwright, CEO of Pets.com, has also been CEO of a bricks-and-mortar company. She points out that taking such a company to the Web is "a gutsy move" because CEOs must not only adapt to a new culture, they risk competing with stores and distributors and antagonizing analysts. She adds, however, that good CEOs realize they will always look worse before they look better whenever there is a major shift in their business.