Sinha said the e-business benefits will clearly impact inter- and intra-business communication but large-scale buying and selling through internet in India was still many years away.

In a 45-minute presentation at a seminar on `Communicating in the New Millennium' organised by Genesis PR and International Public Relations Association here on Tuesday, Sinha said the biggest challenge which new technologies and internet pose will be protection of confidential information on product formulations and business strategies which may get leaked to competitors.

"From a CEO's perspective, business-to-business relationships will change, organisations internally will undergo change and media will play a greater role in thenext millennium," he said.

Sinha said that from a business manager's perspective, there will be a need to review the market place and organisation and to understand the implications of technology transition on businesses of the next millennium."Consumer relationships will change as consumers will be more informed. They will expect greater transparency and better quality products and service," he said.

Interestingly, Sinha said media will player a greater role in the next millennium. "Media will take on a far greater responsibility and will influence consumers' lifestyle and business relations," he said. The next millennium will see greater and faster information availability and media will be more interactive.

He cautioned the CEOs that though ways of communicating with employees may change, they should not forget that its the human touch which creates teams. He said CEOs could also end up being more intrusive in the functioning of managers and day-to-day affairs as facilities such as video-conferencingand regular interface through latest communication technologies will increase between CEOs and managers.

He said that technology will also make education and training needs undergo a change in corporates but added that CEOs must watch out for informed but untrained users, information theft and incorrect usage of technology."The next millennium will be a `technology for consumer millennium' and will bring in `change'. Whether the change will be for the good or bad will be dictated by our ability to manage change," he concluded.