- ISBN13: 9781591394440
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A Bold Manifesto on the Future of Information Technology Over the last decade, and even since the bursting of the technology bubble, pundits, consultants, and thought leaders have argued that information technology provides the edge necessary for business success. IT expert Nicholas G. Carr offers a radically different view in this eloquent and explosive book. As IT’s power and presence have grown, he argues, its strategic relevance has actually decreased. IT … More >>
Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage
Tags: Advantage, business success, Competitive, competitive advantage, computer, Corrosion, explosive book, future of information technology, Information, last decade, manifesto, Matter, nicholas g carr, presence, pundits, relevance, technology, thought leaders
#1 by Ramesh Sadagopan on February 7, 2010 - 7:33 am
Readers of this book should also read books on Enterprise Architecture as a solution to the concerns raised by the author.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Mike Okney on February 7, 2010 - 8:45 am
Thouhg there are many points that will cause controversy and some that are not quite as thought through as they should be, this book raises some important questions about the role of IT that need to be examined, especially in the context of the highly polarized arguments that have recently erupted about the subject.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by J. Jenkins on February 7, 2010 - 10:31 am
When I started reading this book, I have to admit – I thought Carr was a nut case.
Information Technology (IT) has delivered the benefit of competitive advantage to companies for the past 40 years… it seemed Carr was dismissing that altogether.
In fact, he was embracing it by providing a litany of reasons IT has grown over time in importance to the balance sheet. Then he begins to point to the future in which Carr presents a thoughtful analysis of trends in IT – he draws these trends to a normative conclusion. Embracing IT’s past and future role in our economy.
In the end, Carr changed my mind… he’s writing is persuasive and well reasoned. I am getting ready to read “In Search of Business Value” which is Robert McDowell’s (of Microsoft) reply to Carr’s premise. We’ll see if the other side is as well reasoned.
If you job is even remotely related to IT, this book is worth a read.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on February 7, 2010 - 11:38 am
It’s star time. While filling in for a ‘let go’ editor of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), a business writer with no personal involvment or experience in IT uses prime-time pages of HBR to conjure up a British tabloid piece that raises him to IT stardom. Watch the movie, ‘Being There’ to catch what’s going on with this follow-on book from the smash hit, “IT Doesn’t Matter” in the May 2004 issue of HBR. Although a formula for business failure, this is a shoe-in for the Hype Award for Selling Books. Peter Sellers, …and Chance the Gardener…take notes.
Klyde Hartler, Frankfurt, Germany
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by Coding Genius on February 7, 2010 - 1:27 pm
Nicholas Carr is, by all accounts, a decent writer. This book is very easy to read and can be consumed in a few hours of instense reading. This book expounds upon one of the most debated IT papers, from the Harvard Business Review, to have been written this century.
Carr’s premise is that IT is becoming increasingly commoditized, and will eventually cease to provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Through a journey from the Industrial Revolution to the coming decades, Carr paints a very interesting portrait of the role of IT in today’s business world.
The text itself has several flaws, not the least of which is that Carr’s personal knowledge of IT should have limited his discourse on the subject to that of an article. He appears to be reaching, making inappropriate comparisons and completely ignoring several of the more complex (and costly) areas of IT research (e.g. user acceptance, integration of legacy systems). His narrow definition of “IT” as only hardware and off-the-shelf software (anyone who implies that visual tools automatically write all the code you need should immediately author such a tool) needs to realize that the bulk of IT spending is not on those two items.
This book should be read by all IT practitioners because many C-level executives truly believe that which it preaches. Without properly reading it and recognizing its effect on the industry and on spending, you may get caught without proper arguments during the next budget meeting.
Rating: 4 / 5