Summary |
In this explosive and engaging book, Nicholas G. Carr calls the common wisdom into question, contending that IT’s strategic importance has actually dissipated as its core functions have become available and affordable to all. Expanding on the controversial Harvard Business Review article that provoked a storm of debate around the world, Does IT Matter? shows that IT- like earlier infrastructural technologies such as railroads and electric power- is steadily evolving from a profit- boosting proprietary resource to a simple cost of doing business.
Carr draws on convincing historical and contemporary examples to explain why innovations in hardware, software, and networking are rapidly replicated by competitors, neutralizing their strategic power to set one business apart from the pack. But more important, he shows why IT’s emergence as a shared and standardized infrastructure is a natural and necessary process that may ultimately deliver huge economic and social benefits.
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