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| Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage | 
| Author: Nicholas G. Carr
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (37 reviews)
Sales Rank: 57561
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 1591394449
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.4062
EAN: 9781591394440
ASIN: 1591394449
Publication Date: April 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A bold and controversial manifesto on where information technology is headed, how its role in business strategy will dramatically change, and what this all means for business managers and IT suppliers Does IT Matter provides the first cogent explanation of IT?s dramatically changing business role, its levelling influence on competition, and the practical implications for business managers and IT suppliers. A convincing manifesto on one of the most important business phenomena of our time, ?Does IT Matter?? will play a central role in our ongoing debate about the future of IT.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 IT microeconomics June 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Carr has received negative coverage from the IT community for the "Does IT Matter?" Harvard Business Review article and this, a Harvard Business School Press book, but the title is actually a misnomer. He states that IT matters so much in fact that a firm must have it to compete, much like electricity. However, Carr argues, just because it is ubiquitous does not mean it is strategic.
The author compares the last two decades of the information revolution and associated computing/Internet infrastructure with the birth and maturation of the steamship, railway, telegraph, and electric grid infrastructures. The key factor of all of these technologies is how they influenced - or failed to influence - competition among individual companies. Having access to these technologies was for a time a massive competitive advantage. However, as the infrastructure is rapidly built out and more and more gain that access, standards and best practices are published and adopted, components are homogenized, and the technology begins to fade into the background and out of the minds of chief decision makers. As a telling example which he cites often, many companies once had a "vice president of electricity" position in the management ranks.
Carr spends a few chapters discussing how IT has become a commodity. The proliferation of standards inherently limits differentiation and the economics are just too hard for users to resist. As Michael Dell said, "In the long run, all technology tends towards low-cost standards." However, Dell was not just referring to hardware, but IT services too: "The fact is that you can put some mystical notion on lots of these services, but if you look at them in detail... many of the things are highly repeatable.... We are in effect commoditizing services." And Carr says that "most corporate software will be a commodity good churned out by anonymous factory workers spread across the globe."
Far from not mattering, IT is essential to competition; however, because of its ubiquity, it is inconsequential to strategy and the risks it creates become more important to manage than the exploiting of the advantages. Accordingly, in the future, the successful firm will increasingly be one that pragmatically plans and executes its IT endeavors rather than one who pursues innovation. It will focus more on vulnerabilities rather than opportunities. "Does IT Matter" provides a relatively concise academic summary confirming what I am already empirically seeing as an IT professional.
 A Must Read for all IT People October 14, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is truly inspiring. If you are an IT Specialist in any capacity, this book is like spending a session in a Therapist office. It forces you to talk an honest look at your profession and if you are really adding value to your customers or not.
It should be a required reading for all IT college graduates. Although there are certain statements I did not agree with, however, Nick is truly a mind-set shifter whom with a single article set in motion a global debate.
I cannot wait for his next book
 Written by an author who never managed an IT organization May 26, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Although Nicholas Carr has some good eye opening arguments, most of it is based on theory, and not practice. As usual, although such arguments are worthy of thought and debate, it should never be taken at its face value as the new paradigm.
For example, Nicholas Carr makes an argument there are huge amount of IT "waste" because of excessive disk capacity and CPU capabilities. People who have worked in IT for any reasonable period of time knows that excess capacity rarely remains wasted, especially when many organizations experience 50%+ growth in disk storage needs every year. The same thing goes for the CPU and memory capacity. Having excessive hardware capacity for the future needs is called "capacity planning" and not a waste. Anyone who has been taken off guard (and paid a dear price with costly downtime) due to lack of disk storage, memory, or CPU horsepower knows the value of having some excessive hardware capacity. Minimizing the risk of critical downtime is hardly a "waste".
Some of Nicholas Carr's argument, admittedly, is at least somewhat, if not mostly, true. For example, he argues that IT, particularly its infrastructure, offers little competitive advantage because IT has become a commodity. This is true of SAN, OS, RDBMS, email, routers, switches, and servers (among others). If one's competitors have better and faster storage, for example, all one needs to do is buy the same storage from the same vendor at the same price to negate that competitive advantage.
Nicholas Carr does not address two important factors enough in the competitive forces of IT:
1)The power of innovation. Although competitive advantage via better hardware is becoming non-existent, a superior code written by a good developer is much more difficult to duplicate. Carr seems to dismiss the idea of innovation in IT since it is a "commodity". This is only partially true.
2)The competitive advantage of having superior IT personnel. The quality of the Knowledge Worker has become a key component, and perhaps the main key component, of competitive forces. In an era where it is increasingly difficult to gain competitive advantage, the quality of a company's Knowledge Worker is becoming more crucial. Despite the increasing commoditization of IT, the quality of IT depends largely on the quality of the IT personnel.
A necessary read and a great overview, but.... April 23, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is always difficult to write books about the interplay of business and technology. If you lean too far in either direction, you fall off the tightrope. Carr does a good job at abstracting and giving the macroeconomical view, but his weakness colaesces in "Managing the Money Pit". The overview approach does not work here, Sir. This is a place where volumes could be written. When should I, as an IT manager make targeted strategic investments, as oppossed to overall upgrades? Should I put on my rose-colored academic glasses and convert my server farms to Linux and outsource all my IT overseas? Generalization of complex issues that face people in this industry could be tough to swallow for some.
On a positive note, the relation of IT to past infrastructure technologies was brilliant. As a reader, I was insatiable when reading the historical similarities of railroads, electrical grids and other innovations of times past. Tying these examples together with those of the modern era to form direct patterns (instead of loose links) would do this book a ton of good. Expanding the "Money Pit" chapter and teaming up with some industry IT veterans to write it would add tremendous value to the reader.
IT is about Distinctiveness March 5, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You gain an advantage over your competitors by having or doings something that they can't have or do. This means that in the end business profits are based on you ability to differentiate yourself.
As IT becomes more and more a commodity it is only a natural economic fact that its ability to help your business differentiate itself will decrease.
This book is based on sound economic principles. It is not nice or sweet news, but if you are prepared for the coming commodity you will not be disappointed.
So, yes read this book and learn from history.
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