IT Doesn't Matter!

https://hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter

In 2003, Nicholas Carr wrote a seminal and hotly debated article: ‘IT doesn’t matter’. Many people who envisioned a technology-driven utopian world considered the article almost heretical. I was part of many such debates as a young graduate student.

However, if we dig deep into the article, we see certain critical points that were almost prophetic. As I interact with more firms in the Indian landscape, I see his thesis playing out in detail.

-      IT has become a ubiquitous commodity and has lost its strategic value

-      IT is a resource in surplus and no longer drives competitive advantage. A resource that is scarce is more valuable.

-      IT is now an infrastructural resource, a utility like electricity or roads. It does have macro-economic effects but not at individual firm level.

-      New IT create small windows of opportunity but never sustainable.

-      Yet, companies in their eagerness to not fall behind, end up overspending on IT. Seen this way, IT creates more risk than reward.

What are the outcomes of a IT-driven world view?

-      The modern workforce including senior management struggles to innovatively deploy IT with a market focus.

-      Overspending on a cornucopia of tools that create a dysfunctional IT infrastructure and end up reinforcing organizational and workflow silos.

-      Greater exposure to external risks since there are now many entry points for hackers

-      Explosion of data that overwhelms decision making. Yes, we have big data and it is too big for our comfort.

I feel it is time business leaders revisit this article. In terms of quotable quotes, two gems come to mind:

“When a resource becomes essential to competition but inconsequential to strategy, the risks it creates become more important than the advantages it provides”- Nicholas Carr

Despite the promise of technology, our world looks an awful lot like the past – Nasim Nicholas Taleb