Does+IT+Matter?

=Does IT Matter?= Sunday, September 11, 2011 <>

**Topic overview:**
Nicholas Carr's "IT Doesn't Matter" article created a great deal of discussion and debate when it was published in the Harvard Business Review in 2003. It still does today, eight years later. There remains significant disagreement in the IT profession over whether Carr's basic premises are brilliant and insightful, or he has completely missed the point of what IT has done for business (and the world!). Today you will have a chance to consider the arguments he makes, decide for yourself, and see if you can convince your classmates of the correctness of your views.

**Preparation for class:**
Prior to class, you need to read the article "IT Doesn't Matter" by Nicholas Carr, Harvard Business Review, June 2003. Although the reading seems quite large, all portions of the reading packet are not equally important. The core article is only eight pages long. Read this article carefully to make sure that you understand the key arguments that the author is making. Come prepared to discuss the following questions in class.


 * What is the core argument that the author is making in the article?
 * Do you agree or disagree with his argument? Why or why not?
 * Is "IT Doesn't Matter" a fair title for the article? If you could rename it more accurately, what title might you give it?
 * Are there reasons to invest in a business other than "sustainable competitive advantage"? If so, what might they be?
 * How does Carr define IT? Is his definition a good one?
 * Are the analogies that the author uses to explain why IT doesn't matter appropriate? Are there fundamental differences between the historic examples he uses and IT that make their comparison misleading?

In addition to the core article, there are 17 letters written to the Harvard Business Review editors regarding the article from prominent people working in the IT industry. Read at least 4 of these letters carefully and come prepared to discuss, and either defend or rebuke the main arguments of the article itself and the main arguments made in the letters to the editor that you have selected. Feel free to read more than 4 of the responses, but you will only be responsible for being able to explain the arguments of four of the letter writers.

Reference materials:
Slides:

The paper "IT Doesn't Matter" was distributed on the first day of class. If you are unable to pick one up in class, you may stop by the instructor's office to get a copy, or purchase and download a copy from the Harvard Business Review website at:

[|http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam?R=R0305B-PDF-ENG&conversationId=554167&E=71686]

**Pre-class exercise:**
Please select one of your favorite quotes from the paper "IT Doesn't Matter", or from one of the letters responding to the article. Be sure to appropriately cite the author of the quote and whether it is from the "IT Doesn't Matter" article or a letter to the editor. Briefly explain why you selected this quote. As is standard, these posts should be made no later than 9am on the day of class.
 * [Hind Al Khulaifi]: "IT will always matter--it will just matter in different ways now." Letter from Jason Hittleman. Summarizes Carr's intention behind his article in a sentence.
 * [Layal Al-Alami]: "The point is, however, that the technology's potential for differentiating one company from the pack- its strategic potential- inexorably declines as it becomes accessible and affordable to all." //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. The quote explains and clarifies Carr's argument better than the misleading title of the article.
 * [Maryam Al-Thani]: "Behind the change in thinking lies a simple assumption: that as IT's potency and ubiquity has increased so too has its strategic value." //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. This quote sates an assumption that is the opposite of Carr's main argument which he later rebukes.
 * [Nahan Arif]: "What makes a resource truly strategic- what gives it the capacity to be the basis for a sustained competitive advantage- is not ubiquity but scarcity." //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. This quote explains Carr's fundamental argument of how competitive advantage is achieved and clearly, according to Carr, IT's ability to replicate easily cannot make it a scarce resource to give companies a competitive edge.
 * [Mohammed Al-Rawahi]: " They are becoming costs of doing business that must be paid by all but provide distinction to none", //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. Carr is noting what companies are doing today, paying huge amount of money in IT, but getting no competitive advantage.
 * [Ahmad Al-Sarraf]: " As long as access to the technology is restricted - through physical limitations, intellectual property rights, high costs, or a lack of standards - a company can use it to gain advantages over rivals", //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. Carr claims that the proprietary technologies - technologies that can be owned by a single company - are the only ones that can give any company an advantage over rivals.
 * [Al-Jawhra Al-Mana]: "that's not to say that infrastructural technologies don't continue to influence competition. They do, but their influence is felt at the macroeconomic level, not at the level of the individual company", //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. In this quote Carr explains that a company's strategy of using IT to gain competitive advantage against it's rivals is now not as useful as it was before.
 * [Noor Al-Mohannadi]: "The key to success,for the vast majority of companies,is no longer to seek advantage aggressively but to manage costs and risks meticulously"//. IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. Carr explains how companies should start focusing on managing the cost of information systems instead of focusing on gaining competitive edge.
 * [Najla Al-Madhadi]: "companies that mechanically insert IT into their businesses without changing their practices for exploiting the new capabilities will only destroy IT's economic value." Letter from John Seely Brown and John Hagel III. This quote shows that for a company to strategically benefit from IT, the company should look for the best and most efficient way to use IT not just to spend money on inserting new IT into the business.
 * [Mohammed Kamal] : "the opportunities for gaining IT based advantages are already dwindling. And as for IT-spurred industry transformations, most of the ones that are going to happen have likely already happened or are in the process of happening.” //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. the author explains that IT has been around for quite a while and many major companies already made the most out of IT as an advantage when they had the chance to, but not anymore.
 * [Orkhan Rustamzade] : "Indeed, in an ironic, if predictable, twist, the closed nature and outdated technology of AHS's system turned it from an asset to a liability.", //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr shows us how an extermly profitable company lost its competitive advantage to other companies when the PC became widespread.
 * [Sara Al-Mannai]: "Significant opportunities for innovation continue to occur because advances in IT create possibilities not previously economically available". Letter from John Seely Brown and John Hagel III. This quote gives a direct and clear response to Carr's claim. It is short, effective and a clear indisputable fact that many companies follow
 * [Mohammed Hadi Takiddin]: "Information technology has become the backbone of commerce. It underpins the operations of indiviual companies, ties together far-fling supply chains, and increasingly links businesses to the customers they serve." //(IT doesn't matter by Nicholas G. Carr)// Carr is explaining here the benefits of IT on the efficiency of companies performance. Also, Carr is saying that IT has been an important addation to commerce.
 * [Fatima Abdulla]: "Companies need to align themselves around a long-term view of the challenges and opportunities brought about by IT." //Letter from John Seely Brown and John Hagel III. //This quote shows a clarification response to Carr's assertion that IT doesn't build a strategic advantage or don't add a competitive edge in the market as it did before.
 * [Hussain Hejji]: ¨In 1968, a young Intel engineer named Ted Hoff found a way to put the circuits necessary for computer processing onto a tiny piece of silicon. His invention of the microprocessor spurred a series of technological breakthroughs – desktop computers, local and wide area networks, enterprise software, and the Internet – that have transformed the business world.¨//, IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. Although it is the very first thing that you read in the article, I actually found this a very interesting quote. Carr put an example here of a actually how IT does matter and how it revolutionized the business world by showing how a young engineer used the concept of IT to improve the business world.
 * [Abdullrahman Al-Muftah]: "Carr's graph on information technology stands as a subject lesson for Darrell Huff's well-known book //How to Lie with Statistics//." Letter from F. Warren McFarlan and Richard L. Nolan. This quote strikes the reader as it undermines the Carr's use of the graphs, claiming that they are in a sense meaningle
 * [Noof Al-muzaffar]: " IT provides forward-looking companies many opportunities for competitive advantage early in its buildout, when it could still be ' owned ' like proprietary technology". //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G . Carr shows in this quote how technology lose its value when other companies cope it and when it become available to everyone.
 * [Nasser Al Khori]: “Why write your own application for word processing or e-mail or, for that matter, supply-chain management when you can buy a ready-made, state-of-the-art application for a fraction of the cost?” quote from "IT Doesn't Matter" article, illustrates the ease of reproducing IT and their availability, for low costs.
 * [Mashael Al-Misnad]: "Today, no one would dispute that information technology has become the backbone of commerce. It underpins the operations of individual companies, ties together far-flung supply chains, and, increasingly links businesses to the customers they serve." This quote, being at the beginning of the paper, misleads the reader as it opposes Nicholas G. Carr's main argument.
 * [Fatima Al-Khayat]: "As the opportunities for IT-based advantage continue to narrow, the penalties for overspending will only grow"//. IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. This quote shows how Carr is trying to open the eyes of the reader (companies) to the fact that overspending on IT will not be the road to success anymore, and it would not always result into a great financial outcome as they hope so.
 * [Fatima Fikree]: "That's not to say that infrastructural technologies don't continue to influence competition. They do, but their influence is felt at a macroeconomic level, not at the level of the company." This quote is a backbone to Carr's main argument, strongly supporting the idea that IT can no longer be used by the company with the purpose of gaining an immediate competitive advantage.
 * [Dalia Hassan]: "A distinction needs to be made between proprietary technologies and what might be called infrastructural technologies--Infrastructural technologies, in contrast, offer far more value when shared than when used in isolation." This quote by Nicholas G. Carr in It Doesn't Matter article, which explains the difference between proprietary technologies and infrastructural technologies. The author is explaining the efficiency of IT.
 * [M. Hammad Abbasi]: "Competitive advantage is not the result of personal computers. It is the result of effective management by skilled and motivated people". Letter from Paul A.Strassman; Harvard Business Review (June 2003). I really like this quote because it emphasizes that it is the MANAGEMENT of information systems rather than the system itself that have really affected the industry and given people huge advances.
 * [Maryam Al-Subaie]: "It's no surprise, given these characteristics, that IT's evolution has closely mirrored that of earlier infrastructural technologies." //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. The author reiterates that the over-investment in IT in the 1990s reflects the over-investment in railroads in the 1960s. The analogy in this quote illustrates his rational argument and serves as a wake-up call to users, influencers and providers of IT.
 * [Nijat Ibrahimov]: "IT is best seen as the latest in a series of broadly adopted technologies that have reshaped industry over the past two centuries - from the stream engine and the railroad to the telegraph and the telephone to the electric generator and the internal combustion engine". //IT Doesn't Matter// by Nicholas G. Carr. I found it interesting because author tries to show how industry was influenced and changed because of IT
 * [Ognjen Popovic]: "New technologies will continue to give companies the chance to differentiate themselves by service, product feature, and cost structure for some time to come. The first mover takes a risk and gains a temporary advantage (longer if there are follow-on possibilities). The fast follower is up against less risk but also has to recover lost ground." Letter from F. Warren McFarlan and Richard L. Nolan; Harvard Business Review (June 2003). I particularly like this quote because I believe it is very credible and has got a lot of evidential support ever since. This article was written in 2003, and since then there were several cases in which new technologies drastically changed certain businesses and markets, and the story of first mover and fast followers turned out to be true. One of the best examples of this is the introduction of iPad in 2009 and the tablet renaissance that's been taking place ever since.
 * [Laura Jaber]: "There is no consistent correlation between IT spending levels and financial performances." Letter from Tom Pisello, Harvard Business Review, June 2003. I like this quote because in a way, it addresses the commoditization of IT section of Nicholas Carr's article "IT doesn't matter", saying that even if two companies spend the same amount of money to get the same technologies, how the company uses this technology can vary very much. Which means that even with all of the commoditization of IT, companies are using the systems differently in order to acquire better financial standings.
 * [Firas Bata]: "Today, no one would dispute that information technology has become the backbone of commerce. It underpins the operations of individual companies, ties together far-flung supply chains, and, increasingly, links businesses to the customer they serve " - by Nicholas G. Carr in his review "//IT Doesn't Matte//r". The reason I selected this quotes is because this quote amplifies the importance of IT in today's growing global market. This quote, in a way, acts as a counter argument to his own arguments that IT doesn't matter.
 * [Mughees Ahmed]: "You only gain an edge over rivals by having or doing something that they can't have or do." - Nicholas G. Carr
 * [Mohammed Al Ahmadani]: "By now, the core functions of IT - data storage, data processing, and data transport - have become available and affordable to all!" - Nicholas G. Carr, on how IT can no longer be considered a "strategic advantage" to a firm since it has now been "commoditized".
 * [Hamsa M Al-Massri]: "As their availability increased and their cost decreased- as they became ubiquitous- they became commodity inputs" - Nicholas G. Carr. I have chosen specifically this quote because it is basically the key argument of the whole paper and also the reason why Carr brings up all his points about proprietary vs infrastructural technologies, IT is a new commodity, and that ubiquitous computing reinforces the triviality of IT.