...Does IT Matter? I do not think that with Nicholas Carr’s article ‘IT Doesn’t Matter” that Carr necessarily meant that Information Technology does not matter, but more that it has become a “commodity” as stated in the article. Meaning that businesses are now so dependent on IT, and it is now so common in the business world; therefore, IT now only offers little competitive advantage between companies. Companies view Information Technology as such and important success factor that businesses world wide, even during this economic downfall, continue to spend over $2 trillion a year on Information Technology, where in 1965 less than 5 percent of a company’s capital expenditures went to IT. Carr’s suggestion is that since the return on companies investment in information technology is so low, that business owners should contemplate the amount that they pay for Information Technology. In my opinion, I think that Information Technology does matter, and companies should use IT to their advantage, and that companies can profit off of using IT. To me the most important assets that IT provides are the ease and convenience of the Microsoft Windows applications as well as the Internet for research. For example companies using Excel to keep organized records of customers, associates, employees, and etc. People using the IT to do research on companies and products that they may have an interest in purchasing. However, I am still firm believer that we should not forget how to use...
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...Reaction Paper on the article “IT doesn’t matter” by Nick Carr A set of related arguments that Carr makes is that scarcity, uniqueness, and proprietary technologies bring about strategic advantage and lock-in the vendor. He also stated that as information technology’s power and ubiquity has grown, its strategic importance has diminished. Finally, he argued that information technology (IT) can no longer be used to gain a strategic competitive advantage. The second set of arguments that Carr makes is that information technology has become a non-proprietary commodity, invisible, and has therefore become an infrastructure technology. Because of this he argues that the window for gaining advantage from an infrastructural technology is open only briefly with lower cost being the only advantage information technology vendors have to offer yet information technology vendors are rushing to be commodity suppliers. The third set of arguments that Carr makes is that commoditization of information technologies cause information technology businesses to crumble. Due to this fact, he argues that information technology vendors must therefore learn to provide services of the commodity that help customers overcome their vulnerabilities. The fourth set of arguments that Carr makes is that information technology vendor should: follow not lead, become tight-fisted with spending, and manage cost and risk meticulously. By doing this, Carr agues this will cause them to be successful. To support...
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...Vincent Godwin Amy Baus WVSII 5/2/16 Worldview II Capstone Essay Does it really matter? That’s the question asked to be decoded in this essay. The simple answer would be yes. All things matter in this world. The sad truth is that some people believe however that not everything matters. That is the reason the world is not nor will not be perfect now or in the near future. In Worldview class, valuable things were learned in an effort to show us how such important issues are being overlooked and almost under exaggerated. One of the early things from the semester we talked about was social entrepreneurs which continued throughout most of the semester. It all started with a man named Daniel Bornstein who wrote one of our required textbooks for this semester. The book was called “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas”. One of the first things we studied in this book were Bill Drayton and his organization he started Ashoka. Ashoka is an organization started by Bill Drayton to invest in Social Entrepreneurs and help them with their projects they do. A social entrepreneur as described on Ashoka’s website are “Individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems”. In laymen’s terms, they are people who go to places all around the world where a problem is occurring in how people do things. When there they use all the resources they have to find creative easy solutions to the problems and spread that all over. It takes...
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...IT does Matters The world is changing very fast and IT makes it change faster and more convenient. One of our financial teachers at school keeps tell us how lucky we are to be born in this IT century. She still remembers her first job as an accountant after graduating from high school over 30 years ago when people did accounting by hand. They had to make financial statements by hand writing. What is more painful is when you make a mistake, and you have to go through those sheets manually, because they don’t have Microsoft to help them at that time. Nowadays, most of the companies around the world do accounting on computer which is much easier and more efficient. Moreover, taking internet as an example, it provides us with all latest news around the globe. Just with simply clicks, we could buy plane tickets, book hotels, make appointments with doctors, and do shopping anytime as online stores open around the clock and almost every industry is internet based nowadays. Amazon.com, founded just 16 years ago it has a market value of 52.81 billion, which already surpasses long standing giants like Target (market cap: 37.03B), and many other well known retail chains, has become the largest retail website on the internet, having nearly three times as much revenue as second place Staples. Amazon’s success is one of the good examples that IT does matters. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos states that “technology, technology, technology” are the key to his business. In an interview by Business...
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...Article: IT DOESN’T MATTER BY NICHOLAS CARR This article is written by Nicholas Carr and it has become so popular because of its important topic about information technology in business today. Information technology has become a very important component in the success, efficiency and effectiveness of business. Many businesses today are investing heavily in information technology like e-commerce and internet advertising despite the financial crisis at hand. Most companies view IT as a resource for the expansion of their business. Chief Executives look at IT as a tool to gain competitive advantage against their competitors. However, Nicholas’s argument is of a different view. He says competitive advantage can only be gained by a company if it does something or has something that rivals can’t do or have. IT has become common knowledge to most companies and is available and affordable to all. IT therefore, is no longer a source of competitive advantage but a factor of production. He says, as IT availability increases and its cost decreases, it becomes a commodity input. Competitive advantage can be found through propriety technologies which are technologies owned by a single company. In such a case, a company might innovate or discover a certain process that rivals cannot duplicate so the company is able to reap higher profits than its competitors. Also infrastructure technology can be an advantage to a company where the technology is restricted so becomes scarce and when a company...
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...“Does IT Matter?” Assignment ZipCar 1. Zipcar/Porter’s five forces analysis Threat of New Entrant Zipcar’s use of a simple IT solution to find, reserve and use a car sharing service creates a slight barrier for new entrants. However, there is a constant threat to Zipcar in new car sharing companies and established car rental agencies adjusting their corporate strategy in order to enter the hourly rental industry. The barriers to entry are the high costs of inventory and creating an IT solution that is at least equal to Zipcar’s. Although these are barriers, they are barriers that can be mitigated by companies and therefore enter the car sharing industry. Bargaining Power of Buyers Due to the market being overloaded with customers and potential customers, buyers don’t pose much of a threat to Zipcar. Customers will demand low cost solutions but don’t have much ability to directly affect the pricing model by Zipcar or other rental agencies. If pricing were to become too much for the customer, the bigger threat is from substitutes. So as a whole, customers have limited bargaining power in the car rental business. Bargaining Power of Suppliers Suppliers have very little bargaining power with car sharing companies such as Zipcar. The market is saturated with many options for vehicles that Zipcar can choose which company they want to field their fleet of vehicles with. Companies such as Zipcar possess more power over their suppliers as they can enter into strategic...
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...1. Consider your organization. How much attention does the IT organization receive in turns of funding and management support? Is IT a “value adding” area? Or merely a “cost center”? I used to work for John Deere in Coahuila, Mexico. What is very interesting is that approximately 10 years ago the IT administration barely existed, as they didn’t even have a CIO. In that time, maintaining operational data centers running was more than enough. Today, the expectations from the CIO are much more. John Deere expects that the CIO be a business leader, not only an administrator of TI; JD expects that he leads a complex critical mission as any other operation in the company and work shoulder to shoulder with the business units to help improve the performance and efficiency of the company. The IT administration is led by the CIO and the CIO reports directly to the CEO. The CIO is involved in the steering committees because he is the one who has the ability to deliver technology solutions to the business requirements. If the CIO weren’t involved in the strategic planning process it would be very difficult for him to contribute to the transformation of the organization using Information Technology. Therefore, besides his own experience in the area, the CIO also has a financial background to be able to demonstrate the tangible benefits of investing in Information Technology. This big decision that John Deere took back then, makes me think that the IT management receives good funding...
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...“IT Doesn’t Matter” Assignment Assunta P. Cuccia BUAD 867 February 19, 2010 In the national bestseller, Good to Great, Collins devotes a chapter to Technology Accelerators in which he posits provocatively “The real question is not, What is the role of technology? Rather, the real question is, How do good-to-great organizations think differently about technology?” The value of Information Technology (IT) is based on how it is aligned with a company’s business model, core competencies and strategies so that a competitive advantage can be sustained. Today’s commerce is heavily dependent on IT, and as stated in Chapter 1, page 47 of our textbook, “IT is a powerful tool for defining, organizing and building knowledge assets within a firm and a business network.” Although Nicholas Carr’s article has an inflammatory title, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” the main points suggest otherwise. IT does matter but it matters differently. This article was published in 2003, a few years following the dot-com bubble burst. During the Internet’s halcyon days from 1994 to 2000, the businesses created were the result of IT innovations, and this changed the way business interacted with the environment. This led to IT becoming more visible and pervasive in business and at the same time evolving towards commodity status. IT is an essential part and cost of doing business globally “but provide distinction to none.” There are several industries that managed IT in a manner conferring competitive...
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...Does Race Matter? Does race matter? Do you understand what race means and how it is perceived? This is a neutral subject for me. I am in between on this subject due to the fact that race does matter for some things and not others. As I researched, there are some great reasons to understand why race really matters in healthcare studies. Other research shows race is misunderstood. First off, one example race matters is the medical field. Understanding the reasons why race matters in the medical field helps medical providers work to complete new studies or research. I work in healthcare and every day I work with a new patients I verify their race and ethnicity on their official medical record. I do this in order to provide the doctor with the patient’s information and collect medical/social history that is always updated. The doctor then reviews their chart and can use his knowledge to ask questions he needs to in order to address the patient complaint. The information provided can assist with comparing symptoms in past and present for numerous racial groups. Throughout medical advancements; researchers have been able to link race with medical conditions that are common in areas around the world or with certain racial or ethnic groups. This research can use the environment, living situations, past history, and even hereditary traits. In this case, knowing someone’s race is not a negative attack. Race is a purposeful piece of information that can further advance overall health...
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...Does Communication Matter? Lori Horak COM425 - Communication in Organizations Patricia Mader February 15, 2013 Introduction In this paper I will be discussing my thoughts in regards to communication in the scientific field and whether I feel communication is necessary in every field. I will also be discussing the type of organization I would like to work for and how having strong communication skills will help me within that field. Does Communication Matter In the article “A tool kit for the real world” Alison Motluk talks about communication and “making yourself understood.” She uses the example of scientist and how they are capable of presenting material to large groups of people but when it comes to communicating with people outside of the scientific world they struggle to convey their messages. I found this article quite amusing as I believe it is not just in science, but in the medical world, technology, public schools, corporate America; and in life in general, people just don’t know how to effectively communicate. In the public school sector for example, being the mother of three young children I find myself frustrated with communication in our school system. Not only are my children not being taught how to communicate, they are not even being taught how to write. Their assignments are all done on the computer, they no longer have text books to read from, it’s all done on line and if you were to...
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...This essay contributes to insightful endeavors to comprehend what Segal implied when he distributed an article in Foreign Affairs in 1999 under the headline “Does China matter”? This question has set off a great deal of dialogs. Obviously China matters for some people from time to time, especially the Chinese themselves, and politicians who settle on choices that have implications or suggestions for foreign policy. Segal had a great extent bound himself to the political and key ramifications of a rising China. China is the oldest continuous civilization in the world. When in the second half century, China was a weak state, rocked by revolts and huge natural disasters & humiliated by foreign invasions. Even during the great leap forward it...
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...BIM 5013 Management Information Systems Case Study - IT Doesn’t Matter by Nicholas Carr Background This article “IT Doesn’t Matter” written by the Harvard Business Review’s editor-at-large, Nicholas G. Carr in May 2003 highlighted and that the power and ubiquity of information technology has grown inevitably so much so that the technology by itself will unable to deliver the competitive advantage. The article did not anywhere affirmed IT is not important, but rather argues that the strategic value of IT is diminishing as it gets harder and harder to utilize IT as an edge over competitors. In other words, it is scarcity that allows companies to use it for sustained competitive advantage. Carr viewed that when IT is truly an infrastructural technology, it is therefore prone to commoditization – a process which is already evident and reflected by its high replicability and sharp reduction in IT prices. He further added that the more IT becomes pervasive and companies view it more critical to their success, the more heaving spending on IT itself underscores risk than generating competitive advantages. Why Carr’s Claims are not Wrong Carr said that it is the ‘scarcity’ that makes a business resource truly strategic and allows companies to use it for a sustained competitive advantage. According to him, it is only by doing something that your rivals can't that one gain an edge. Core functions of IT such as automation - data storage, data processing, and data transport - have now...
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...DOES CULTURE MATTER? BY SHRUTI BALABHADRA DM16144 In the yearly part of the 21st century Thomas L. Friedman published the bestseller “The World is Flat: A brief History of the 21st century” which was an international hit. The author stated that the world has become a flat and levelled field with respect to commerce thus in turn giving equal opportunity to competitors across the globe. Further, it stated that we have reached a time where geographical, cultural and historical divisions have become insignificant in terms of a trade culture. Friedman stated ten “Flatteners” that have levelled the global map: * The Berlin wall collapse: the downfall of communism was a primary breakthrough in terms of freedom of trade, content creation and an opportunity for the world to connect with each other. * Netscape: when the company went public, it gave rise to a new era of digitization where anyone could access and information form any part of the world. * “Workflow software”: the rise of new programming languages and machines resulted in the rise of a global platform for new multinational collaborations. Also called as the “Genesis Moment of the flat world”, it gave rise to the rest of the global flatteners. * Uploading: people were uploading and working together on online assignments from different parts of the world. * Outsourcing: this has helped companies in mass distribution where services and other activities like manufacturing have been segregated for better...
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...DOES ETHICS REALLY MATTER? Ethics define by New Oxford American Dictionary as “a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct.” All of us have our own reasons in every actions and responses that we do in different situations and circumstances. Some are inevitable and some are just part of life. Indeed, ethics does matter. It just depends on the choices that we have and options that we take. Also, it can be based on the beliefs that were inculcated in us by our family and the culture that we live. After reading and re-reading and re-reading the article, I am truly inspired and challenged at the same time to live my life now with different perspective and views. The article covers all the possible angle and situation with real life drama and examples not only in personal life but also community, corporate and politics. I never read such a juicy and remarkable article like this. And this is the only article about ethics that I read without skipping some of the words and does not make my eyes sleepy or make me yawn many times. I acquired a lot of knowledge and realization after reading the whole context many times. It made me open my eyes and understand the rational behind decisions of individuals in some of real life situations in their everyday lives. A must read article and I am very excited to share this to all of my friends and make them realize what they are missing for enrolling in the...
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...Does Message Framing Matter? Wednesday, October 17, 2012 The research study that I participated in, Does Message Framing Matter, was conducted to determine the effect of message framing on an individuals perception and response to the structure/communication of specific messages. I believe the researcher was trying to determine the overall influence of specific arrangement and communication of instructions had on each individual and how this arrangement would affect their decisions. Message framing can significantly influence the behaviours and ultimately the decisions of consumers. Understanding how consumers are influenced, both positively and negatively, can lead organizations and individuals to more effective communication. During the study the researcher informed the participants that we were to think of two specific events that made us feel “happy”. Then we were asked to chose one of these two events and write a short description of the event on the paper provided. At first everyone seemed quite confused as to why we were being asked to do this, but at the conclusion of the study it became clear to me. I believe the researcher wanted to determine how each individual would define a “happy” event, and to observe the effect of the communication of instructions had on each study participant. Next we were asked to review a document with a brief history and instructions for safety guidelines at an amusement park. It was explicitly stated that we were to review this document...
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