I recently spoke with one of my favorite commentators, Network World journalist/editor Ann Bednarz (@annbednarz), on the 10th anniversary of the publication of Nick Carr’s seminal article, “IT Doesn’t Matter’. Carr’s article shook the foundations of IT – not entirely for the right reasons, or in the right way. In her new article, Ann does a great job tapping into the zeitgeist of that time, reviewing the surprisingly long tail of this article. I am honored that she chose to include some of my thoughts too:
The jarring headline of Carr’s May 2003 article, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” is what many people remember, and it tends to overshadow his more thought-provoking thesis: that companies have overestimated the strategic value of IT, which is becoming ubiquitous and therefore diminishing as a source of competitive differentiation.
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“He didn’t look into the future. He looked at the present state and saw a lethargic, slow, controlling, almost domineering department of IT,” says Mann, who today is vice president of strategic solutions at CA. “He got it right: IT needed to be fundamentally different. But he also got it hideously wrong.”
You can (and totally should) read the whole article over at Network World at ‘Nick Carr’s ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ still matters‘.