Competing in the Information Age

Perhaps more than anything else, information technology ("IT") is a subject area that has become a major source of anxiety for business leaders of the 1990s. IT can indisputably have a tremendous impact on a company-from improved inventory management, to better tracking of customer preferences, to faster product development. However, before a company may realize these benefits, its executives must overcome a number of obstacles. First, they must bridge the gap between the company's "technical" and "business" people. The technical jargon used to describe IT projects is as incomprehensible to executives (pp. 138-40) as the consultant jargon executives use is to information engineers. Second, executives, who are often unaware of the capabilities of the latest generation of IT products and services, must educate themselves about how these capabilities might fit into the existing business (p. 21). Finally, they must deal with the uniquely complex nature of IT investment decisions. It is often difficult to quantify the extent to which investments in IT will enhance the profitability of an operation (p. 164). Furthermore, it ts not easy to predict how 0_uickly the assets purchased in an IT initiative will become obsolete. Competing in the Information Age proposes to help the perplexed executive find her way through these complexities. Edited by Jerry Luflman, it is a compilation of articles 2 by academics and consultants on various aspects of developing and implementing an IT strategy. The cover jacket explains that the book "outlines how to match information systems with business strategy to forge a strong competitive edge and bring powerful solutions to real-world problems." Weighing inat 414 pages and apparently dedicated to tackling the thorny issues behind the development of an IT strategy, a reader might expect athorough handling of these problems. Such a reader will be disappointed. Although