It Doesnt Matter

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IT doesn't matter, part 1

January 03, 2007

In order to meet a looming deadline for a book I've been working on, I'm going to need to cut back my blogging for the next few weeks. Rather than let Rough Type go dormant, though, I thought I might publish, in serial fashion, some earlier pieces I've written that haven't been easily accessible online. I'll start with "IT Doesn't Matter," an article published in the Harvard Business Review in May 2003. The piece caused quite a stir - I documented the controversy as it unfolded - and it continues to be a lightning rod for debate in IT circles.

I went on to greatly expand the argument of the article, and clarify a few of its points, in the 2004 book Does IT Matter?, which you can order here. You can also purchase the full text of "IT Doesn't Matter," in its original form, here (as a download) or here (as hardcopy). The original article includes some additional sidebars and graphics as well as many pages of letters written to HBR in response to the article.

IT doesn't matter

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. 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. Hardly a dollar or a euro changes hands anymore without the aid of computer systems.

As IT’s power and presence have expanded, companies have come to view it as a resource ever more critical to their success, a fact...