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Since the invention of the telegraph, information
technology (IT) has revolutionized the way we communicate,
the way we do business, and the way we live. From the telephone
to the fax machine, the Hollerith tabulating machine to
the modern-day computer, IT has collapsed time and distance,
becoming indispensable in today's world economy. And yet,
though businesses and organizations have spent tremendous
amounts of money on computer hardware and software, these
investments in IT have not raised most organizations' productivity
or profitability. How can organizations make better use
of the available technology?
The Corporation of the 1990s presents
an expert view of how information technology will influence
organizations and their ability to survive and prosper in
this decade and beyond. Featuring a foreword by Lester C.
Thurow, Dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and an
introduction by Michael S. Scott Morton, it represents the
fruit of an active collaboration between scholars from MIT's
Sloan School and ten major corporations -- including American
Express, Digital Equipment Corporation, Eastman Kodak, General
Motors, British Petroleum, and MCI Communications -- and
two U.S. governmental agencies.
This highly readable, exhaustively researched
volume describes how the rapidly changing global economy
has placed new demands on corporations; at the same time,
the contributors point to the exponential growth of IT in
recent years -- from electronic check-out counters at grocery
stores to ATMs on street corners to the widespread use of
electronic mail -- discussing how this tremendous IT resource
can be used to master the changing market. The authors also
present a wealth of real-life examples of organizations
that have used IT effectively and profitably. The IRS, for
instance, now provides an electronic filing system for individual
taxpayers. And airlines, realizing that they could solve
overbooking problems by offering customers various package
deals (such as free flights and cash) in exchange for their
reserved seats, have developed sophisticated computer systems
which allow them to play more boldly with the probabilities
of flight capacity.
The authors argue that corporations will
not survive just by working harder and faster within existing
organizational structures. Instead, organizations will have
to restructure, invest heavily in human resources, and adopt
totally new concepts of managing. Only then will they be
able to create new strategies that will allow them to get
closer to customers' real needs -- and only then will their
investments in IT pay off.
Michael S. Scott Morton is J. W. Forrester
Professor of Management and Director of the Management in
the 1990s Research Program at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
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