THE MAN WHO ASKED "THAT QUESTION": Podcast interview with Nick Carr, author, blogger, and consultant

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Is the IT infrastructure a strategic value for an organization, or these days, is it more of a basic commodity, like electricity? The May 2003 Harvard Business Review article, "IT Doesn't Matter," incited something like a riot among IT executives, as well as major computer vendors, and academics. Nicholas Carr, the Review's editor and the article's author, had sounded a wakeup call some people weren't ready to hear. Executives from major corporations pelted the Review with lengthy letters to the editor. Just about every business and computer trade publication took Carr to task on the subject.

Still, the bespeckled, soft-spoken Carr, now the Review's former editor, continued to fuel the controversy about the value of IT. His 2004 book, Does IT Matter? – Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Press), expanded the article's initial premise.

Whether you agree with him or not, Carr ranks as one most influential thinkers about IT technology, according to Optimize magazine. For the past three years, just about every business publication, every computer trade magazine, and dozens of industry, corporate, academic, and professional venues have been examining and re-examining Carr's plea to get people to reconsider their assumptions about the role of IT. Carr says that this exercise can help CIOs distinguish between the different roles that specific IT investments play in the organization. This knowledge can help CIOs to make sure the company gets the most value from IT, Carr says.

Carr definitely has his own insights about the future of IT and for CIOs. So, what do you think about the role and value of IT, and the future of the CIO? We invite you to listen to this insightful interview with the thoughtful and thought-provoking, Nick Carr, and maybe, formulate some conclusions of your own ...

Related Article

Interview: Nicholas G. Carr - Does IT Matter? -- Straight Talk from the Author Who Forced Every CIO to Answer This Question

Resources

Nicholas Carr's Web page about his book

CIO Magazine -- "The Argument Over IT"

Harvard Business Review -- "Spend Less on IT"

Computerworld -- "The End of Corporate IT"

Bio

A former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Nicholas Carr is an accomplished business writer and speaker whose work centers on strategy, innovation, and technology. His HBR article, "IT Doesn't Matter," in May 2003, and his 2004 book, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, published by Harvard Business School Press, set off a worldwide debate about the role of computers in business.

In addition to writing articles for HBR, Carr has also written for The New York Times, Financial Times, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Journal of Business Strategy. Articles edited by Carr have won McKinsey Awards as the best articles published in HRB. Carr writes a column on innovation for Strategy & Business, and a column about technology for BusinessWeek Online. Before joining HBR, he was a principal at Mercer Management Consulting. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College, and an M.A. from Harvard University.

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer