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About the Author 1

Acknowledgments 2

Dedication 5

Preface 6

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: Technology and the Modern Enterprise 8

Tech’s Tectonic Shift: Radically Changing Business Landscapes 9

It’s Your Revolution 12

Geek Up—Tech Is Everywhere and You’ll Need It to Thrive 16

The Pages Ahead 25

Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers 31

Introduction 32

Powerful Resources 40

Barriers to Entry, Technology, and Timing 59

Key Framework: The Five Forces of Industry Competitive Advantage 64

Chapter 3: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems 69

Introduction 70

Don’t Guess, Gather Data 77

Moving Forward 86

Chapter 4: Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits 89

Introduction 90

Act I: Netflix Leverages Tech and Timing to Create Killer Assets in DVD-by-Mail 96

Act II: Netflix and the Shift from Mailing Atoms to Streaming Bits 112

Chapter 5: Moore’s Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager 129

Introduction 130

The Death of Moore’s Law? 148

Bringing Brains Together: Supercomputing, Grid Computing, and Putting Smarts in the Cloud 154

E-waste: The Dark Side of Moore’s Law 161

Where’s All That Value Come From? 170

One-Sided or Two-Sided Markets? 175

How Are These Markets Different? 178

Competing When Network Effects Matter 182

Chapter 7: Social Media, Peer Production, and Web 2.0 199

Introduction 200

Blogs 209

Wikis 215

Social Networks 223

Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging 233

Other Key Web 2.0 Terms and Concepts 243

Prediction Markets and the Wisdom of Crowds 253

Crowdsourcing 256

Get SMART: The Social Media Awareness and Response Team 259

Chapter 8: Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph 278

Introduction 279

Does Facebook Want to Eat Your Firm’s Lunch? Enveloping Markets across the Internet 286

The Social Graph 294

Facebook Feeds—Ebola for Data Flows 298

Facebook as a Platform 301

Advertising and Social Networks: A Work in Progress 307

Privacy Peril, Beacon, and the TOS Debacle: What Facebook’s Failures Can Teach Managers about Technology Planning and Deployment 317

One Graph to Rule Them All: Facebook Reaches across the Web with Open Graph 323

Is Facebook Worth It? 333

Chapter 9: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers 338

Introduction 339

Operating Systems 343

Application Software 350

Distributed Computing 357

Writing Software 366

Understanding Technology beyond the Price Tag: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and the Cost of Tech Failure 371

Open Source 380

Why Open Source? 384

Examples of Open Source Software 388

Why Give It Away? The Business of Open Source 390

Cloud Computing: Hype or Hope? 398

The Software Cloud: Why Buy When You Can Rent? 401

SaaS: Not without Risks 408

The Hardware Cloud: Utility Computing and Its Cousins 412

Clouds and Tech Industry Impact 419

Virtualization: Software That Makes One Computer Act Like Many 425

Make, Buy, or Rent 428

Chapter 11: The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage 431

Introduction 432

Data, Information, and Knowledge 436

Where Does Data Come From? 442

Data Rich, Information Poor 454

Data Warehouses and Data Marts 457

The Business Intelligence Toolkit 464

Data Asset in Action: Technology and the Rise of Wal-Mart 473

Data Asset in Action: Caesars’ Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector 478

Chapter 12: A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications 486

Introduction 487

Internet 101: Understanding How the Internet Works 488

Getting Where You’re Going 503

Last Mile: Faster Speed, Broader Access 517

Chapter 13: Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else) 531

Introduction 532

Why Is This Happening? Who Is Doing It? And What’s Their Motivation? 535

Where Are Vulnerabilities? Understanding the Weaknesses 542

Taking Action 568

Understanding Search 590

Understanding the Increase in Online Ad Spending 602

Search Advertising 605

Ad Networks—Distribution beyond Search 614

More Ad Formats and Payment Schemes 620

Customer Profiling and Behavioral Targeting 625

Profiling and Privacy 631

Search Engines, Ad Networks, and Fraud 639

The Battle Unfolds 644

John Gallaugher is an associate professor of information

systems (IS) at Boston College’s Carroll School of

Management

As founding faculty for the Boston College TechTrek

West and TechTrek East programs and as co-lead to

several of the university’s international field study

courses, Professor Gallaugher has led his students on

scores of master-class visits with executives at firms

ranging from Amazon to Zynga Gallaugher is also co-advisor to the Boston CollegeVenture Competition, an organization whose affiliated businesses have gone on towin entrepreneurship awards at MIT and Yale, gain admittance to the elite Y-Combinator accelerator program, launch multiple products, and raise millions incapital

A dedicated teacher and active researcher, Professor Gallaugher has been

recognized for excellence and innovation in teaching by several organizations,

including Boston College, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, and the Decision

Sciences Institute Professor Gallaugher’s research has been published in the

Harvard Business Review, MIS Quarterly, and other leading IS journals Professor

Gallaugher has been a featured speaker at Apple Inc’s AcademiX educator

conference, and was the keynote speaker at AIBUMA (the African InternationalBusiness and Management Conference) in Nairobi Kenya He has consulted for andtaught executive seminars for several organizations, including Accenture, Alcoa,Duke Corporate Education, ING, Partners Healthcare, Staples, State Street, theUniversity of Ulster, and the U.S Information Agency His comments on business

and technology have appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio,

BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, Wired, the Associated Press, Chronicle (WCVB-TV), The Daily Yomiuri (Japan), and the Nation (Thailand), among others.

Professor Gallaugher publishes additional content related to his teaching andresearch athttp://gallaugher.com He is also active on twitter at@gallaugher

Sincerest thanks to the cofounders ofUnnamed Publisher, Jeff Shelstad and EricFrank, for their leadership and passion in restructuring the textbook industry andfor approaching me to be involved with their efforts Thanks also to Flat World’sdynamite team of editorial, marketing, and sales professionals—in particular toMelissa Yu, Jenn Yee, Sharon Koch, Brett Sullivan, and Michael Boezi.

A tremendous thanks to my student research team at Boston College In particular,the work of Phil Gill, Xin (Steven) Liu, and Kathie Chang sped things along andhelped me fill this project with rich, interesting examples

I am also deeply grateful to my colleagues at Boston College, especially to my

former department chair, Jim Gips, and current department chair, Robert Fichman,for their unwavering support of the project; to Jerry Kane for helping shape thesocial media section; to Sam Ransbotham for guiding me through the minefield ofinformation security; to Mary Cronin, Peter Olivieri, and Jack Spang for suggestionsand encouragement; and to the many administrators who have been so supportive

of this effort

Thanks also to the many alumni, parents, and friends of Boston College who have sogenerously invited me to bring my students to visit with and learn from them TheEast and West Coast leadership of the Boston College Technology Council haveplayed a particularly important role in making this happen From Bangalore toBoston, Seoul to Silicon Valley, you’ve provided my students with world-classopportunities, enabling us to meet with scores of CEOs, senior executives, partners,and entrepreneurs My students and I remain deeply grateful for your commitmentand support

And my enduring thanks to my current and former students, who continue toinspire, impress, and teach me more than I thought possible It’s deeply rewarding

to see so many former students return to campus as executive speakers and to hostvisiting students at their own start-ups Serving as your professor has been mygreat privilege

I would also like to thank the following colleagues who so kindly offered their timeand comments while reviewing this work:

• David Bloomquist, Georgia State University

• Teuta Cata, Northern Kentucky University

• Chuck Downing, Northern Illinois University

• John Durand, Pepperdine University

• Marvin Golland, Polytechnic Institute of New York University

• Brandi Guidry, University of Louisiana

• Kiku Jones, The University of Tulsa

• Fred Kellinger, Pennsylvania State University–Beaver Campus

• Ram Kumar, University of North Carolina–Charlotte

• Eric Kyper, Lynchburg College

• Alireza Lari, Fayetteville State University

• Mark Lewis, Missouri Western State University

• Eric Malm, Cabrini College

• Roberto Mejias, University of Arizona

• Esmail Mohebbi, University of West Florida

• John Preston, Eastern Michigan University

• Shu Schiller, Wright State University

• Tod Sedbrook, University of Northern Colorado

• Richard Segall, Arkansas State University

• Ahmad Syamil, Arkansas State University

• Sascha Vitzthum, Illinois Wesleyan University

I’m also grateful to the kindness and insight provided by early adopters of this text.Your comments, encouragement, suggestions, and student feedback were extremelyhelpful in keeping me focused and motivated on advancing the current edition:

• Animesh Animesh, McGill University

• Michel Benaroch, Syracuse University

• Hanyin Cheng, Morgan Stanley

• Barney Corwin, University of Maryland—College Park

• Lauren B Eder, Rider University

• Rob Fichman, Boston College

• James Gips, Boston College

• Wolfgang Gatterbauer, Carnegie Mellon University

• Roy Jones, University of Rochester

• Jakob Iverson, University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh

• Jerry Kane, Boston College

• Fred Kellinger, Penn State University—Beaver Campus

• Eric Kyper, Lynchburg College

• Ann Majchrzak, University of Southern California

• Eric Malm, Cabrini College

• Michael Martel, Ohio University

• Ido Millet, Pennsylvania State University—Erie Campus

• Ellen Monk, University of Delaware

• Marius (Florin) Niculescu, Georgia Tech

• Sam Ransbotham, Boston College

• Nachiketa Sahoo, Carnegie Mellon University

• Shu Schiller, Wright State University

• Tom Schambach, Illinois State University

• Avi Seidman, University of Rochester

• Jack Spang, Boston College

• Veda Storey, Georgia State University

• Sascha Vitzthum, Illinois Wesleyan University

Boston College students Courtney Scrib and Nate Dyer also pointed me to examplesI’ve used in this edition, as did ACU student Aaron Andrew Thanks for thinking of

me and for sharing your very useful ideas!

I’ll continue to share what I hope are useful insights via my blog, The Week In Geek(http://www.gallaugher.com), and Twitter (@gallaugher) Do feel free to offercomments, encouragement, ideas, and examples for future versions Sincerestthanks to all who continue to share the word about this project with others Yourcontinued advocacy helps make this model work!

For Ian, Maya, Lily, and Kim—zettabytes of love!

Thanks for using this book I very much hope that you enjoy it!

I find the space where business and technology meet to be tremendously exciting,but it’s been painful to see the anemic national enrollment trends in tech

disciplines The information systems (IS) course should be the most exciting classwithin any university No discipline is having a greater impact on restructuringwork, disrupting industries, and creating opportunity And none more prominentlyfeatures young people as leaders and visionaries But far too often students resistrather than embrace the study of tech

My university has had great success restructuring the way we teach our IS corecourses, and much of the material used in this approach has made it into this book.The results we’ve seen include a fourfold increase in IS enrollments in four years,stellar student ratings for the IS core course, a jump in student placement, anincrease in the number of employers recruiting on campus for tech-focused jobs,and the launch of several student-initiated start-ups

Material in this book is used at both the graduate and undergraduate levels I thinkit’s a mistake to classify books as focused on just grad or undergrad students After

all, we’d expect our students at all levels to be able to leverage articles in the Wall

Street Journal or BusinessWeek Why can’t our textbooks be equally useful?

You’ll also find this work to be written in an unconventional style for a textbook,

but hey, why be boring? Let’s face it, Fortune and Wired wouldn’t sell a single issue if

forced to write with the dry-encyclopedic prose used by most textbooks Manystudents and faculty have written with kind words for the tone and writing styleused in this book, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to hear from students whoclaim they have actually looked forward to assigned readings and have even readahead or explored unassigned chapters I hope you find it to be equally engaging

The mix of chapter and cases is also meant to provide a holistic view of how

technology and business interrelate Don’t look for an “international” chapter, an

“ethics” chapter, a “mobile” chapter, or a “systems development and deployment”chapter Instead, you’ll see these topics woven throughout many of our cases andwithin chapter examples This is how professionals encounter these topics “in the

approachability, but the topics themselves are applicable far beyond the contextpresented.

Also note that many chapters are meant to be covered across multiple classes Forexample, the chapter about Google is in three parts, the one about Netflix is in two,and the one on strategy and technology likely covers more than one lecture as well.Faculty should feel free to pick and choose topics most relevant to their classes, butmany will also benefit from the breadth of coverage provided throughout the book.I’d prefer our students to be armed with a comprehensive understanding of topicsrather than merely a cursory overview of one siloed area

There’s a lot that’s different about this approach, but a lot that’s workedexceptionally well, too I hope that you find the material to be as useful as we have

I also look forward to continually improving this work, and I encourage you toshare your ideas with me via Twitter (@gallaugher) or the Web

(http://www.gallaugher.com) And if you find the material useful, do let othersknow, as well I remain extremely grateful for your interest and support!

Best wishes!

Professor John GallaugherCarroll School of ManagementBoston College

Setting the Stage: Technology and the Modern Enterprise

1.1 Tech’s Tectonic Shift: Radically Changing Business Landscapes

Harvard Business Review 79, no 3 (March 2001): 62–78 By decade’s end, Google

brought in more advertising revenue than any firm, online or off, and had risen tobecome the most profitable media company on the planet Today billions inadvertising dollars flee old media and are pouring into digital efforts, and this shift

is reshaping industries and redefining skills needed to reach today’s consumers

Prior to the introduction of the iPod, Apple was widely considered a tech industryhas-been Within ten years Apple had grown to be the most valuable firm in theUnited States, selling more music and generating more profits from mobile devicesales than any firm in the world

Moore’s Law and other factors that make technology faster and cheaper have thrustcomputing and telecommunications into the hands of billions in ways that are bothempowering the poor and poisoning the planet

Social media barely warranted a mention a decade ago, but today, Facebook’s userbase is larger than any nation, save for China and India Firms are harnessing socialmedia for new product ideas and for millions in sales But with promise comes peril.When mobile phones are cameras just a short hop from YouTube, Flickr, and

Twitter, every ethical lapse can be captured, every customer service flaw tagged on the permanent record that is the Internet The service and ethics bar fortoday’s manager has never been higher Social media has also emerged as a catalystfor global change, with Facebook and Twitter playing key organizing roles inuprisings worldwide While a status update alone won’t depose a dictator,technology can capture injustice, broadcast it to the world, disseminate ideas, andrally the far-reaching

graffiti-Speaking of globalization, China started the prior decade largely as a nationunplugged and offline But today China has more Internet users than any othercountry and has spectacularly launched several publicly traded Internet firmsincluding Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba By 2009, China Mobile was more valuablethan all but two U.S corporations Think the United States holds the number oneranking in home broadband access? Not even close—the United States is ranked

fifteenth.S Shankland, “Google to Test Ultrafast Broadband to the Home,” CNET,

February 10, 2010

The world’s second most populous nation, India, has ridden technology to become aglobal IT powerhouse In two decades, India’s tech sector has grown from “almostnothing” to a $73 billion industry, expanding even during the recent globalrecession Technology has enabled the once almost-exclusively-agrarian nation tobecome a go-to destination for R&D and engineering across sectors as far-flung asaircraft engine design, medical devices, telecom equipment, and microprocessors.V

Wadhwa, “Indian Technology’s Fourth Wave,” BusinessWeek, December 8, 2010.

The way we conceive of software and the software industry is also changingradically IBM, HP, and Oracle are among the firms that collectively pay thousands

of programmers to write code that is then given away for free Today, open sourcesoftware powers most of the Web sites you visit And the rise of open source hasrewritten the revenue models for the computing industry and lowered computingcosts for start-ups to blue chips worldwide

Cloud computing and software as a service are turning sophisticated, high-poweredcomputing into a utility available to even the smallest businesses and nonprofits

Many organizations today collect and seek insights from massive datasets, whichare often referred to as “Big Data.” Data analytics and business intelligence aredriving discovery and innovation, redefining modern marketing, and creating ashifting knife-edge of privacy concerns that can shred corporate reputations ifmishandled

And the pervasiveness of computing has created a set of security and espionagethreats unimaginable to the prior generation

As recent years have shown, tech creates both treasure and tumult Thesedisruptions aren’t going away and will almost certainly accelerate, impactingorganizations, careers, and job functions throughout your lifetime It’s time to placetech at the center of the managerial playbook

K E Y T A K E A W A Y S

• In the prior decade, firms like Google and Facebook have createdprofound shifts in the way firms advertise and individuals andorganizations communicate

• New technologies have fueled globalization, redefined our concepts ofsoftware and computing, crushed costs, fueled data-driven decisionmaking, and raised privacy and security concerns

Q U E S T I O N S A N D E X E R C I S E S

1 Visit a finance Web site such ashttp://www.google.com/finance.Compare Google’s profits to those of other major media companies Howhave Google’s profits changed over the past few years? Why have theprofits changed? How do these compare with changes in the firm youchose?

2 How is social media impacting firms, individuals, and society?

3 How do recent changes in computing impact consumers? Are thesechanges good or bad? Explain How do they impact businesses?

4 What kinds of skills do today’s managers need that weren’t required adecade ago?

5 Work with your instructor to decide ways in which your class can usesocial media For example, you might create a Facebook group whereyou can share ideas with your classmates, join Twitter and create a hashtag for your class, or create a course wiki (SeeChapter 7 "Social Media,Peer Production, and Web 2.0"for more on these and other services.)

1.2 It’s Your Revolution

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E

1 Name firms across hardware, software, and Internet businesses thatwere founded by people in their twenties (or younger)

The intersection where technology and business meet is both terrifying and

exhilarating But if you’re under the age of thirty, realize that this is your space.

While the fortunes of any individual or firm rise and fall over time, it’s abundantlyclear that many of the world’s most successful technology firms—organizations thathave had tremendous impact on consumers and businesses across industries—werecreated by young people Consider just a few:

Bill Gates was an undergraduate when he left college to found Microsoft—a firmthat would eventually become the world’s largest software firm and catapult Gates

to the top of the Forbes list of world’s wealthiest people (enabling him to also

become the most generous philanthropist of our time)

Figure 1.1

Young Bill Gates appears in a mug shot for a New Mexico traffic violation Microsoft, now headquartered in Washington State, had its roots in New Mexico when Gates and partner Paul Allen moved there to be near early PC maker Altair.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Michael Dell was just a sophomore when he began building computers in his dormroom at the University of Texas His firm would one day claim the top spot among

Zappos Way of Managing,” Inc., May 1, 2009 He’d later serve as CEO of Zappos,

eventually selling that firm to Amazon for $900 million.S Lacy, “Amazon Buys

Zappos; The Price Is $928m., Not $847m.,” TechCrunch, July 22, 2009.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page were both twenty-something doctoral students atStanford University when they founded Google So were Jerry Yang and David Filo

of Yahoo! All would become billionaires

Andrew Mason of Groupon and Steve Chen and Chad Hurley of YouTube were all intheir late twenties when they launched their firms Jeff Bezos hadn’t yet reachedthirty when he began working on what would eventually become Amazon

Of course, those folks would seem downright ancient to Catherine Cook, whofounded MyYearbook.com, a firm that at one point grew to become the third mostpopular social network in the United States and eventually sold for $100 million.A

Shontell, “This 21-Year-Old Just Sold Her Startup For $100 Million,” BusinessInsider,

July 20, 2011 Cook started the firm when she was a sophomore—in high school

This trend will almost certainly accelerate We’re in a golden age of techentrepreneurship where “the cloud” means a startup can rent the computingresources one previously had to buy at great expense; where app stores give codejockeys immediate, nearly zero-cost distribution to a potential market of hundreds

of millions of people worldwide; and where social media done right can virally

spread awareness of a firm with nary a dime of conventional ad spending Crafting abreakout hit is tough, but the jackpot can be immense Kevin Systrom was 26 when

he founded the photo-sharing service Instagram In just 18 months, his 13-personstartup garnered 35 million users worldwide, 5 million Android users in just a singleweek, and sold to Facebook for a cool $1 billion Systrom’s take? $400 million.J.Guynn, “Insta-Rich: How Instagram Becaome a $1 Billion Compnay in 18 Months,”

Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2012.

But you don’t have to build a successful firm to have an impact as a techrevolutionary Shawn Fanning’s Napster, widely criticized as a piracy playground,was written when he was just nineteen Fanning’s code was the first significantsalvo in the tech-fueled revolution that brought about an upending of the entiremusic industry Finland’s Linus Torvals wrote the first version of the Linuxoperating system when he was just twenty-one Today Linux has grown to be themost influential component of the open source arsenal, powering everything fromcell phones to supercomputers

TechCrunch crows that Internet entrepreneurs are like pro athletes—“they peak

around [age] 25.”M Arrington, “Internet Entrepreneurs Are Like Professional

Athletes, They Peak Around 25,” TechCrunch, April 30, 2011 BusinessWeek regularly

runs a list of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs—the top twenty-five aged

twenty-five and under Inc magazine’s list of the Coolest Young Entrepreneurs is

subtitled the “30 under 30.” While not exclusively filled with the ranks of tech ups, both of these lists are nonetheless dominated with technology entrepreneurs.Whenever you see young people on the cover of a business magazine, it’s almostcertainly because they’ve done something groundbreaking with technology Thegenerals and foot soldiers of the technology revolution are filled with the ranks ofthe young, some not even old enough to legally have a beer For the old-timersreading this, all is not lost, but you’d best get cracking with technology, quick.Junior might be on the way to either eat your lunch or be your next boss

Q U E S T I O N S A N D E X E R C I S E S

1 Look online for lists of young entrepreneurs How many of these firmsare tech firms or heavily rely on technology? Are there any sectors moreheavily represented than tech?

2 Have you ever thought of starting your own tech-enabled business?

Brainstorm with some friends What kinds of ideas do you think mightmake a good business?

3 How have the costs of entrepreneurship changed over the past decade?What forces are behind these changes? What does this mean for thefuture of entrepreneurship?

4 Many universities and regions have competitions for entrepreneurs(e.g., business plan competitions, elevator pitch competitions) Doesyour school have such a program? What are the criteria for

participation? If your school doesn’t have one, consider forming such aprogram

5 Research business accelerator programs such as Y-Combinator,TechStars, and DreamIt Do you have a program like this in your area?What do entrepreneurs get from participating in these programs? What

do they give up? Do you think these programs are worth it? Why or whynot? Have you ever used a product or service from a firm that hasparticipated in one of these programs?

6 Explore online for lists of resources for entrepreneurship Share links tothese resources using social media created for class

7 Have any alumni from your institution founded technology firms orrisen to positions of prominence in tech-focused careers? If so, workwith your professor to invite them to come speak to your class or tostudent groups on campus Your career services, development (alumnigiving), alumni association, and LinkedIn searches may be able to helpuncover potential speakers

1.3 Geek Up—Tech Is Everywhere and You’ll Need It to Thrive

As we’ll present in depth in a future chapter, there’s a principle called Moore’s Lawthat’s behind fast, cheap computing And as computing gets both faster and

cheaper, it gets “baked into” all sorts of products and shows up everywhere: in yourpocket, in your vacuum, and on the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags thattrack your luggage at the airport

Well, there’s also a sort of Moore’s Law corollary that’s taking place with people,too As technology becomes faster and cheaper and developments like open sourcesoftware, cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and outsourcing pushtechnology costs even lower, tech skills are being embedded inside more and morejob functions What this means is that even if you’re not expecting to become thenext Tech Titan, your career will doubtless be shaped by the forces of technology.Make no mistake about it—there isn’t a single modern managerial discipline thatisn’t being deeply and profoundly impacted by tech

Finance

Many business school students who study finance aspire to careers in investmentbanking Many i-bankers will work on IPOs (initial public stock offerings), in effecthelping value companies the first time these firms wish to sell their stock on the

be involved in valuing merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, and tech firms areactive in this space, too Leading tech firms are flush with cash and constantly onthe hunt for new firms to acquire Over the past five years, Google has bought awhopping 103 firms, IBM has bought sixty-four, Micosoft has bought sixty-three,Cisco has bought fifty-seven, and Intel has bought forty-eight!S Miller, “The

Trouble with Tech M&A,” The Deal, May 7, 2012 And even in nontech industries,

technology impacts nearly every endeavor as an opportunity catalyst or adisruptive wealth destroyer The aspiring investment banker who doesn’tunderstand the role of technology in firms and industries can’t possibly provide anaccurate guess at how much a company is worth

Table 1.1 2011 Tech Deals by Sector

Sector Deals Value (millions)

Source: “US Technology M&A Insights 2012,” PwC, March 2012.

Table 1.2 Acquisition Deals by Firm

Company Deals Value (millions)

Those in other finance careers will be lending to tech firms and evaluating the role

of technology in firms in an investment portfolio Most of you will want to considertech’s role as part of your personal investments And modern finance simplywouldn’t exist without tech When someone arranges for a bridge to be built inShanghai, those funds aren’t carried over in a suitcase—they’re digitally transferredfrom bank to bank And forces of technology blasted open the two-hundred-year-old floor trading mechanism of the New York Stock Exchange, in effect forcing theNYSE to sell shares in itself to finance the acquisition of technology-based tradingplatforms that were threatening to replace it As another example of the

importance of tech in finance, consider that Boston-based Fidelity Investments, one

of the nation’s largest mutual fund firms, spends roughly $2.8 billion a year ontechnology Tech isn’t a commodity for finance—it’s the discipline’s lifeblood

Accounting

If you’re an accountant, your career is built on a foundation of technology Thenumbers used by accountants are all recorded, stored, and reported by informationsystems, and the reliability of any audit is inherently tied to the reliability of theunderlying technology Increased regulation, such as the heavy executive penaltiestied to theSarbanes-Oxley Act1in the United States, have ratcheted up the

importance of making sure accountants (and executives) get their numbers right.Negligence could mean jail time This means the link between accounting and techhave never been tighter, and the stakes for ensuring systems accuracy have neverbeen higher

Business students might also consider that while accounting firms regularly rank

near the top of BusinessWeek’s “Best Places to Start Your Career” list, many of the

careers at these firms are highly tech-centric Every major accounting firm hasspawned a tech-focused consulting practice, and in many cases, these firms havegrown to be larger than the accounting services functions from which they sprang.Today, Deloitte’s tech-centric consulting division is larger than the firm’s audit, tax,and risk practices At the time of its spin-off, Accenture was larger than the

accounting practice at former parent Arthur Andersen (Accenture executives arealso grateful they split before Andersen’s collapse in the wake of the prior decade’saccounting scandals) Now, many accounting firms that had previously spun offtechnology practices are once again building up these functions, finding strongsimilarities between the skills of an auditor and skills needed in emergingdisciplines such as information security and privacy

Marketing

1 Also known as Sarbox or SOX;

U.S legislation enacted in the

wake of the accounting

scandals of the early 2000s The

act raises executive and board

responsibility and ties criminal

penalties to certain accounting

and financial violations.

Although often criticized, SOX

is also seen as raising stakes for

mismanagement and misdeeds

leveraged by the prior generation Online channels have provided a way to trackand monitor consumer activities, and firms are leveraging this insight to

understand how to get the right product to the right customer, through the rightchannel, with the right message, at the right price, at the right time The success orfailure of a campaign can often be immediately assessed based on online activitysuch as Web site visit patterns and whether a campaign results in an onlinepurchase

The ability to track customers, analyze campaign results, and modify tactics hasamped up the return on investment of marketing dollars, with firms increasinglyshifting spending from tough-to-track media such as print, radio, and television to

the Web.J Pontin, “But Who’s Counting?” Technology Review, March/April 2009.

And new channels continue to emerge Firms as diverse as Southwest Airlines,Starbucks, UPS, and Zara have introduced apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

In roughly four years, iOS devices are now in the hands, backpacks, purses, andpockets of over 200 million people worldwide, delivering location-based messagesand services and even allowing for cashless payment.D Coldewey, “iOS Passes 200

Million Devices, 25 Million of Which Are iPads,” TechCrunch, June 6, 2011.

The rise of social media is also part of this blown-apart marketing landscape Nowall customers can leverage an enduring and permanent voice, capable of

broadcasting word-of-mouth influence in ways that can benefit and harm a firm.Savvy firms are using social media to generate sales, improve their reputations,better serve customers, and innovate Those who don’t understand this landscaperisk being embarrassed, blindsided, and out of touch with their customers

Search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), customerrelationship management (CRM), personalization systems, and a sensitivity tomanaging the delicate balance between gathering and leveraging data andrespecting consumer privacy are all central components of the new marketingtoolkit And there’s no looking back—tech’s role in marketing will only grow inprominence

Operations

A firm’s operations management function is focused on producing goods andservices, and operations students usually get the point that tech is the key to theirfuture Quality programs, process redesign, supply chain management, factoryautomation, and service operations are all tech-centric These points areunderscored in this book as we introduce several examples of how firms havedesigned fundamentally different ways of conducting business (and even entirely

different industries), where value and competitive advantage are created throughtechnology-enabled operations.

Human Resources

Technology helps firms harness the untapped power of employees Knowledgemanagement systems are morphing into social media technologies—socialnetworks, wikis, and Twitter-style messaging systems that can accelerate the ability

of a firm to quickly organize and leverage teams of experts And crowdsourcingtools and question-and-answer sites like Quora allow firms to reach out forexpertise beyond their organizations Human resources (HR) directors are usingtechnology for employee training, screening, and evaluation The accessibility ofend-user technology means that every employee can reach the public, creating animperative for firms to set policy on issues such as firm representation anddisclosure and to continually monitor and enforce policies as well as capture andpush out best practices The successful HR manager recognizes that technologycontinually changes an organization’s required skill sets as well as employeeexpectations

The hiring and retention practices of the prior generation are also in flux

Recruiting hasn’t just moved online; it’s now grounded in information systems thatscour databases for specific skill sets, allowing recruiters to cast a wider talent netthan ever before Job seekers are writing résumés with keywords in mind, awarethat the first cut is likely made by a database search program, not a human being.The rise of professional social networks also puts added pressure on employeesatisfaction and retention Prior HR managers fiercely guarded employeedirectories for fear that a headhunter or competitive firm might raid top talent.Now the equivalent of a corporate directory can be easily pulled up via LinkedIn, aservice complete with discrete messaging capabilities that can allow competitors torifle-scope target your firm’s best and brightest Thanks to technology, the firmthat can’t keep employees happy, engaged, and feeling valued has never been morevulnerable

The Law

And for those looking for careers in corporate law, many of the hottest areasinvolve technology Intellectual property, patents, piracy, and privacy are all areaswhere activity has escalated dramatically in recent years The number of U.S.patent applications waiting approval has tripled in the past decade, while China saw

a threefold increase in patent applications in just five years.J Schmid and B Poston,

“Patent Backlog Clogs Recovery,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 15, 2009 Firms

need legal expertise to help them protect proprietary methods and content, as well

as to help enforce claims in the home country and abroad

Information Systems Careers

While the job market goes through ebbs and flows, recent surveys have shown there

to be more IT openings than in any field except health care.2009 figures are fromhttp://www.indeed.com Money magazine ranked tech jobs as two of the top five

“Best Jobs in America.”“Best Jobs in America,” CNNMoney, 2009,

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/snapshots/1.html

Tech jobs make up five of the top 10 “Best Jobs” on the US News list.U.S News Staff,

“The 25 Best Jobs,”http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/

the-25-best-jobs(accessed May 29, 2012) BusinessWeek ranks consulting (which

heavily hires tech grads) and technology as the second and third highest payingindustries for recent college graduates.L Gerdes, “The Best Places to Launch a

Career,” BusinessWeek, September 15, 2008 Technology careers have actually ranked

among the safest careers to have during the most recent downturn.T Kaneshige,

“Surprise! Tech Is a Safe Career Choice Today,” InfoWorld, February 4, 2009 And

Fortune’s ranks of the “Best Companies to Work For” is full of technology firms and

has been topped by a tech business for six years straight.See “Best Companies to

Work For,” Fortune, 2007—2010 For 2010 list, seehttp://money.cnn.com/

magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/full_list/index.html

Students studying technology can leverage skills in ways that range from the highlytechnical to those that emphasize a tech-centric use of other skills And why berestricted to just the classes taught on campus? Resources like iTunes U.,CodeAcademy, Udemy, edX, YouTube, and others provide a smorgasbord of learningwhere the smart and motivated can geek up The high demand for scarce technicaltalent has led many tech firms to offer six-figure starting salaries to graduatingseniors from top universities.E Goode, “For Newcomers in Silicon Valley, the Dream

of Entrepreneurship Still Lives,” New York Times, January 24, 2012 Opportunities for

programmers abound, particularly for those versed in new technologies But thereare also non-programming roles for experts in areas such as user-interface design(who work to make sure systems are easy to use), process design (who leveragetechnology to make firms more efficient), and strategy (who specialize intechnology for competitive advantage) Nearly every large organization has its owninformation systems department That group not only ensures that systems getbuilt and keep running but also increasingly takes on strategic roles targeted atproposing solutions for how technology can give the firm a competitive edge.Career paths allow for developing expertise in a particular technology (e.g.,business intelligence analyst, database administrator, social media manager), whileproject management careers leverage skills in taking projects from idea throughdeployment

Even in consulting firms, careers range from hard-core programmers who “buildstuff” to analysts who do no programming but might work identifying problemsand developing a solutions blueprint that is then turned over to another team tocode Careers at tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft don’t all involvecoding end-user programs either Each of these firms has their own client-facingstaff that works with customers and partners to implement solutions Fieldengineers at these firms may work as part of a sales team to show how a givencompany’s software and services can be used These engineers often put togetherprototypes that are then turned over to a client’s in-house staff for furtherdevelopment An Apple field engineer might show how a firm can leveragepodcasting in its organization, while a Google field engineer can help a firmincorporate search, banner, and video ads into its online efforts Careers thatinvolve consulting and field engineering are often particularly attractive for thosewho enjoy working with an ever-changing list of clients and problems acrossvarious industries and in many different geographies.

Upper-level career opportunities are also increasingly diverse Consultants canbecome partners who work with the most senior executives of client firms, helpingidentify opportunities for those organizations to become more effective Within afirm, technology specialists can rise to be chief information officer or chieftechnology officer—positions focused on overseeing a firm’s information systems

development and deployment And many firms are developing so-called C-level

specialties in emerging areas with a technology focus, such as chief informationsecurity officer (CISO), and chief privacy officer (CPO) Senior technology positions

may also be a ticket to the chief executive’s suite A recent Fortune article pointed

out how the prominence of technology provides a training ground for executives tolearn the breadth and depth of a firm’s operations and an understanding of theways in which firms are vulnerable to attack and where it can leverage

opportunities for growth.J Fortt, “Tech Execs Get Sexy,” Fortune, February 12, 2009.

Your Future

With tech at the center of so much change, realize that you may very well bepreparing for careers that don’t yet exist But by studying the intersection ofbusiness and technology today, you develop a base to build upon and criticalthinking skills that will help you evaluate new, emerging technologies Think youcan afford to wait on tech study then quickly get up to speed? Whom do you expect

to have an easier time adapting and leveraging a technology like socialmedia—today’s college students who are immersed in technology or their parentswho are embarrassingly dipping their toes into the waters of Facebook? Those whoput off an understanding of technology risk being left in the dust

Consider the nontechnologists who have tried to enter the technology space thesepast few years News Corp head Rupert Murdoch piloted his firm to the purchase ofMySpace only to see this one-time leader lose share to rivals.O Malik, “MySpace,

R.I.P.,” GigaOM, February 10, 2010 Former Warner executive Terry Semel presided

over Yahoo!’sJ Thaw, “Yahoo’s Semel Resigns as Chief amid Google’s Gains,”

Bloomberg, June 18, 2007 malaise as Google blasted past it Barry Diller, the man

widely credited with creating the Fox Network, led InterActive Corp (IAC) in theacquisition of a slew of tech firms ranging from Expedia to Ask.com, only to breakthe empire up as it foundered.G Fabrikant and M Helft, “Barry Diller Conquered

Now He Tries to Divide,” New York Times, March 16, 2008 And Time Warner head

Jerry Levin presided over the acquisition of AOL, executing what many consider to

be one of the most disastrous mergers in U.S business history.J Quinn, “Final

Farewell to Worst Deal in History—AOL-Time Warner,” Telegraph (UK), November

21, 2009 Contrast these guys against the technology-centric successes of MarkZuckerberg (Facebook), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google)

While we’ll make it abundantly clear that a focus solely on technology is a recipe fordisaster, a business perspective that lacks an appreciation for tech’s role is alsolikely to be doomed At this point in history, technology and business areinexorably linked, and those not trained to evaluate and make decisions in thisever-shifting space risk irrelevance, marginalization, and failure

K E Y T A K E A W A Y S

• As technology becomes cheaper and more powerful, it pervades moreindustries and is becoming increasingly baked into what were oncenontech functional areas

• Technology is impacting every major business discipline, includingfinance, accounting, marketing, operations, human resources, and thelaw

• Tech jobs rank among the best and highest-growth positions, and techfirms rank among the best and highest-paying firms to work for

• Information systems (IS) jobs are profoundly diverse, ranging fromthose that require heavy programming skills to those that are focused

on design, process, project management, privacy, and strategy

Q U E S T I O N S A N D E X E R C I S E S

1 Look at Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” list How many of these

firms are technology firms? Which firm would you like to work for? Arethey represented on this list?

2 Look at BusinessWeek’s “Best Places to Start Your Career” list Is the firm

you mentioned above also on this list?

3 What are you considering studying? What are your short-term and term job goals? What role will technology play in that career path? Whatshould you be doing to ensure that you have the skills needed to

long-compete?

4 Which jobs that exist today likely won’t exist at the start of the nextdecade? Based on your best guess on how technology will develop, canyou think of jobs and skill sets that will likely emerge as critical five andten years from now?

1.4 The Pages Ahead

L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E

1 Understand the structure of this text, the issues and examples that will

be introduced, and why they are important

Hopefully this first chapter has helped get you excited for what’s to come The text

is written in a style meant to be as engaging as the material you’ll be reading for therest of your management career—articles in business magazines and newspapers.The introduction of concepts in this text are also example rich, and every conceptintroduced or technology discussed is always grounded in a real-world example toshow why it’s important But also know that while we celebrate successes andexpose failures in that space where business and technology come together, we alsorecognize that firms and circumstances change Today’s winners have no guarantee

of sustained dominance What you should acquire in the pages that follow are afourfold set of benefits that (1) provide a description of what’s happening inindustry today, (2) offer an introduction to key business and technology concepts,(3) offer a durable set of concepts and frameworks that can be applied even astechnologies and industries change, and (4) develop critical thinking that will serveyou well throughout your career as a manager

Chapters don’t have to be read in order, so feel free to bounce around, if you’d like.But here’s what you can expect:

Chapter 2 "Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for UnderstandingWhat Separates Winners from Losers"focuses on building big-picture skills to thinkabout how to leverage technology for competitive advantage Technology alone israrely the answer, but through a rich set of examples, we’ll show how firms canweave technology into their operations in ways that create and reinforce resourcesthat can garner profits while repelling competitors A mini case examines tech’srole at FreshDirect, a firm that has defied the many failures in the online groceryspace and devastated traditional rivals BlueNile, Cisco, Dell, TiVo and Yahoo! areamong the many firms providing a rich set of examples illustrating successes andfailures in leveraging technology The chapter will show how firms use technology

to create and leverage brand, scale economies, switching costs, data assets, networkeffects, and distribution channels We’ll introduce how technology relates to twopopular management frameworks—the value chain and the five forces model Andwe’ll provide a solid decision framework for considering the controversial and often

misunderstood role that technology plays among firms that seek an early-moveradvantage.

InChapter 3 "Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems", we see how a tech-fed valuechain helped Spanish clothing giant Zara craft a counterintuitive model that seems

to defy all conventional wisdom in the fashion industry We’ll show how Zara’smodel differs radically from that of the firm it displaced to become the world’s topclothing retailer: Gap We’ll show how technology impacts product design, productdevelopment, marketing, cycle time, inventory management, and customer loyaltyand how technology decisions influence broad profitability that goes way beyondthe cost-of-goods thinking common among many retailers We’ll also offer a minicase on Fair Factories Clearinghouse, an effort highlighting the positive role oftechnology in improving ethical business practices Another mini case shows thedifference between thinking about technology versus broad thinking about systems,all through an examination of how high-end fashion house Prada failed to roll outtechnology that on the surface seemed very similar to Zara’s

Chapter 4 "Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-commerce Giant and theUncertain Future of Atoms to Bits"studies Neflix in two parts The first half of thechapter tramples the notion that dot-com start-up firms can’t compete againstlarge, established rivals We’ll show how information systems at Netflix created aset of assets that grew in strength and remains difficult for rivals to match Theeconomics of pure-play versus brick-and-mortar firms is examined, and we’llintroduce managerial thinking on various concepts such as the data asset,personalization systems (recommendation engines and collaborative filtering), thelong tail and the implications of technology on selection and inventory,

crowdsourcing, using technology for novel revenue models (subscription andrevenue-sharing with suppliers), forecasting, and inventory management Thesecond part of the chapter covers Netflix’s uncertain future, where we present howthe shift from atoms (physical discs) to bits (streaming and downloads) createsadditional challenges Issues of digital products, licensing and partnerships,revenue models, and delivery platforms are all discussed

Chapter 5 "Moore’s Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for theManager"focuses on understanding the implications of technology change forfirms and society The chapter offers accessible definitions for technologiesimpacted by Moore’s Law, but goes beyond semiconductors and silicon to show howthe rate of magnetic storage (e.g., hard drives) and networking create markets filledwith uncertainty and opportunity The chapter will show how tech has enabled therise of Apple and Amazon, created mobile phone markets that empower the poorworldwide, and has created five waves of disruptive innovation over five decades

limits on shrinking transistors halt the advancement of current technology.

Studying technologies that “extend” Moore’s Law, such as multicoresemiconductors, helps illustrate both the benefit and limitation of technologyoptions, and in doing so, helps develop skills around recognizing the pros and cons

of a given innovation Supercomputing, grid, and cloud computing are introducedthrough examples that show how these advances are changing the economics ofcomputing and creating new opportunity Finally, issues of e-waste are explored in

a way that shows that firms not only need to consider the ethics of productsourcing, but also the ethics of disposal

InChapter 6 "Understanding Network Effects", we’ll see how technologies, services,and platforms can create nearly insurmountable advantages Tech firms fromFacebook to Intel to Microsoft are dominant because of network effects—the ideathat some products and services get more valuable as more people use them

Studying network effects creates better decision makers The concept is at the heart

of technology standards and platform competition, and understanding networkeffects can help managers choose technologies that are likely to win, hopefullyavoiding getting caught with a failed, poorly supported system Students learn hownetwork effects work and why they’re difficult to unseat The chapter ends with anexample-rich discussion of various techniques that one can use to compete inmarkets where network effects are present

Peer production and social media have created some of the Internet’s most populardestinations and most rapidly growing firms, and they are empowering the voice ofthe customer as never before InChapter 7 "Social Media, Peer Production, and Web2.0", students learn about various technologies used in social media and peerproduction, including blogs, wikis, social networking, Twitter, and more Predictionmarkets and crowdsourcing are introduced, along with examples of how firms areleveraging these concepts for insight and innovation Finally, students are offeredguidance on how firms can think SMART by creating a social media awareness andresponse team Issues of training, policy, and response are introduced, and

technologies for monitoring and managing online reputations are discussed

Chapter 8 "Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph"will allow us tostudy success and failure in IS design and deployment by examining one of theWeb’s hottest firms Facebook is one of the most accessible and relevant Internetfirms to so many, but it’s also a wonderful laboratory to discuss critical managerialconcepts The founding story of Facebook introduces concepts of venture capital,the board of directors, and the role of network effects in entrepreneurial control.Feeds show how information, content, and applications can spread virally, but alsointroduce privacy concerns Facebook’s strength in switching costs demonstrateshow it has been able to envelop additional markets from photos to chat to video andmore The failure of the Beacon system shows how even bright technologists can

fail if they ignore the broader procedural and user implications of an informationsystems rollout Social networking advertising is contrasted with search, and theperils of advertising alongside social media content are introduced Issues ofpredictors and privacy are covered And the case allows for a broader discussion onfirm value and what Facebook might really be worth.

Chapter 9 "Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers"offers a primer to helpmanagers better understand what software is all about The chapter offers a briefintroduction to software technologies Students learn about operating systems,application software, and how these relate to each other Enterprise applicationsare introduced, and the alphabet soup of these systems (e.g., ERP, CRM, and SCM) isaccessibly explained Various forms of distributed systems (client-server, Webservices, messaging) are also covered The chapter provides a managerial overview

of how software is developed, offers insight into the importance of Java andscripting languages, and explains the differences between compiled and interpretedsystems System failures, total cost of ownership, and project risk mitigation arealso introduced The array of concepts covered helps a manager understand thebigger picture and should provide an underlying appreciation for how systemswork that will serve even as technologies change and new technologies areintroduced

The software industry is changing radically, and that’s the focus ofChapter 10

"Software in Flux: Partly Cloudy and Sometimes Free" The issues covered in thischapter are front and center for any firm making technology decisions We’ll coveropen source software, software as a service, hardware clouds, and virtualization.Each topic is introduced by discussing advantages, risks, business models, andexamples of their effective use The chapter ends by introducing issues that amanager must consider when making decisions as to whether to purchasetechnology, contract or outsource an effort, or develop an effort in-house

InChapter 11 "The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and CompetitiveAdvantage", we’ll study data, which is often an organization’s most critical asset.Data lies at the heart of every major discipline, including marketing, accounting,finance, operations, forecasting, and planning We’ll help managers understandhow data is created, organized, and effectively used We’ll cover limitations in datasourcing, issues in privacy and regulation, and tools for access, including variousbusiness intelligence technologies A mini case on Wal-Mart shows data’s use inempowering a firm’s entire value chain, while the mini case on Caesars

Entertainment (formerly known as Harrah’s) shows how data-driven customerrelationship management is at the center of creating an industry giant

Chapter 12 "A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications"unmasksthe mystery of the Internet—it shows how the Internet works and why a managershould care about IP addresses, IP networking, the DNS, peering, and packet versuscircuit switching We’ll also cover last-mile technologies and the various strengthsand weaknesses of getting a faster Internet to a larger population The revolution inmobile technologies and the impact on business will also be presented.

Chapter 13 "Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just AboutEverywhere Else)"helps managers understand attacks and vulnerabilities and how

to keep end users and organizations more secure The ever-increasing number ofmegabreaches at firms that now include TJX, Heartland, Epsilon, Sony, and evensecurity firm RSA, plus the increasing vulnerability of end-user systems, havehighlighted how information security is now the concern of the entire organization,from senior executives to frontline staff This chapter explains what’s happeningwith respect to information security—what kinds of attacks are occurring, who isdoing them, and what their motivation is We’ll uncover the source of

vulnerabilities in systems: human, procedural, and technical Hacking conceptssuch as botnets, malware, phishing, and SQL injection are explained using plain,accessible language Also presented are techniques to improve information securityboth as an end user and within an organization The combination of current issuesand their relation to a broader framework for security should help you think aboutvulnerabilities even as technologies and exploits change over time

Chapter 14 "Google in Three Parts: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond"

discusses one of the most influential and far-reaching firms in today’s businessenvironment As pointed out earlier, a decade ago Google barely existed, but it nowearns more ad revenue and is a more profitable media company than any firm,online or off Google is a major force in modern marketing, research, andentertainment In this chapter you’ll learn how Google (and Web search in general)works Issues of search engine ranking, optimization, and search infrastructure areintroduced Students gain an understanding of search advertising and otheradvertising techniques, ad revenue models such as CPM and CPC, online advertisingnetworks, various methods of customer profiling (e.g., IP addresses, geotargeting,cookies), click fraud, fraud prevention, and issues related to privacy and regulation.The chapter concludes with a broad discussion of how Google is evolving (e.g.,Android, Chrome, Apps, YouTube) and how this evolution is bringing it into conflictwith several well-funded rivals, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and more

Nearly every industry and every functional area is increasing its investment in andreliance on information technology With opportunity comes trade-offs: researchhas shown that a high level of IT investment is associated with a more frenzied

competitive environment.E Brynjolfsson, A McAfee, M Sorell, and F Zhu, “Scale

without Mass: Business Process Replication and Industry Dynamics,” SSRN,

September 30, 2008 But while the future is uncertain, we don’t have the luxury toput on the brakes or dial back the clock—tech’s impact is here to stay Those firmsthat emerge as winners will treat IT efforts “as opportunities to define and deploynew ways of working, rather than just projects to install, configure, or integrate.”A

McAfee and E Brynjolfsson, “Dog Eat Dog,” Sloan Management Review, April 27, 2007.

The examples, concepts, and frameworks in the pages that follow will help youbuild the tools and decision-making prowess needed for victory

K E Y T A K E A W A Y S

• This text contains a series of chapters and cases that expose durableconcepts, technologies, and frameworks, and does so using cutting-edgeexamples of what’s happening in industry today

• While firms and technologies will change, and success at any given point

in time is no guarantee of future victory, the issues illustrated andconcepts acquired should help shape a manager’s decision making in away that will endure

Q U E S T I O N S A N D E X E R C I S E S

1 Which firms do you most admire today? How do these firms usetechnology? Do you think technology gives them an advantage overrivals? Why or why not?

2 What areas covered in this book are most exciting? Most intimidating?Which do you think will be most useful?

Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for

Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers

3 Understand the resource-based view of competitive advantage.

4 List the four characteristics of a resource that might possibly yieldsustainable competitive advantage

Managers are confused, and for good reason Management theorists, consultants,and practitioners often vehemently disagree on how firms should craft tech-enabled strategy, and many widely read articles contradict one another Headlinessuch as “Move First or Die” compete with “The First-Mover Disadvantage.” Aleading former CEO advises, “destroy your business,” while others suggest firms

focus on their “core competency” and “return to basics.” The pages of the Harvard

Business Review have declared, “IT Doesn’t Matter,” while a New York Times bestseller

hails technology as the “steroids” of modern business

Theorists claiming to have mastered the secrets of strategic management arecontentious and confusing But as a manager, the ability to size up a firm’s strategicposition and understand its likelihood of sustainability is one of the most valuableand yet most difficult skills to master Layer on thinking about technology—a keyenabler to nearly every modern business strategy, but also a function often thought

of as easily “outsourced”—and it’s no wonder that so many firms struggle at theintersection where strategy and technology meet The business landscape is litteredwith the corpses of firms killed by managers who guessed wrong

Developing strong strategic thinking skills is a career-long pursuit—a subject thatcan occupy tomes of text, a roster of courses, and a lifetime of seminars While thischapter can’t address the breadth of strategic thought, it is meant as a primer ondeveloping the skills for strategic thinking about technology A manager thatunderstands issues presented in this chapter should be able to see throughseemingly conflicting assertions about best practices more clearly; be betterprepared to recognize opportunities and risks; and be more adept at successfullybrainstorming new, tech-centric approaches to markets

The Danger of Relying on Technology

Firms strive forsustainable competitive advantage1, financial performance thatconsistently outperforms their industry peers The goal is easy to state, but hard toachieve The world is so dynamic, with new products and new competitors risingseemingly overnight, that truly sustainable advantage might seem like animpossibility New competitors and copycat products create a race to cut costs, cutprices, and increase features that may benefit consumers but erode profits

industry-wide Nowhere is this balance more difficult than when competitioninvolves technology The fundamental strategic question in the Internet era is,

“How can I possibly compete when everyone can copy my technology and the competition is

just a click away?” Put that way, the pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage

seems like a lost cause

But there are winners—big, consistent winners—empowered through their use oftechnology How do they do it? In order to think about how to achieve sustainableadvantage, it’s useful to start with two concepts defined by Michael Porter A

professor at the Harvard Business School and father of the value chain and the five

forces concepts (see the sections later in this chapter), Porter is justifiably

considered one of the leading strategic thinkers of our time

According to Porter, the reason so many firms suffer aggressive, margin-erodingcompetition is because they’ve defined themselves according to operationaleffectiveness rather than strategic positioning.Operational effectiveness2refers

to performing the same tasks better than rivals perform them Everyone wants to

be better, but the danger in operational effectiveness is “sameness.” This risk isparticularly acute in firms that rely on technology for competitiveness After all,technology can be easily acquired Buy the same stuff as your rivals, hire studentsfrom the same schools, copy the look and feel of competitor Web sites, reverseengineer their products, and you can match them Thefast follower problem3

exists when savvy rivals watch a pioneer’s efforts, learn from their successes andmissteps, then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at alower cost

Since tech can be copied so quickly, followers can be fast, indeed Several years agowhile studying the Web portal industry (Yahoo! and its competitors), a colleagueand I found that when a firm introduced an innovative feature, at least one of itsthree major rivals would match that feature in, on average, only one and a halfmonths.J Gallaugher and C Downing, “Portal Combat: An Empirical Study of

Competition in the Web Portal Industry,” Journal of Information Technology

Management 11, no 1—2 (2000): 13—24 Groupon CEO Andrew Mason claimed the

daily deal service had spawned 500 imitators within two years of launch.B Weiss,

“Groupon’s $6 Billion Gambler,” The Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2010 When

1 Financial performance that

consistently outperforms

industry averages.

2 Performing the same tasks

better than rivals perform

them.

3 Exists when savvy rivals watch

a pioneer’s efforts, learn from

their successes and missteps,

then enter the market quickly

with a comparable or superior

product at a lower cost before

the first mover can dominate.

technology can be matched so quickly, it is rarely a source of competitiveadvantage And this phenomenon isn’t limited to the Web.

Consider TiVo At first blush, it looks like this first mover should be a winner since

it seems to have established a leading brand; TiVo is now a verb for digitallyrecording TV broadcasts But despite this, TiVo has largely been a money loser,going years without posting an annual profit By the time 1.5 million TiVos hadbeen sold, there were over thirty million digital video recorders (DVRs) in use.N

DiMeo, “TiVo’s Goal with New DVR: Become the Google of TV,” Morning Edition,

National Public Radio, April 7, 2010 Rival devices offered by cable and satellitecompanies appear the same to consumers and are offered along with pay televisionsubscriptions—a critical distribution channel for reaching customers that TiVodoesn’t control

The Flip video camera is another example of technology alone offering little durableadvantage The pocket-sized video recorders used flash memory instead of

magnetic storage Flip cameras grew so popular that Cisco bought Flip parent PureDigital, for $590 million The problem was digital video features were easy to copy,and constantly falling technology costs (seeChapter 5 "Moore’s Law: Fast, CheapComputing and What It Means for the Manager") allowed rivals to embed video intotheir products Later that same year Apple (and other firms) began including videocapture as a feature in their music players and phones Why carry a Flip when onepocket device can do everything? The Flip business barely lasted two years, and byspring 2011 Cisco had killed the division, taking a more than half-billion-dollarspanking in the process.E Rusli, “Cisco Shutters Flip, Two Years After Acquisition,”

New York Times, April 12, 2011.

Operational effectiveness is critical Firms must invest in techniques to improvequality, lower cost, and design efficient customer experiences But for the mostpart, these efforts can be matched Because of this, operational effectiveness isusually not sufficient enough to yield sustainable dominance over the competition

In contrast to operational effectiveness,strategic positioning4refers toperforming different activities from those of rivals, or the same activities in adifferent way Technology itself is often very easy to replicate, and those assumingadvantage lies in technology alone may find themselves in a profit-eroding armsrace with rivals able to match their moves step by step But while technology can becopied, technology can also play a critical role in creating and strengthening

strategic differences—advantages that rivals will struggle to match.

4 Performing different tasks