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IT Doesn’t Matter by Nicholas G. Carr

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May 2003

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H B R AT L A R G E

IT

Doesn’t
Matter
by Nicholas G. Carr

As information technology’s power and ubiquity have grown, its strategic importance has diminished. The way you approach IT investment and management will need to change dramatically.

I

n 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

Copyright © 2003 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.