A gist of Nick Carr’s incisive article In his 2003 article ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’, Nicholas Carr charts the evolution of Information Technology from the invention of the microprocessor in 1968 to present day omnipresence of IT solutions. His bone of contention with IT is not concerned with its widespread presence, but the magnified costs involved in the upkeep of IT infrastructure. He wants to bulldoze the myth that increased IT spending will culminate in higher returns and better profits. Acknowledging that though “Information technology has become the backbone of commerce” (Carr, 2003), he notes that its omnipresence works against its strategic advantage. His proposition is that a resource can be considered as a strategic advantage only when a company has a differentiating resource compared to its competitors. With this proposition he confirms the Resource-Advantage theory laid out in 2002 by Hunt and Morgan. The accessibility and cost-effectiveness of IT related functionality resulted in its omnipresence. This entails that a manager must understand it differently, viewing it as a necessity, like capital or people. Carr eliminates the possibility of advantages due to proprietary software using the example of American Hospital Supply’s ASAP ordering tool. He highlights how specialized software can turn from a boon to bane, when more generic and updated solutions come into the picture. Many companies such as Dell and Wal-Mart have used the opportune time frame of the IT boom to set up their brand name and goodwill. That window seems to have closed now, because the possibility of a competitive advantage using IT is minimal, if not zilch. This implies that IT is subject to large-scale commoditization, where companies purchase generi... ... middle of paper ... ...narz of the Network World aptly summarizes Carr’s article and its impact on the IT industry, “The article is remembered even until this day. If it would have been a downright false claim, it wouldn’t be discussed 10 years later”. Carr did have some very good opinions, which helped companies pull back from impeding financial crisis. The most important thing we must remember is that this article was written in the light of the dot com bubble burst. Uncontrolled IT investments had caused massive losses, with most companies shutting doors or losing stock values by 85-95%. Even strong leaders like Carly Fiorina saw stocks of her company, HP, fall to half their original value. Hence, we must concede to some points laid forth by Carr, but also not become complacent and keep up with great technology and powerful infrastructure for the smooth functioning of our business.
Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, Nicholas Carr in his article, Is Google is making us stupid?, addresses his beliefs that the internet is creating artificial intelligence as it effects our mind and the way we think. Throughout the article Carr supports this claim with rhetorical devices as well as Aristotelian appeals. Carr begins by using pathos by stating an anecdote from a scene in the movie A Space Odyssey, then uses logos by stating factual evidence and statistics, lastly Carr uses ethos by conceding to opposition and stating appropriate vocabulary. In the article he compares the past and present and how the Internet has changed not only himself, but also people as a whole. In order to show his credibility, Carr uses research and
Workers are also not being used to their full potential as the majority of the IT budget is going towards them to maintain the current system that they have in place. Carr determines that these problems can be fixed with relative ease by combining three different technologies, Web services, virtualization, and grid computing. The combination will allow for less technology to be wasted and processing power to be used to its full capacity. He tells the reader, this is what the individual will have to do to advance the information technology environment to its fullest potential and continues by listing examples of some of the possible corporations and sources from where this individual could come from, including big computing hardware contributors, information technology hosting operations, an internet extraordinaire and new start up innovators. He concludes the article by pointing out that as dubious as this may be, many other innovations similar to this started the same way and people should not fear to take action on this opportunity, as it will better humanity. I believe that the article provides some good points as it shows us that the
On November 1st, 1933, the New York Times reported that nine employers won a ruling for a plea to allow longer working hours with the head line stating, “9 Employers Win Longer Work Plea”. The legal dispute was result of President Theodore Roosevelt’s “President Reemployment Agreement” PRA. President Roosevelt introduced the PRA to firms in order to create more jobs availability during the great depression. The Great Depression caused families and individuals to experienced crisis such as hunger and homelessness due to job losses. However, the article suggests that some problems had occurred with the PRA’s labour policy. This essay argues that the PRA created employment availability, however, the policy affected some industries output which
...al advancement. He supported his claim of cause with supportive claims of fact and value, appealing to ethos. Both Carr and Cascio provided valid points through an appeal of logos to explain how technology affects our society and continues to change the world around us. They both had very convincing arguments. However, Carr’s article proved to be more effective because he provided the emotional approach and more supportive evidence, logical reasoning, and a skeptical ideal to relate to his readers.
He cites that “never before in human history as a technology changed as much for a society and that of the steam engine. “ This is because for the first time we truly developed technology greater then the strength of humans. This has never been more profusely seen modern-day Computer industrialized age. We rely so much on computers and mechanical technology around us that he cites “companies and corporations are increasing their technology budget but not their workforce budgets.” Ultimately we are moving towards a society in which we depend more and more on the machines around us, and that intern with technologies such as self driving vehicles and assembly-line drones, will have a much greater impact in the
In composing “Is Google Making Us More Stupid” Nicholas Carr wants his audience to be feared by the internet while at the same time he wants his work to seem more creditable. Nicholas Carr uses many different types of evidence to show us that we should be scared and feared as well as his credibility. Carr’s audience is people who think like him, who find themselves getting lost on the internet while reading something, someone who is educated and uses the internet to look up the answers to questions or to read an article or book.
Even though, the arguments put forth by the author are relevant to the central theme, they lack clarity. He tends to go off on tangents and loses the flow of the article. It seems that the author has a slight bias against our generation’s obsession with technology, but that can be attributed to him being a quinquagenarian. I feel that the author has not covered the topic thoroughly enough. He has not quite explained the topic in depth or covered it from various perspectives.
Carr used the search engine Google to draw more attention as it used to access information through the Internet and tends to be the search engine of choice. His use of an anecdote to start and end his article is good put what was interesting was he used his anecdote from the Space Odyssey as it relates to technology and human behavior.Overall Carr did a good job presenting his claim with Karos, Ethos & Logos; also, with the aid of rhetorical
He has excessive expectations of Sullivan. If computers have always been a weakness, then what is the company’s attitude toward technology? The CEO errs in diagnosing the problem as solely IT related, instead of looking to the company’s business leaders too.
To further shore up his "IT as commodity" theory, Carr cites the fact that major technology vendors, such as Microsoft and IBM, are positioning themselves as "IT utilities," companies that control the provision of business applications over "the grid." Couple this IT-as-utility trend with the rapidly decreasing cost of processing power, data storage and transmission, and even the most "cutting-edge IT capabilities quickly become available to all."
The Resource-based approach has been in the field of Management since the earlier researchers such as Penrose, Selznick and Coase, however it was Birger Wernerfelt in his 1984 article who supplemented the best explanation of its principles (Wernerfelt, 1984). The theory focuses on the importance of resources and their implications on a company’s performance. This methodology remained unchanged until Moser mentioned that the theory should focus on the idea that companies are groups of tangible and intangible resources, where some are given significance in the procedure of creating a competitive advantage and enables the competitors (Moser, 2007).
Is usually considered the ability to set of resources that can be used to implement a business process (NOOTEBOOM, 2007). Capabilities as a key to move from the formulation of the mission, vision, or the value of the action (Caniels and Romain, 2003). All companies have the capacity, but the company will usually focus on some of the capabilities that are consistent with its strategy (Casselman and Samson, 2007). For example, the company focuses on low-cost strategy to focus on improving the efficiency of the manufacturing process while the company pursues a strategy of differentiation will focus on new product development (Crossan, Fry, and killed, 2005). Miller and Shamsie (1996) distinguish between knowledge-based resources and resources of the property based on the barriers of tradition. Concluded that based on the knowledge and resources to further the core values of innovation in companies, and adaptation, and thus to survive in an environment that is uncertain. Similarly, and Oladunjoye Onyeaso (2007) distinguishes between resources, capabilities, and confirms that in order to ...
"Technology is like fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes." (1) Since the dawn of computers, there has always been a want for a faster, better technology. These needs can be provided for quickly, but become obsolete even quicker. In 1981, the first "true portable computer", the Osborne 1 was introduced by the Osborne Computer Corporation. (2) This computer revolutionized the way that computers were used and introduced a brand new working opportunity.
Nathan A. IT ALL ADDED UP TO MORE THAN COMPUTING. Business Builders In Computers [serial online]. January 2000:6-15. Available from: Book Collection: Nonfiction, Ipswich, MA. Accessed January 30, 2014.