McAfee, A. (2006). Mastering the three worlds of information technology, Harvard Business Review

Question 1

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Roles managers should play in IT:

Answer 1

1) help select technologies
2) nurture adoption of technologies 3) ensure exploitation of technologies

– not every technology needs every role/adaption to technology
* executives need to stop perceiving IT projects as technology installations and start perceiving them as periods of organisational change that they are have to manage responsibly

Question 2

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

1.1 BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE IT MODEL

Answer 2

technology projects are rather managerial challenge than technical one

Question 3

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

GPT

Answer 3

: general-purpose technologies; innovations so important that they cause jump in economy’s movement; IT is latest GPT (examples: electric power, laser)

Question 4

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Complements of process GPTs:

Answer 4

organisational innovations, changes that improve ways in which firms get work done – facilitated by
1) better skilled workers
2) higher levels of teamwork
3) redesigned processes
4) new decision rights

• information technologies in comparison to GPTs can deliver results a) without the complements being in place; b) some allow them to appear over time; c) others rights from beginning

Question 5

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

IT classified into three categories this helps leader to:

Answer 5

: 1) understand which technologies to invest in + what to do to maximise return
2) which IT are easy to implement 3) which projects to focus on

Question 6

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

IT classified into three categories this helps leader to:

Answer 6

: 1) understand which technologies to invest in + what to do to maximise return
2) which IT are easy to implement 3) which projects to focus on

Question 7

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

IT classified into three categories:
Function IT:

Answer 7

Definition: IT that assists with the execution of discrete tasks
Charaterisics:
- can be adopted without complements
-impact increases when complements are in place
Example:
Simulators, Spreadsheets, statositacal software - >excel

Question 8

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

IT classified into three categories:
Network IT:

Answer 8

Definition: IT that facilitates interactions without specifying their parameters
Characterisics:
- does not impose completments but lets them emerge over time
- does not specify tasks or sequences
- accepts data in many formats
- use is optional
Example:
- EMail, instant messaging, blogs

Question 9

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

IT classified into three categories:
Enterprise IT:

Answer 9

Definition: IT that specifies business processes
Charakterisics:
_ Imposes complements throughout the organization
- defines tasks and sequences
- mandates data formates
-use is mandatory
Examples:
- ERP SYSTEMS, costumer resource management, supply chain management

Question 10

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Function It capabilities:

Answer 10

1) enhancing experimentation capacity
2) increasing precision

Question 11

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Network IT capabilities:

Answer 11

1) facilitation collaboration
2) allowing expressions of judgement/opinions
3) fostering emergence – appearance of high-level patterns of information because of low-level interactions (info can be taken from eg blogs, without communicating)

Question 12

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Enterprise IT capabilities:

Answer 12

1) redesigning business processes
2) standardising work flows
3) monitoring activities and events effectively

Question 13

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Managing the three types of IT 3 Steps:

Answer 13

1. IT selection
2. IT adoption
3. IT exploitation

Question 14

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Managing the three types of IT 3 Steps:
1. IT selection

Answer 14

Pervasive/outside-in approach to selecting IT: hearing about new technologies others adopted and then adopting it as well
 problem: too many new applications to evaluate them all

Inside-out approach: determining the capabilities/business needs that company is looking for in IT and then selection specific IT rather than focusing on the technology itself

Question 15

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Managing the three types of IT 3 Steps:
3.2 IT ADOPTION

Answer 15

• managers’ main task during adoption: help create complements that maximise IT value

FIT adoption: does not bring its complements, managers must allow teams to discover new ways of working with the FIT and thus develop them themselves

NIT adoption: NIT is rather voluntary than mandatory and thus adoption less in control of managers
 still need to intervene by showing how to use new technologies in beginning later holding back

EIT adoption: most difficult adoption as EIT imposes new processes on employees without allowing them modification
 managers need to forcefully intervene and build consensus by pushing ahead even if they don’t have everyone on board every step of way

Question 16

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Managing the three types of IT 3 Steps:
EIT adoption problems:

Answer 16

1) often become delayed due to negotiations of use of complements between employees and managers 2) firms often settle for more modest solutions
3) firms may abandon EIT adoption after time
4) some firms fail to abandon EIT adoption at the right time & thus suffer losses

Question 17

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Managing the three types of IT 3 Steps:
IT Exploitation

Answer 17

FIT exploitation: fine-tuning of organisational components increases FIT performance (eg: experimentation and teamwork)

NIT exploitation: employees exploit older NIT (instant messaging, email) on their own; managers need to push exploitation of newer technologies (wikis, blogs)

EIT exploitation: often easier than adoption because employees are eager to get the most out of system that caused trouble when setting it up

managers task: leverage already standardised data and work flows;
2 extra actions: 1) adding new FIT on top of EIT
2) exploiting EIT by extending them to customers, suppliers and joint-venture partners (expands firm’s monitoring capabilities + control)

Question 18

Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology, McAfee

Conclusion

Answer 18

• IT itself may not be able to have impact on firm’s competitive position but if it is successfully implemented, it can be Valuable Rare Inimitable nonsubstitutable (O)  create advantage