In May last year, Nicholas Carr stirred up a hornet's nest with the publication of his essay entitled “IT Doesn’t Matter” in the Harvard Business Review.  Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, for example, said the Carr’s notion that IT doesn’t matter was “dead wrong.”

Carr argued that IT is necessary for business survival, but it doesn't provide any strategic advantages. IT, like electricity, has become a simple factor of production--a commodity input--and should be viewed and managed as such.

Carr expands upon his original essay in a new book--Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage  (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). 

While Carr appears to tone down this thesis by changing the title from the declarative “IT Doesn’t Matter’ to the question, “Does IT Matter?,” the 150-pages of text offers further support for his ideas, with more in-depth explanation of why he believes productivity gains and competitive advantage derived from IT are elusive. “IT threatens to become a kind of universal solvent of business strategy, speeding up the natural forces that over time push companies toward competitive parity,” Carr writes. He points to companies like Wal-Mart and Dell as successful business that have been built through “extraordinarily disciplined approaches to business planning” rather than the technology itself. Check out my video interview with the controversial Carr.