[IS Theory] That makes a competitive difference

McAfee, A. and Brynjolfsson, E., “That makes a competitive difference”, HBR, July-Aug 2008, 99-107.

 

Productivity Paradox
 à Productivity Paradox 문제는 지속적으로 논의됨. 산업적/경제적 차원에서 생산성 향상과 IT투자와의 상관관계를 살펴볼 필요성이 존재함.

 

[The IT Surge]

 

- 기업의 IT투자에 대한 ‘회의’존재했으나, 연간 생산성 증가는 1994년에서 2005을 비교했을 때 매년 두배의 증가세가 보임

 : 이러한 현상을 설명하기 위해서 산업내부의 경쟁력 동태학을 분석하기 위해서 Concentration, Turbulence, Performance spread 관점에서 분석함.

 

[Competitive Dynamics]

 

-  IT비용이 산업내 기업간 경쟁력의 상대적 성과에 어떻게 영향을 주었는지 분석을 시도함.

- 1965년과 2005년 모든 산업의 모든 기업의 총량데이터를 기준으로 함. (High-IT vs Low-IT기업 비교분석)

 

1) 산업 집중도(Industry Concetration)

-  산업 집중화 현상은 1990년대 중반부터 높아짐, .

- High-IT 산업이 Low-IT 산업군에 비해 더 높은 집중화 현상이 발생함

 

2) 역동성(Turbulence)

-  역동성이 높은 시장일수록 시장의 선점하는 기업이 다음해 시장을 선점할 가능성은 줄어듬.시장 순위의 변동성이 높아짐

- High-IT 산업이 Low-IT 산업군에 비해 더 높은 역동성이 발생함

 

3) 성과 폭(Performance Spread)

- 상위 25%와 하위 25%간의 이익 마진의 폭은 시장에서 Winner takes all 현상을 살펴보게 해준다. 1990년대 중반 이후 High-IT 산업이 Low-IT 산업군에 비해 더 높은 이익 마진폭을 보임.

 

[Competing on Digital Processses]

 

The mantra for any CEO should be, “Deploy, innovate, and propagate”: First, deploy a consistent technology platform. Then separate yourself from the pack by coming up with better ways of working. Finally, use the platform to propagate these business innovations widely and reliably.

 

 1) Deployment: The management Challenge.

- Determining which aspects of their companies’ operating models should be globally (or at least widely) consistent, then using technology to replicate them with high fidelity. Some top teams have pounced on the opportunity.

- They can all use common data, and support and enforce standardized processes.

 

2) Innovation : IT-Enabled Opportunities

- Data analytics drawn from enterprise IT applications, along with collective intelligence and other Web 2.0 technologies, can be important aides not just in propagating ideas but also in generating them.

- They can complement and speed the search for business process innovations.

 

3) Propagation: top down and bottom up.

- Part of the attraction of enterprise systems has been the opportunity for management to impose best practices and standardized procedures universally.

- They posted information, files, links, and applications that could be edited by any user – tips and tricks that ultimately became huge productivity enhancers.

 

4) The role of decision rights.

- Even as some decisions become centralized and standardized, others are pushed outward from headquarters

- Senior executives do play a primary role in identifying and propagating critical business processes, but line managers and employees often end up with more discretion within these processes to serve customer needs and to apply tacit, idiosyncratic, or relationship-specific information that only they have.

- it can prompt a great deal of experimentation and variation, as companies try to understand who has the most relevant knowledge to make decisions and where, ultimately, to site decision rights.