Nicholas Carr touched off a heated debate on the role of information technology in business with the publication in 2003 of his Harvard Business Review article "IT Doesn't Matter" and the 2004 book Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage.
Almost three years later, the discussion continues. Businessweek.com's Kate Norton spoke with Carr and Robert L. McDowell, Microsoft's (MSFT) vice-president for information worker business value, following a Microsoft-hosted panel in London on Oct. 4, about how the debate has changed and where it's headed.
How have your views evolved since your 2003 article first came out?
Carr: The article made the case that for most companies, even as IT has become more central and more commonplace, it has lost its strategic importance and its ability to differentiate one company from the rest. As I studied it more and talked to more people, it has become clear that there are exceptions to that generalization that are also important.
I've been trying to focus on what can you learn from those exceptions. We're at the point where the most general I