4. Investigate how information technology might spawn new businesses. Managers should consider opportunities to create new businesses from existing ones. Information technology is an increasingly important avenue for corporate diversification. Lock-heed, for example, entered the data base business by perceiving an opportunity to use its spare computer capacity.
Identifying opportunities to spawn new businesses requires answering questions such as:
What information generated (or potentially generated) in the business could the company sell?
What information-processing capacity exists internally to start a new business?
Does information technology make it feasible to produce new items related to the company’s product?