IT Governance: Implementing Frameworks and Standards for the Corporate Governance of IT

CHAPTER 2: INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND THE INFORMATION ECONOMY

The drivers for IT governance have to be understood in the context of the twenty-first century’s information, or knowledge, economy, because this economy is fundamentally different from the old manufacturing one. The globalisation of markets, products and resourcing has led to increasingly similar shopping streets selling very much the same products throughout the developed world— #8212;and to much of the world experiencing the same economic downturn.

Over 70% of workers in developed economies are now knowledge, rather than manual, workers—including those factory and farm workers whose work depends on understanding and using information technology. Information, networking and telecommunications ...