CHAPTER SEVEN
Technological Risk
How Retailers Should Assess and Manage Emerging Technologies
Evaluating emerging technologies accurately is hard for everyone, even seasoned technologists. Thomas J. Watson Sr., for example, is rumored to have estimated a “world market for five computers.” Retailers, not being technologists, have even more difficulty, and they routinely make mistakes. That’s hardly surprising. After all, most people in retailing entered the business through operations or merchandising, not the IT department. Before they were executives, they were distribution managers and buyers, not programmers.
In this chapter, we identify some typical errors in assessing and investing in new technologies and provide advice for overcoming ...
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