The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

2.1. From Black Box to Runaway Train

When you consider how long information technology (IT) has been around, it is astonishing to think that most corporate executives did not learn how to operate a computer until the mid-1990s. Despite the proliferation of desktop personal computers (PCs) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many executives perceived the bulky beige boxes as unattractive nuisances. Maybe they were okay in cubicles, but did they really belong in corner offices?

Small wonder that IT departments (or information services departments, as they were called back then) were usually relegated to basements or other out-of-the-way areas. IS staffers were generally held in low esteem. IS managers were only a notch higher on the status ladder. From the standpoint of top management, everyone in IS was a geek.

Information technology itself was regarded as weird and mysterious, a necessary evil. IT was a cipher, a dark art, a black box. Every year, the corporation poured a small amount of money into the black box, and every year, the corporation extracted a few small and unglamorous results, such as faster consolidation of financial data or fewer duplicate names on mailing lists.

Occasionally, a successful IT project would result in the automation of some routine processes, which in turn would lead to reduced headcount and lower operating costs. The triumphs of IT were usually subtle and definitely not headline news.

All that changed during the Internet bubble. All of a sudden, ...