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

PREFACE

When I began writing this book in 2007, my goal was to generate a short text that would help CEOs and other top managers develop a better understanding of the basic concepts of information technology (IT). The limited scope of my intentions was captured succinctly in the book's original title, Demystifying Information Technology.

But there are unexpected twists and turns in any creative endeavor. As I wrote, I realized that my original premise was too narrow. I also realized that many of the straightforward messages that I initially had planned to present would be more valuable if I explained the foundational principles beneath them in greater detail.

Gradually, the book now before you emerged. In truth, it is really two books melded into one. The first book is about IT strategy; the second book is about IT tactics. I recommend that you read both, and I guarantee that you will learn something new from each.

As someone with a doctorate in physics, I cannot help but see the world through the prism of my academic training. So whenever I observe a discontinuous change, a virtually instantaneous increase in some value or other, I tend to call it a quantum leap, a term borrowed from the revolutionary theory of quantum mechanics, which was one of the signature scientific advancements of the twentieth century. In layman's terms, a quantum leap is any radical improvement from an initial condition to a new and better condition, without any intermediate steps.

In this book, I am ...