Prabhakar Deshpande (Economic Times) writes about Nicholas Carr’s article in HBR on “IT Doesn’t Matter”. I had written about this earlier. He quotes me: “Some point to the inapplicability of Carrs reasoning to Indian environment. Rajesh Jain, managing director, Netcore Solutions, says that the argument may have certain degree of validity in United States where IT spending jumped massively during the dotcom era, without consideration of return on investments. However in India, almost 99% of corporates have still to deploy IT to sufficient levels to warrant any downward correction.”
Carrs’ advice to Indian companies: “ET contacted Nicholas Carr for his comments on what the Indian industry felt. Carr agreed with Jain that his arguments did not apply to India. However, he offered that Indian companies may want to reduce IT spending by commoditising and purchasing low cost generic hardware and low priced open source software solutions. While agreeing that it is how companies utilise IT that is key to their strategic success, he points out that the crux of his argument is that companies should shift their approach to buying and using IT and avoid overspending. They should focus on cost control and risk management rather than pursue aggressive strategy of innovation and investment, which rarely pay off. While IT wont provide strategic advantage, it can certainly put a company at a cost disadvantage if used unwisely.”
