What You Need to Know About IT,
In One Concise Package
Demystifying IT has been hailed as the one book about information technology that leaders of midsized companies should read. Given the importance of IT in today’s world, it might also be the most timely and valuable business book of any kind to be published recently.
The co-authors are masters of leveraging IT for creating sustainable competitive advantages for businesses. They’ve been at it for decades, solving problems that defied other experts, and leading digitization projects which have boosted client companies into new realms of growth and profit. Their core messages in a nutshell are these: Executives on the “business side” of a firm do not have to understand the complex details of information technology. What’s crucial is to grasp the powerful business leverage that digital tech, in its various forms, can provide.
Key question: Would you use a smartphone only to make phone calls? Of course not. Yet many companies are doing the equivalent when they use IT mainly for routine functions, and list the IT budget as an expense under G&A costs. The authors call this “the G&A stage” of IT development—a natural starting point, but one that a company must move beyond, in order to compete. As the book shows with real-life case stories, companies that do best in our digital age are firing on all cylinders. They leverage IT to reach, serve, and retain customers better, driving up sales revenues. They streamline operations to cut costs across the board. And they tap the powers of IT to break into new, blue-ocean markets while competitors struggle to defend their existing turf.
Demystifying IT offers a simple diagnostic chart for gauging where your company stands in this race. Then it delivers a roadmap for moving up the scale, step by step. The case stories are about midsized companies the authors have worked with, in industries from retail banking to smart manufacturing. These vividly told stories illustrate the many kinds of opportunities that modern IT can present — along with basic principles and best practices for getting the most bang per buck invested in IT.
The book also describes common pitfalls to avoid. Cross-industry studies show that very frequently, big digital projects have taken companies down a rabbit hole of burnt costs and frustrating delays with unsatisfying results. Authors Bhopi and Saurajit know how this happens. They’ve been called to perform many a rescue mission. In Demystifying IT, they give the reader strategic guidelines for doing it right from square one.
Last but far from least, Demystifying IT lays out a series of practical steps toward solving a fundamental problem: how to get the business and IT sides of a company working in harmony. Technology is a human creation. Harnessing its powers for business requires human collaboration. This book’s authors are two humans who can help you find a promising path into the future.