How many times in your career have you bet your livelihood on a prediction? Back in the mid-1990's did you foresee the coming Internet boom and move to Silicon Valley? Sure, many of us make a living by advising clients on how technology is going to impact their businesses, but few extend their advice to predict how the technology of the future will impact those very same businesses. Controversial analysts Nicholas Carr and Christopher Meyer offer their theories and predictions on the implications for business after everything is connected.
Nicholas Carr believes that we can learn from the history of the evolution of the electric power industry, and lessons learned can be applied to the future network. Carr draws from the research he completed for his new book, "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google." While he admits that IT is different than electricity as a technology, he believes they are comparable from an economic perspective. For Carr, the current fascination with Web 2.0 is too narrow and misleading, and true innovation will only occur after we figure out what to do with the abundant computing power that will soon be available.
Chris Meyers suggests that the world wide web will not change everything, and asks provocativley "what doesn't change?" To answer, he draws upon his latest book "It's Alive: The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology, and Business." He sees the coming changes blurring the lines between what is "inside" the organization and what is "outside". This will lead to profound changes in the organization that will significantly impact business as we know it.
Nicholas Carr, a former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, writes and speaks on technology, business, and culture. His 2004 book Does IT Matter?, published by Harvard Business School Press, set off a worldwide debate about the role of computers in business. Earlier in his career, he was a principal at Mercer Management Consulting. Carr has been a speaker at MIT, Harvard, Wharton, the Kennedy School of Government, NASA, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas as well as at many industry, corporate, and professional events throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English literature, from Harvard University.
Christopher Meyer is Chief Executive of Monitor Networks and writes and speaks about the trends shaping business and economic developments. His most recent book is It's Alive: The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology, and Business. Prior to joining The Monitor Group, Chris was the Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, from 1995 until its closing in December 2002. Chris holds a B.A. in both Mathematics and Economics from Brandeis University and a M.B.A. (with Distinction) from The Harvard Business School. In addition, he held a University Predoctoral Fellowship in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania .
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