Information, Technology

Change has never happened so fast.

How can individuals and organizations respond?

Technology is changing the fundamentals of how we do business, but few organizations can meet the challenge of innovating and executing at this speed. Familiar leaders like Amazon, Apple, eBay, Facebook, and Google make up a short list; benchmarking them is not an option for most companies. Instead, Information, Technology, and Innovation shows you how to think more broadly and see deeper patterns in order to take advantage of the many emerging capabilities that will transform your business.

Exploring the intersection of our connecting technologies and our institutions, and the changes that come to business as a result, author John Jordan--a clinical professor and expert in IT strategy--ties technology to the business and social environment in an approachable, informed manner, covering a broad range of topics including:

• The "Net" generation

• Behavioral and information economics

• Security and risk

• The many implications of power laws for business

• Crowdsourcing and other organizational innovations

• Mobile phone industry impact

• Internet principles

• Location, mobility, and identity

• Cloud computing and the enterprise

Seven case studies review how emerging technology has disrupted long-standing business models in data and communications, software, music, news, health care, retail, and real estate. Plus, each chapter concludes with a "Looking Ahead" section, laying out potential obstacles you may face along the way, strategies to overcome them, and opportunities that await you.

A must-read for investors, managers, and executives, Information, Technology, and Innovation helps you better anticipate and capitalize on the powerful technology changes that define our interconnected world.

Incredibly rapid innovation is a hallmark of our time. The social media discount site Groupon went from revenues of $33 million in 2009 to $760 million in 2010. Facebook has crossed 800 million users since its launch in a dorm room seven years ago. Kiva--the online lending platform--funded $200 million in microloans to people around the world in less than six years. While these types of organizations and achievements were inconceivable only a decade ago, many other corporate giants have either lost their competitive foothold or completely closed shop. Information, Technology, and Innovation provides you with the tools and knowledge to survive the shifting sands of today's rapidly changing business models.

Author and IT strategist John Jordan examines basic principles underlying technology, management, and economics to show how rapid innovation is reinventing competition in today's fast-paced global marketplace. Addressing the many ways in which IT has drastically altered the business landscape over the past forty years--the personal computer, the Internet, GPS, cell phones, and smartphones--Information, Technology, and Innovation reviews the consequences of our technological revolution and shows how to move forward by incorporating these traits into new innovations.

By examining several recently displaced industries, Information, Technology, and Innovation reveals a variety of ways that technology innovation can translate into a mix of threats to established patterns of business behavior, as well as opportunities, including:

• The Music Industry: How at least a dozen changes to the music industry business model--including MTV and the surge of mega-retailers--helped set the stage for the disruptive threat from Napster

• Newspapers: Was Google the sole culprit in the demise of news readership and will the increase of tablet users help re-energize the business?

• Health Care: How Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreens are placing clinics in selected pharmacies to address routine matters that would often otherwise require an emergency room visit

Information, Technology, and Innovation also discusses the various technologies you can use as building blocks to move your business forward and concludes with five broad areas of rapid change in the foreseeable future.

The ways people behave, relate to each other, and organize themselves to work are changing at warp speed. Information, Technology, and Innovation shows you how to make sense of today's rapid changes by moving beyond a mindset of optimization. Instead, the wealth of technological and organizational changes is the starting point for tomorrow's business transformations.