The Three C's of IT

If you want to know where the IT business is headed, I suggest you read three authors. I call them the three C’s of IT.

Carlotta Perez
Nicholas Carr
Clayton Christensen

I suggest you read them in that order.

Carlotta exlpains that the core infrastructure of IT has been built and we are now into the phase where IT is so pervasive in our society that its the applications of IT that matter the most, not the core technology.

Nicholas argues that IT doesn’t matter any more (which got him a lot of heat when the article that led to this book was published in HBR last year). I don’t agree with Nicholas, but you must read this book to understand the changes he describes and how important they are.

And Clayton explains in his two books how innovation around destructive business models (not technologies) is the engine of growth in the technology business.

None of these books alone has given me the right perspective. Taken together, I now see clearly where the IT business is going and where we need to invest. And I am excited about the possibilities.