Page 184 - Using MIS

Guide

KeePInG uP to SPeed

Have you ever been to a cafeteria where you put your everywhere—they may be accountants, marketing profes-
lunch tray on a conveyor belt that carries the dirty dishes into sionals, or production-line supervisors who not only know
the kitchen? That conveyor belt reminds me of technology. their field but also enjoy information technology. Maybe
Like the conveyor, technology just moves along, and all of us they were IS majors or had double majors that combined
run on top of the technology conveyor, trying to keep up. We IS with another area of expertise (e.g., IS with accounting).
hope to keep up with the relentless change of technology for These people read CNET News and ZDNet most days, and
an entire career without ending up in the techno-trash. they can tell you the latest on desktop virtualization or
Technology change is a fact, and the only appropriate html5 or Windows 8 RT. Those people are sprinting along
question is, “What am I going to do about it?” One strategy the technology conveyor belt; they will never end up in the
you can take is to bury your head in the sand: “Look, I’m not techno-trash, and they will use their knowledge of IT to gain
a technology person. I’ll leave it to the pros. As long as I can competitive advantage throughout their careers.
send email and use the Internet, I’m happy. If I have a prob- Many business professionals fall in between these
lem, I’ll call someone to fix it.” extremes. They don’t want to bury their heads, but they
That strategy is fine, as far as it goes, and many busi- don’t have the desire or interest to become technophiles
nesspeople have used it. Following that strategy won’t give (lovers of technology), either. What to do? There are a
you a competitive advantage over anyone, and it will give couple of strategies. For one, don’t allow yourself to ignore
someone else a competitive ad-
vantage over you, but as long as
you develop your advantage else-
where, you’ll be OK—at least for
yourself.
What about your depart-
ment, though? If an expert says,
“You should be buying your em-
ployees Windows 8 RT tablet de-
vices,” are you going to nod your
head and say, “Great. Sell ’em to
me!”? Or are you going to know
enough to realize that it may be
too early to know what the suc-
cess of Windows RT will be? Or
to know that maybe you’ll have
problems getting homegrown,
in-house applications down
from whatever stores Microsoft
sets up?
At the other end of the
spectrum are those who love
technology. You’ll find them
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