Does IT Matter (Part N)?: Tech Payoff for Companies Remains Elusive, Study Finds

In today’s New York Times Bits Column, the article revisited this very question again: Tech Payoff for Companies Remains Elusive, Study Finds. It references THE SHIFT INDEX (from Deloitte’s Silicon Valley research unit).

The author writes:

But two numbers really jump out. The return on assets for United States companies has dropped by 75 percent over that span, while labor productivity has more than doubled.
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Why haven’t companies benefited more from technology investment?

My reaction to this was “oh no, here we go again” — is IT relevant or not? My belief is that “productivity” (however that is measured) and “innovations” (in a broad sense from inventions, new products, business processes etc) are traceable to technological developments utilized in everyday personal and corporate “life”. On the face of it, try to imagine doing the things we do now without technology.

However I found one reply from reader Paul to be very intriguing. He finds the report conclusions believable and says it’s attributable to two causes:

The first is the Red Queen Effect where “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” You’re not going to gain a competitive advantage when all your competitors are making the same changes.
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The second cause is one I’ve observed repeatedly in corporate America; it’s the “customer effect”, by which I mean internal customers….The problem here is misapplication of the technological resource.

He goes on to suggest that technology, “if done right”, would eliminate whole departments and radically change corporations and not go by way of the dinosaur. Emotionally, I agree with this direction. IT should be both (1) steady and stable, but yet (2) innovative and ever-changing to permit structural changes. I believe though that in the past 35 years, technology (with help from venture capitalists, capital markets, strong business leadership and innovations) has done this very successfully.

Take a look at your daily “tools” you use the most and how you use it. Now imagine it goes all away….