January 2004 Cutter Benchmark Review: Trends in Corporate IT Spending: A Permanent Change Or a Pause to Digest?

by Robert D. Austin

During the go-go years of the Internet boom, I used to run an exercise in some of my executive education classes that went like this: I'd ask each participant to write a list -- not to be shared with anyone -- of his or her top five ideas for using IT to create economic value for his or her own company. After the participants had finished, I'd ask them to consider their list and code each item "R" or "C" based on whether the idea created value primarily by increasing revenue (the "R") or by reducing cost (the "C"). Finally, I would ask participants to reflect on whether the distribution of Rs and Cs made sense given the stated objectives of their companies. The discussion that ensued often focused on an observation and some interpretations of that observation.