Getting the Most out of Information Systems: a Manager's Guide (V
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Getting the Most Out of Information Systems A Manager's Guide v. 1.0 This is the book Getting the Most Out of Information Systems: A Manager's Guide (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. 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You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents About the Author .................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. 2 Dedication............................................................................................................................... 4 Preface..................................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems ....................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 8 Don’t Guess, Gather Data............................................................................................................................. 14 Moving Forward........................................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology............................................................................... 26 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Powerful Resources...................................................................................................................................... 34 Barriers to Entry, Technology, and Timing............................................................................................... 47 Key Framework: The Five Forces of Industry Competitive Advantage ..................................................51 Key Framework: The Value Chain .............................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 3: Netflix: David Becomes Goliath.................................................................... 60 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 61 Tech and Timing: Creating Killer Assets ................................................................................................... 65 From Atoms to Bits: Opportunity or Threat?............................................................................................ 82 Chapter 4: Moore’s Law and More: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager ......................................................................................................................... 89 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 90 The Death of Moore’s Law? ....................................................................................................................... 104 Bringing Brains Together: Supercomputing and Grid Computing .......................................................110 E-waste: The Dark Side of Moore’s Law ................................................................................................... 115 Chapter 5: Understanding Network Effects................................................................. 121 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 122 Where’s All That Value Come From? ....................................................................................................... 124 One-Sided or Two-Sided Markets? ........................................................................................................... 131 How Are These Markets Different? .......................................................................................................... 134 Competing When Network Effects Matter .............................................................................................. 138 iii Chapter 6: Peer Production, Social Media, and Web 2.0 .......................................... 153 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 154 Blogs ............................................................................................................................................................ 161 Wikis............................................................................................................................................................ 167 Electronic Social Networks ....................................................................................................................... 175 Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging .................................................................................................... 183 Other Key Web 2.0 Terms and Concepts.................................................................................................. 188 Prediction Markets and the Wisdom of Crowds ..................................................................................... 196 Crowdsourcing ........................................................................................................................................... 199 Chapter 7: Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph.......................... 202 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 203 What’s the Big Deal? .................................................................................................................................. 207 The Social Graph ........................................................................................................................................ 212 Facebook Feeds—Ebola for Data Flows .................................................................................................... 216 F8—Facebook as a Platform....................................................................................................................... 219 Advertising and Social Networks: A Work in Progress .......................................................................... 225 Beacon Busted ............................................................................................................................................ 232 Predators and Privacy ............................................................................................................................... 237 Walled Garden or Open Field? .................................................................................................................. 239 Is Facebook Worth It?................................................................................................................................ 247 Chapter 8: Google: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond… ............................... 251 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 252 Understanding Search............................................................................................................................... 259 Understanding the Increase in Online Ad Spending.............................................................................. 269 Search Advertising..................................................................................................................................... 272 Ad Networks—Distribution beyond Search............................................................................................. 281 More Ad Formats and Payment Schemes ................................................................................................ 287 Customer Profiling and Behavioral Targeting........................................................................................ 292 Profiling and Privacy ................................................................................................................................