Strategy & Alignment, Analytics & Risk Reduction: Looking to the Future

摘要

The current set of books offers new field data on a wide range of topics, from strategy to analytics, to global e-commerce, to risk reduction. The core of the global e-commerce book by Ken Kraemer and his colleagues provides detailed studies of 8 countries, both developed and emerging countries. Competing on Analytics by Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris uses survey results and discusses data as the input to the newest developments in business intelligence. Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson share their insights based on data from over 200 firms worldwide. Apgar's book Risk Intelligence provides only corporate vignettes. Each of the four books also takes the standard business school approach of providing case examples. In fact, I found that many of the same companies are mentioned in more than one book. Each of the books also presents a list of prescriptions - to achieve appropriate strategies, create advanced business intelligence and decision support, undertake global e-commerce, or minimize risk. The weakest prescriptions in terms of underlying data are, in my opinion, found in Apgar's book. The last and perhaps most important commonality is that all the books deal with considerations about the future, the theme of this issue of Information Systems Management.