Thursday 1/29: Chapter 5, Dell, etc.

Pretty good discussion today! Among the points covered:

1. Database, date warehouse: not the same thing (p. 130).
2. CAH knows TDL* about XML.
3. Dell was putting RFID chips to work in 2003. Wal-Mart and mining companies can do the same — is that support for Carr’s thesis that IT is a commodity and not a source of competitive advantage?
4. Maybe competitive advantage depends as much on thinking of new ways to use existing technology (cell phones in lieu of credit cards? cell phone GPS as basis for city traffic management?).
5. Even the best planning and managing can’t stave off a recession.

At least those are the points that stuk out to me. Your comments (and Tommy, your defense of Wal-Mart?) are welcome!

*too darn little!

New Yahoo CEO Bartz: Brains over Tech

CNet’s Stephen Shankland reports favorably on the straight-talking confidence projected by new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. She tells the pundits to back off and let Yahoo decide what Yahoo will do. Then she says this about her qualifications:

Another moment came when asked about how her background at a company selling software to companies would serve her at an Internet company selling ads and serving a large consumer audience. Bartz was quick to slap down the doubts about her expertise as nonsense.

“I didn’t know CAD (computer-aided design) when I joined Autodesk, I didn’t know hardware when I joined Sun,” she said. “I have brain power to understand what it takes” [Stephen Shankland, "On First Day, New Yahoo CEO Puts Her Foot Down," CNet News: Digital Media, 2009.01.14].

Could you bring yourself to say something like that at a job interview?

Bartz is making quite the statement about management qualifications (she’s CEO: perhaps we should say über-management). She seems to be saying you shouldn’t hitch your star to one particular piece of technology. Bartz seems to think it’s more important to demonstrate the general intelligence required to identify and solve problems.

Now for an idea guy like me, that sounds great. But can a CEO get by with that philosophy? It got Carol Bartz the job; we’ll see what it gets Yahoo.

(Wall Street is cautiously optimistic about her: on a day when the NASDAQ dropped 3.7% and Google dropped 4.25%, Yahoo’s stock closed up 2.6%.)

And just curious: if that philosophy can work for a CEO, how far down can it go? How far can a manager get by with brains (and a well-rounded, liberal education?), and at what point does a manager absolutely positively have to bring specific tech knowledge to the table?