Gregory S. Eugenio

What is one key point that you took away from each assigned reading?

 Globalization of Wyeth: The role of IT is becoming an increasingly critical function for any firm that wants to compete on a global level, and the consequent organizational shift – both from a cultural and structural perspective – required within a large company requires an incredible amount of strategic initiatives. Specifically, changing business culture would require buy-in from top management through seminars and workshops while structural change would require significant effort and investment in streamlining business processes, normalizing data, and establishing coordination centers.

IT Governance: Stop the Pendulum: Since the current global business environment – with its supply and demands – is constantly changing, the decision on whether to centralize or decentralize the IT department to adapt and optimize company profitability/operations is a key determining factor for success. Standardization and central control is extremely important to build economies of scale and to launch global initiatives with efficiency; however, local responsiveness is needed to establish stronger relationships with customers and to align IT strategies with local contextual forces, such as economic or cultural demands. Therefore, a hybrid model can address these dynamic demands in the business environment – dividing main functions such as ERP into shared services and customer-centric functions such as sales support into regional services.

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits: There is a revolutionary, gradual shift of innovative and manufacturing prowess from global corporations to the small entrepreneur. The article explains that innovative design and even manufacturing tools are now easier to use, more accessible, and dramatically less expensive – to the point that local entrepreneurs now have the power fully utilize these capabilities to run their businesses faster and more effectively. Through crowdsourcing, accessible technology such as 3D printers, and manufacturing and marketing websites such as Alibaba.com and Sparkfun, the ability to design, manufactures, and market a product has become significantly easier, making the process more cost-effective and time-efficient.