Digital Reach

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paradigm,

this taxonomy points out that e-business is not

necessarily confined to web page design or buying and selling on

the Internet, but covers all ways of managing a business using

ICT. This use ranges from Pinoy fishermen using cell phones to

receive price quotations from wholesalers while they are out at

sea to the most sophisticated financial transactions on the web.

When the definition of e-business is expanded as described, it

becomes clear that even the most technologically handicapped

business manager uses ICT in one form or another. On the other

hand, it is true that what is being used is far from what could be

potentially used. The bottom line is expressed by Donald A.

Marchand of IMD: “If you ask senior executives and managers as

I do in my executive programmes at IMD whether their compa-

nies are extracting the expected business value of their

investments in ICT, the overwhelming answer by a large margin

is, ‘No!’”

Surveys indicate that a major reason why most managers do

not use ICT is because its use in business is too expensive.

According to Marchand, the reasons are more related to the disap-

pointment of managers with e-tools themselves: “Some focus on

the disappointments their companies have experienced with

implementing Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer

Relationship Management (CRM) and various e-systems inter-

nally and externally during the last several years. Many

business-oriented ICT projects have failed outright or not lived up

to expectations. Blame is often shared on both sides between the

business and I.T.”

Considering e-applications ‘expensive’ implies a comparison.

As ‘e’ is not a thing to do but a way of doing things, ‘expensive’

means that the managers find the e-way of doing things more

expensive than the non e-way of doing them. This may be a

disguised form of the known and expected resistance to change

or it may be indeed based on a rational comparison. However, it

is not likely to be the result of a rational calculation if one consid-

ers Marchand’s conclusions that those who use e-tools are

disappointed because “many business-oriented IT projects have

failed outright or not lived up to expectations”. One would

conclude that the general reluctance of managers is due to the

unsatisfactory experiences of the first adopters. If this is the case,

as it seems to be according to studies, the only conclusion one

can reach is that the pro-e decisions of the managers were wrong.

In other words, there is evidence of managerial incompetence.

Management can be described as making decisions about the

acquisition and allocation of resources.

Decisions concerning

information and know-how, human resources, financial resources

and physical assets, and network resources, is what management

is all about. Therefore, by definition, if the acquisition and allo-

cation of these resources does not produce the results expected,

this constitutes a managerial mistake. The failure rate of the e-

systems, perceived or actual, is an indicator of managerial

weaknesses. This deduction leads to the conclusion that the use-

gap is largely due to managerial weaknesses and not to a digital

or access-divide.

The problem

First, one needs to decide whether or not the fact that enterprises

use ICT less than was expected is a problem. Often we take it for

granted that not using what technology makes available is a bad

thing and more often than not, this is true. Indeed, the use of ICT

can provide advantages over the traditional non-e way of doing

things. These advantages usually concern the efficiency rather than

the effectiveness of management. There are, however, cases where

the e-way of doing things also provides the effectiveness that enter-

prises seek. In other words, the e-systems can strengthen the

competitiveness of the enterprise as well. At the same time, using

any system, be it e- or non-e, inefficiently or worse, wrongly, is

probably worse than not using it. Many researchers have found

that this is particularly true of e-systems. Thus, the problem is not

so much the lack of use but more the lack of proper use. When

management, for one reason or another, fails to utilize systems

properly, there can be only one reason and several consequences.

The reason would be the inability to make rational decisions as to

Any investment in propagating e-solutions to managers must be incorporated into programmes that cover management competence