BOOKS FOR MANAGERS

This book has the major drawback that it is unashamedly American with no serious attempt to deal with the subject in other contexts. In fact in places it would seem to come as something of a surprise to the author and presumably the typical reader that the rest of the world existed in a form likely to impact on the insular nature of one of the largest markets in the world.

This causes problems in areas of company examples where only a few of the companies quoted have any visibility outside of the US and in the reference to aspects of legal structures and practices unique to the home market.

It is worth delving a bit deeper however because an attempt has been made to generate a more cohesive business look at the distribution activity and its impacts on other functional areas, strategies and business processes. The book also tries to deal with what might be regarded as emerging issues in the wider definition of the subject. Nevertheless the book does start from a low base of assumed prior knowledge and while there are fewer pictures of fork-lift trucks than in some other books on this subject they are there for the newcomer. In fact the target readership is likely to be more at professional institute level than postgraduate, but for readers wishing a better understanding of this area from a base in other ones this book makes a contribution.

D o u g l a s M a c b e t h

European Casebook on Information Technology: Strategy and Implementation by TAWFIK JELASSI, Prentice Hall, I995, 298 pages. ISBN 0- I3-295304-8

Any text which has Warren McFarlan, 'the Godfather of the concept of information system for competitive advantage' (his own words, p. xvii) shouting from the

back cover that it is 'remarkable!' deserves to be taken seriously.

This book is part of the European Casebook Series on Management which presents sets of European Cases on various management issues as a counterpoint to the volumes of North American cases. Here there are cases on a variety of information systems themes from various European countries, though a slight misunderstanding of European geography means that the Hong Kong Jockey Club is included. This aside, there is a rich seam of material to investigate and reflect on.

Like one of those films which takes a long time to get going, this text has a five page series editorial, a two page foreword by Michel Carpentier of DGXIII, a nine page foreword by Warren McFarlan, a page of acknowledgements and eight pages of introduction. That said, these do have merit - - at least in terms of managing expectations. The series editorial tells us what we should expect from a case - - emphasis on complex real-life situations, pedagogical needs of students paramount, objective writing, interest, the case should raise compelling issues and should be transferable across institutions and academic disciplines. So we know what is wanted from these cases - - as in all good projects the objectives for success are identified up front.

McFarlan eloquently emphasises the fact that in many cases IS really matters and that failure is rampant. He identifies intra-organisational systems, infrastructure transformation, IT-enabled alliances and implementation issues as the important themes present in the cases.

The introduction stresses that the aim of the text is to increase the awareness of the strategic competitive role that IT plays and to investigate related management issues and challenges. A very useful map of how the cases fit into the link between IT and business strategy is given. Thus, linkage effects within and across firms are catered for, as are uni- and multi- functional areas and upstream and downstream activities.

The second chapter revisits conceptual frameworks for strategic information systems. Eight frameworks are presented in what are good little vignettes of the originals. The chapter concludes with an attempt at an integrative framework linking these eight conceptual models. This new model, labelled 'Push IT, Go Market' doesn't really have the depth of discussion that a truly integrative model merits and one is left feeling that these models have been shoe- homed into the new framework and a desperate attempt to devise a catchy acronym attempted. Nevertheless, this chapter has considerable worth.

So, on to the cases. The first, BP Chemicals, started life as a Journal of Strategic Information Systems paper in 1993 and as such is now well- known. What is surprising in this case description is that the authors not only raise the issues but also tackle them. This makes for a good read but would limit the usefulness of the case as a teaching tool.

The second case, Otis Elevators, has also had a previous outing in the European Management Journal but this one is not prescriptive in its later analysis. The third (Papeteries Brun Passot), fourth (EDI at Leroy-Merlin), fifth (CompuNet AG) and sixth cases (Union Bank of Switzerland) provide a variety of geographical settings for what will be new case material for most. The following case of the French Videotex is well known and is in danger of becoming one of those over-analysed 'classics'. However, what is very interesting is that the next case (CAMIF) shows how the publicly available Minitel system just described is used by a company for home retailing purposes. It would be instructive to know if CAMIF managed to stay ahead of the game despite using a public (and hence easily copiable) piece of technology.

The ninth case also involves Minitel - - this time taking a technological perspective. This chapter has lots of pictures but doesn't really fit the theme of the book.

The subsequent case looks at the perennial case of home banking, describing a battle between

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CORTAL and CCF. It places emphasis on the marketing of the service and leaves open the issue of whether home banking will become a competitive necessity.

The text ends with concluding reflections on SIS. It tackles the thorny issue of the definition of SIS but comes to no real conclusions. It also gives notes on SIS evaluation issues. In conclusion the authors suggest that the cases presented are

multifaceted and the lessons to be drawn numerous. Underlying most cases is business pull not technology push. They suggest that the 'management challenge is therefore to effectively create and manage the link between IT and business strategy'. Aside from the split infinitive, this is a worthy lesson to be drawn.

So, is this book remarkable'? Perhaps European understatement leads me

to suggest that it is actually very good. There is a clear need for more case studies of SIS and for more European-based ones to be presented. Most of the cases here are interesting, all are well-written. Value has been added by the beginning and concluding text. This is a book to recommend and one which should find its way onto most SIS courses in the near future.

Philip PoweU

104 European ManagementJournalVoP 15 No 1 February 1997