Blind Men and the Elephant (PDF)

Morgan Hurwitz, Global IT Manager, Shell International

Nivedita Chandrasekhar, Application and Architecture Developer, Credit Suisse Readership

In just a few decades since its birth, the global IT industry has grown to a trillion dollars. It continues to transform society and business, as perhaps no other industry, yet remains one of the least understood industries in the world. Behind the facade of geekiness and technophobia lies a set of organisations routinely given the power to fundamentally reshape many facets of our lives, and in the process create lucrative sources of financial rewards for those investing in it.

This book explains what consultants and IT Services firms do. It examines the industry’s surprisingly captivating history, and in doing so, explains why the industry does things the way it does and what motivates the different players within it. The book tries to answer some basic questions like:

- Why do those fundamentally affected by this industry have such little idea about how it has managed to have such a hard-hitting impact globally?
- How has this industry managed to reach the unique status it enjoys around the world today, with literally millions from all corners of the world aspiring to enter it?
- What is it about this industry that has caused it to evolve so differently as compared to other fields?
- Perhaps most importantly, where could it, and the rest of us, go next?