note: this blog post was first published on my B-eye-network blog.
In my quest for sustainable knowledge I am constantly searching for those little pieces of 'gold' in the literature. John Dearen's publication in the Harvard Business Review in 1970 is a great example. It's called MIS is a mirage.
Please remember that this article was written in 1970 - so try to go back in time when you read this article or this blog. It's fun!!
Some Quotes:
"Of
all the ridiculous things that have been foisted on the long-suffering
executive in the name of science and progress, the real-time management
information system is the silliest"
In trying to decribe MIS as a term Dearden writes: "It is difficult to even describe MIS in a satisfactory way because this conceptual entity is embedded in a mish-mash of fuzzy thinking and incomprehensible jargon."
I wonder if I replace the word MIS for BI.....whether John Deardens' remark is still valid.
Back in those days MIS was apparently defined as some sort of holistic computer-based, centralized entity that can solve all management information problems.....
"In short, the proponents promise, experts can design a MIS that is more effective, more efficient, more consistent, and more dynamic than the haphazard aggregate of individual systems a company would otherwise employ."
As Dearden continues (freely translated); any manager would be a total idiot not to go for this amazing technology. Well, going back to 2009, I still encounter vendors and consultants that sell 'Mikes amazing kitchenmachine - that can do virtually anything you want'.
Off course Dearden is right in claiming that MIS - as defined in those days - was a total fallacy. And believe me - he's not holding back in his paper.
One nice sitesnote is that in this article Dearden talks about 'The System Approach' (without referencing it btw). It stems from Churchman's book 'The System Approach' (1968), which is quite another piece of 'gold' in science literature. Although he patronises it a bit, in the next 3 to 4 decades, system thinking did some real good things in theory-building.
To end this posting...Dearden finishes his paper with 'back-to-earth' insights and approaches into the informational challenges for executives, most of them still valid and most of them have nothing to do with the technical dimension but much more with the people- and organisational dimension.
Nothing new - aint it? But isn't that amazing if you consider the article to be from 1970?
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