Project description:

As businesses keep innovating and adapting to change (e.g., increased global competition, new and changing regulations, shifts in customer demand), they also become more complex in various ways: they enter new geographies, develop new or modify existing products, open up more channels, acquire other businesses, etc. Because these changes are done with the intention to grow business value, the resulting business complexity can be seen as a good thing. However, too much business complexity can introduce significant cost and “weight” to a business, making it slower to change and more difficult for employees to get their jobs done. Although a lot of business complexity accumulates in the IT systems themselves, IT can also help to avoid, reduce, or even exploit complexity.

Research questions include:

• What are the most important types of business complexity and how can we measure them?
• What is the role of IT in managing business complexity?
• How can IT become part of the solution, i.e., how can IT contribute to avoiding, reducing, learning to live with, and exploiting business complexity?

Project leader:

Martin Mocker

Participate in this project:

We are in the early stages of data collection and are looking to interview senior business and IT executives with an overview of the complexity faced by their company. We are especially interested in companies that (a) face a lot of complexity, (b) have had some success stories in managing complexity, and (c) attribute a significant role to IT in dealing with complexity. If you are interested in participating in an interview, please contact Martin Mocker at mmocker@mit.edu.