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Q1-1 Why Is Introduction to MIS the Most Important Class in the Business School?

Chapter preview 39

“But today, they’re not enough.”
Do you find that statement sobering? And if hard work isn’t enough, what is?
We’ll begin this book by discussing the key skills that Jennifer (and you) need and
explaining why this course is the single best course in the business school for
teaching you those key skills.
You may find that last statement surprising. If you are like most students, you
have no clear idea of what your MIS class will be about. If someone were to ask you,
“What do you study in that class?” you might respond that the class has something
to do with computers and maybe computer programming. Beyond that, you might
be hard-pressed to say more. You might add, “Well, it has something to do with
computers in business,” or maybe, “We are going to learn to solve business problems
with computers using spreadsheets and other programs.” So, how could this course
be the most important one in the business school?
We begin with that question. After you understand how important this class will
be to your career, we will discuss fundamental concepts. We’ll wrap up with some
practice on one of the key skills you need to learn.

Q1-1 Why Is Introduction to MIS the Most Important

Class in the Business School?

Introduction to MIS is the most important class in the business school. This wasn’t always the
case. A couple decades ago, majoring in “computers” was considered a nerdy thing do to. But
things have changed—a lot. Now the hottest jobs are found in tech companies. People brag about
working for tech startups. Apple Inc. is the largest corporation in the world with a market cap of
$740B. The largest IPO offering in history ($25B) came from the online e-commerce giant Alibaba
(Alibaba Holdings Group) in 2014.
But why? Why has information technology changed from a minor corporate support function
to a primary driver of corporate profitability? Why are tech jobs some of the highest paid? Why is
working for a tech company considered über cool?
The answer has to do with the way technology is fundamentally changing business.
The Digital Revolution

You’ve probably heard that we live in the Information Age, or a period in history where the
production, distribution, and control of information is the primary driver of the economy. The
Information Age started in the 1970s with the Digital Revolution, or the conversion from
mechanical and analog devices to digital devices. This shift to digital devices meant monumental
changes for companies, individuals, and our society as a whole.
The problem was, people couldn’t really understand how, or even why, this shift was going to
affect them. Much like people today, they based their future projections on past events. They knew
factories, bureaucracies, mass production, and operational efficiency. But this knowledge didn’t
prepare them for the changes that were coming.
The Digital Revolution didn’t just mean that new “digital” equipment was replacing old
mechanical, or analog, equipment. These new digital devices could now be connected to other
digital devices and share data among themselves. They could also work faster as processor
speed increased. This was groundbreaking. In 1972, computer scientist Gordon Bell recognized