The Long Conversation

For many years companies have been investing in enterprise systems and IT initiatives but they are now struggling to achieve the desired results. It takes a long time to make the best of your enterprise systems so businesses must stop looking for the next technology 'silver bullet' and instead maximize the value of existing IT investments.

OSWALDO LORENZO is Professor of Management at IE Business School, Madrid, Spain. He is specialized in three areas of knowledge and management: innovation, supply chain management, and information technology & business process management. His research interests lie in the implementation, assimilation and diffusion of enterprise systems for the purpose of improving processes and supply chains. Professor Lorenzo's extensive experience in this field has led organizations in different sectors (e.g. automobile, banking, government, and energy) to contract his consulting services. He has been visiting professor at Manchester Business School (UK),IESA Business School (Venezuela), INCAE (Costa Rica) and Bordeaux School of Management (France). Part of his experience comes from his work on publications for specialized journals like California Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Supply Chain Management Review, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, International Journal of Simulation and Process Modeling, Revista de Empresa, and Revista Latinoamericana de Administración.

PETER KAWALEK is Professor of Information Systems and Strategy at Manchester Business School (UK). In addition, he has experience through different roles and contributions in Warwick Business School (UK), Instituto de Empresa Business School (Spain), and Letterkenny Institute of Technology. Professionally, Professor Kawalek has worked to board level with companies, on shortprojects with government ministers, and at all sorts of levels with public sector agencies. These organisations include O2, Jaguar Cars, SAP, Chubb Insurance Company of Europe, BT, GNER, Journey 9, United Utilities, Hoverspeed, Fujitsu, Department of Communities and Local Government, Cabinet Office, Office an Taoiseach, Salford City Council, Oldham Council, Leeds City Council, and the NHS.

GASTÓN GONZÁLEZ is Partner and Director of Expertia Consulting Group, a Multinational Management Consulting Firm. He has extensive experience as Professor of Strategy, Organization, and Information Technology at IESA Business School and The Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. This experience has been combined with more than twenty four years working in the consulting field to different countries and sectors in topics such as corporate governance, business process management and business model innovation. His recognized vision, professional ability and methodological strengths have allowed him to be part of successful business cases of leading companies in several sectors (e.g. financial services, media, telecommunications, consumer goods, food & beverages, technology and retail). Mr. Gastón González has worked for board level in different companies in Latin-American and he is member of The Strategic Management Society. His MBA focused in Strategy and Corporate Finance from The University of Miami, USA. He also holds Masters in Control System from The Universityof Michigan, USA, and BSc. in Electronic Engineering from The Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas - Venezuela.

BEN RAMDANI research interests lie in IT-enabled business change, particularly in the role required of senior managers to successfully orchestrate such change. His research investigates how senior managers can most effectively select, implement, and deploy IT to achieve business goals. His current research falls in two categories: (1) to investigate how firms can build capabilities to deliver incremental business value from IT, and (2) to explore disruptive change and how businesses that may be well managed, customer-friendly, and technologically advanced-they are still susceptible to failure or to being overtaken by upstart competitors. Dr. Ramdani's experience includes a consulting activity focused on advising firms on IT and strategy related matters and how to unlock business value from their IT investments. Until recently, he was sponsored by CA, the world's leading independent provider of IT management software, as a research fellow at Cranfield School of Management to investigate how firms can realize additional business value from their IT investments. He has been involved in a number of projects including Transferring Across Local Knowledge (TALK), and Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy (SiDE). Dr Ramdani has been a visiting lecturer at both Manchester Business School (UK) and IE Business School (Spain). He received his Ph.D. fromManchester Business School, his MBA and BSc from Leeds University Business School, UK.