Information systems are the backbone of any organization. From marketing to supply chain management, employers utilize information technology to support the major functions and activities of their organization.
A common misperception is that ISM professionals spend the majority of their time working on computers and handling tasks like programming. In reality, most ISM professionals have dynamic careers as managers who are responsible for understanding the latest developments in technology and overseeing the efficient implementation of technology resources.
These professionals use technology every day in more ways than can be listed:
- Accountants use computers to calculate account payables/receivables
- Finance managers use technology to plan budgets
- Investment management professionals use technology for researching stocks
- AIS professional have a fundamentally sound understanding of a firm's accounting system
- Supply chain management professionals use RFID technology to manage inventory
- Retailers use technology to track customer trends and for inventory replenishment
- and the list goes on!
Why should you double major?
In his book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Peter Drucker states the following:
"The most important, and indeed
truly unique, contribution of management in
the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase
in the productivity of the "manual worker" in
manufacturing. The most important contribution
management needs to make in the 21st century
is to similarly increase the productivity of "knowledge
work" and the "knowledge worker." The
most valuable assets of a 20th-century company
were its production equipment. The most valuable
asset of a 21st-century institution, whether
business or non-business, will be its knowledge
workers and their productivity."
Employers expect you to be a
knowledge worker. Having a degree in ISM and
another major gives you the training you need
to be successful in managing knowledge in that
area of business.
Knowledge workers are those people who work with and develop knowledge. Upon graduation and obtaining your first job, you will be a knowledge worker. Data and information will be your raw material, and you will use the "raw material" to analyze a particular situation and evaluate a course of action. |
