September 29, 2003
E.BIZ 25 -- VISIONARIES
Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Economist
If e-business had an oracle, Erik Brynjolfsson would
be the anointed. Companies from Dell Computer to General Motors look to
the economist and his team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for answers on how to reap big productivity payoffs by combining
e-business technology with organization changes. In 1998, he even got
his own research outpost, the MIT
Center for eBusiness, which is backed by 19 companies.
Brynjolfsson, 41, earned his reputation as an expert on tech's productivity
boost by sifting through data from 800 companies. In the past 10 years,
he has published groundbreaking research, often working closely with Wharton
School economist Lorin Hitt. A key finding: Corporations can log productivity
gains of 30% or more in a single year through smart use of technology.
Who says economics is a dismal science?