Does It Matter?

C H A P T E R   6

Managing the Money Pit

New Imperatives for IT Investment and Management

IN THE SUMMER of 1997, the U.S. railroad system broke down. As the recently merged Union Pacific and Southern Pacific struggled vainly to combine their operations, their vast rail network became gridlocked, and thousands of cargo shipments were delayed, misrouted, or lost. On October 31, the federal government stepped in, declaring a transportation emergency throughout much of the country. Particularly hard hit were industrial and agricultural companies in Texas, many of which were served solely by Union Pacific lines. By early 1998, for example, the U.S. arm of the large Mexican cement producer Cemex had seen outbound rail service at its Texas plants cut ...