Business and Technology

read ServiceNow (Ticker Symbol: NOW) Recently Broke $400 and Is Up 37% in 2020. Meet CEO Bill McDermott, Who Survived a Near-Fatal Accident That Took an Eye (but not His Vision)Links to an external site..

William R. McDermott is an American businessman and is currently CEO of ServiceNow. Before ServiceNow, he was the CEO of the technology company SAP SE, the world’s largest maker of business software. Prior to that, he was a senior executive at Siebel Systems, Gartner and Xerox Corporation. He also authored Winners Dream: A Journey From Corner Store to Corner Office.

Read the interview and answer the following questions:

1. When it comes to Moore’s law Rich Karlgaard says, “rate of progression jumped off the tracks,” particularly in the enterprise software space. Please analyze this with some specific examples from the interview. Afterward, provide some comparable cases in your industry.
2. Bill McDermott says that “technology used to support the business. Now, technology is the business model”. Can you explain your understanding of this statement, using some of the examples provided in the interview and from at least one outside source?
3. How is the business landscape changing in lieu of “COVID economy,” and what does “getting COVID right” entail when it comes to various industries? Please provide an example from the interview and at least two other sectors.
   Part 2: minimum 300 words

read the article How ‘The Outsiders’ Became One of the Most Important Business Books in AmericaLinks to an external site..
In his book the Outsiders, Thorndike states, “Over a long period of time, CEOs have to do two things well, they have to manage the business to optimize the profits and after that deploy the profits. Most of what separated these guys from their peers is in that second activity, which has the unwieldy name of capital allocation” (Vardi, 2014, para. 7).
Reflect on that quote and what you have read and answer the following questions:
• What type of metrics should CEO’s use as they make capital allocation decisions?
• Should capital allocation be a priority when it comes to any company’s decision-making?
• Please justify your answers with examples from our books and course readings.