Information technology lies at the heart of efforts by businesses to improve their efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness, and its importance will grow over time.

But a major barrier to more extensive implementation of IT is the capacity of general management to understand both its potential and its limitations.

This is one of the main conclusions from an in-depth telephone survey of more than 400 senior executives from large businesses in Europe, North America and Scandinavia undertaken by the Financial Times Research Centre on behalf of the Leading Edge Forum.