MEDAILLE COLLEGE
AGASSIZ CIRCLE
BUFFALO, NEW YORK 14214
COURSE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT - Summer 2006
MBA 624 Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation
Section 11 Wednesday, 6 - 10:30 PM
Number of Credits 3
Instructor Douglas Anderson
Instructor Availability office, 85 Humboldt
Hours Wednesday 4:30 - 6 PM; anytime at Doug@RicciStreet.net
course web, http://riccistreet.net/dwares/lane/mba624/index.html
course discussion forum, http://RicciStreet.net/cgi-bin/bistro/Ultimate.cgi
CATALOG DESCRIPTION OF COURSE
A text- and cases-based course on the strategic management of change. Emphasis is on decision making as a learning activity in a context of transformational uncertainty. Topics include: the role of innovation in competitive advantage, designing and implementing a technology strategy, forecasting the advent of novel technologies, appropriating the benefits of new technologies without undue risk exposure, and managerial styles and corporate cultures that enhance technological leadership and innovation.
OBJECTIVES
After completing this course, ...
you will better understand
> how the Internet is driving organizational change today in the context of how communications and productivity tools have driven organizational change for thousands of years
> how organizations learn and manage knowledge in the context of how people learn and manage knowledge
> how to forecast change and evaluate the risks that form the context for an integrated technology plan
you will have used
> common software tools and utilities to design, assemble, and run a laptop-based research and communications center and World Wide Web site
> the Web for research into strategy, management, technology, and innovation
> popular software tools to make three essential business media:
presentations, web sites, and images
COURSE CONTENT
Rather than structure the course around a textbook, I'm structuring the course around a project. I've found it works better if everyone writes on the same general theme. Information retrieval, analysis, evaluation, and presentation skills are used throughout organizations.
They are transferable skills; you can take them from the marketing department, to production, to finance, to personnel and use the same skills and software.
Parkside Partners - "Making Commerce from Knowledge"
You are part of the management team at a venture capital firm, Parkside Partners. The principal partners realize that their long-term success depends on their ability to buy into business models at the right time. If the partners could predict the future, they would make much better decisions. Because they can't predict the future, they are asking each member of the management team to develop a partial vision of the future. In other words, you will provide the depth and a framework for ongoing analysis. The partners will add your visions together -- giving breadth to your depth -- to create a comprehensive vision of the future that will be more accurate than any of us can do individually.
The partners see the firm continuing to seek investment in new products and services that affect:
> work and daily life
> health and health care
> global business trends
> changing consumer society
Future technology
In order to understand and predict trends in these product and service areas, the partners want the firm to develop expertise and reputation in:
> telepresence
> teleimmersion
> immersive environments (game, crime scene, vacation, history, classroom)
> telematics (vehicles)
> telerobotics
> robotics / virtual assistants
> artificial intelligence (neural networks) (machine learning, pattern
recognition, natural language understanding, graphical document analysis)
> genomics
> biometrics
> bioinformatics
> biotechnology (biopharmaceuticals)
> nanotechnology
> things that think aka "smart" things (clothes, devices, objects, rooms,
buildings, environments, cities, etc.)
> rfid - the Internet of Things
> networks: Internet2, Abilene, grid and mesh, usrp
> visualization
> metadata (semantic web, ontology engineering, data mining, text mining, text
clustering, text classification, and information extraction)
Context - PEST
The partners also recognize that a set of social policy issues and public debates have special bearing here:
> patents
> copyright / commons
> network neutrality
> internet governance
> spectrum
> personal privacy
> national security
> economic globalization
> accessibility, consumer rights
The partners want to participate in the public conversation, online and as event speakers. Thus, they need to listen to a variety of opposing viewpoints, after which they can sort out which ones to favor. It is your job to provide those opposing viewpoints.
Skills
Many companies can't afford to research far into the future. They need to focus on short-term ROI. Odds are good that most current companies won't be around to see much future. Thus, research firms -- such as Gartner, McKinsey, Forrester, and Accenture -- that specialize in future-thinking can sell their research products and services to corporations. They can sell them report by report for thousands of dollars. These firms hire MBAs as researchers and analysts and are looking for a skillset that I have tried to build into this case: research, oral presentations, reports.
This is a learn-by-doing course, so your "textbook" is your experience taking this course. You will find much of the material that would be in a textbook at http://RicciStreet.net/ and the rest on the Web by following the links on the syllabus.
EVALUATION
I try to engage each of you in an ongoing discussion of your learning. If you aren't getting enough feedback from me, ask for more. As you probably know, I favor formative feedback and Socratic questioning.
I expect you to participate in both our physical classroom and our digital classroom. At a minimum, you should:
> follow all the links on the syllabus, especially those on the To Do
(homework) lists
> contact me a dozen times via email and instant message
> maintain a web site at Parkside Plaza or toLearn.net
> post the Roundtable messages listed on the reports page
Your course grade will come from doing the minimum above and from three deliverables:
> frontier of technology web
> frontier of technology training module
> public
policy debate
Except for private email, all the work you do for this course will be publicly available. It will all be linked from the home page of your web. Because these skills build on one another, it is very important that you do the homework in a timely manner.
This is graduate school and this is a learn-by-doing course. There is no final exam or convergent skill set for you to master. "This course is all about mistakes" is a phrase I often hear in self-assessments from students who are voracious learners. The idea of mistakes makes some students very nervous. They want to know the One Right Way of doing things and they aren't into taking chances. If I were using a rule-by-fear grading method, you could not afford to make "mistakes" because you'd have a lower grade as a result. I try to reward mistakes and my biggest enemy is your fear of being hit by a low grade. Putting it off and doing it all at the end in a mad rush will not produce the learning you will need for other courses. Thus:
If you do the minimum above in a timely manner and make the presentations in class, you'll get an A- for the course. That's what I expect most of you to get. Note that I don't mention how well you do them. Because your work is public, I expect that your personal pride will motivate you more than a grade. Nevertheless, I'm sure I'll get email after the course wondering why you got "only" an A-. I will reply to the email by directing you back to this web page.
If you do the work with flair and enthusiasm, you'll get an A, but that's exceptional. (I did not give any last fall.) Your boss could show the web pages or presentation to a client or to the big boss as is. Your boss would remember them when discussing a promotion. It does not matter that you deserve an A+ because you worked hard and are an all-around wonderful person. I don't doubt that for a moment, but it has nothing to do with this course grade.
If you don't do the minimum above in a timely manner or don't do one of the presentations, you'll get no better than a B+ for the course.
If you are missing more than that, you should expect a B. We will need to talk about whether you have time for the course.
Please note that a "lousy" presentation will get the same A- as one I personally "like". However, that doesn't mean I don't have standards and you don't have pride. Note the criteria below as well as my philosophy of learning and grading. In my experience teaching adults, the public display of all your work does more than fear of low grades to motivate you.
Policy | Because of the progression of the work, the groups, and the tight syllabus, I don't know how and where to fit in a realistic make-up of your oral presentations. Your web pages and Roundtable messages, however, can get revised as often as you want after the original closing date.
In addition to these presentations, please note that you have one other very important requirement. You must email a self-assessment after you have done all the other work for the course. I will not turn in a grade for you until I get that email.
Criteria
While grades are useless at best and statistically bogus, I'm a big fan of feedback, assessment, evaluation: better now in class than later on the job and better from many sources than from one. I expect you to seek feedback from your team and your classmates as well as from me. My evaluation of written and oral work asks four questions.
content -- Is it logical, insightful, and visually interesting?
structure -- Is it easy to follow and learn from?
language -- Is it designed, written, illustrated, and presented in an
appropriate business tone?
mechanics -- Is it free of error and attractive to look at?
In short, does your work exhibit a command of business communications and its conventions, especially digital?
It comes down to this: If I were your boss, I would want to see documents, webs, and presentations that are attractive and accessible. Having your work available when I need it affects the quality component of my assessment. The quality of your work can be important at raise and promotion time.
These criteria are loaded with ambiguous and subjective terms: easy, appropriate, attractive, flair, enthusiasm. Such holistic characterizations come from observations colored by assumptions and prejudices. However, there are some generally agreed upon professional standards.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OF COURSE
In order to prosper in business, you must be able to do many things other than write. These four also apply to meeting the course objectives listed above.
manage digital information
explore and discover
tolerate ambiguity
think big
Statement on Disabilities
Any student with a disability who believes he/she needs accommodation(s) in order to complete this course should contact the Office of Disability Services as soon as possible. The staff in the Office of Disability Services will determine what accommodations are appropriate and reasonable under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Office of Disability Services is located in the Main Building, room 021 and can be reached by phone at (716) 884-3281, extension 280.
please note
Grades on your papers will reflect standard English usage. The Modern Language Association's (MLA) bibliographic style is generally used at Medaille.