CMIS520: Managing Technology
Spring Semester, 2006
Bldg/Room:FH 2409
Days/Time:2/20 -5/01, Mondays06:00PM-10:30PM
INSTRUCTOR
Name:Bijoy Bordoloi
E-mail Address:
Website:
Office:FH 2328
Office Phone/Fax:650-3947/650-3979
Office Hours:M,W 5 – 6 PM and by appointment
TEXTBOOK
Required:
“Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy” by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian, HarvardBusinessSchool Press, ISBN: 0-87584-863-x.
Other Course Materials:
Cases and other supplemental reading materials will be distributed in class when needed.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Information Goods – from movies and music to software code and stock quotes – have supplanted industrial goods as the key driver of world markets. Confronted by this New Economy (Information Age), many instinctively react by searching for a corresponding New Economics to guide their business decisions. Executives charged with rolling out cutting-edge software products or on-line versions of their magazines are tempted to abandon the classic lessons of economics and business, and rely instead on an ever changing roster of trends, buzzwords, and analogies that promise to guide strategy in the information age.
However, Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian of UC- Berkeley warn managers, “Ignore basic economic principles at your own risk. Technology changes. Economic laws do not.” Understanding these laws and their relevance to information goods is critical when fashioning today’s successful competitive strategies. The purpose of this seminar is to introduce and explore some fundamental business and economic concepts essential to successfully navigate through today’s ever-changing network economy.
In this seminar, we will attempt to distill the economic principles of information and networks into practical business strategies, so that you, as MBAs, can make intelligent decisions about an organization’s information assets. We will explore how to:
- Develop value-maximizing pricing strategies
- Plan product lines of information goods
- Manage intellectual property rights
- Understand the strategic implications of lock-in and switching costs
- Recognize and exploit the dynamics of positive feedback
- Evaluate compatibility choices and standardization efforts
- Factor government policy and regulation into strategy
COURSE CONDUCT
This course will be conducted as a lecture-cum-seminar course, the format of which will be discussed in greater details on the first day of class. In general, the class will be divided into several groups which will be created jointly by you and me (number of students per team will depend on the class size).Apart from my lectures, each group will be responsible for making presentations on some specific topics (to be assigned later) incorporating the materials discussed in the text and lectures, but with real-world examples. The non-presenting groups will be responsible for coming up with some critical questions for classroom discussion on the presented topics.
Through reading of the text, articles and cases, discussion of the concepts encountered, and experience gained through other sources (such as videos and guest-speakers) , we are going to explore a variety of aspects in managing technology. The required textbook will cover most of the course readings. However, Business press materials, such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Computerworld, etc. are an excellent source of course-related materials and students are encouraged to read them on their own.
Note: You are expected to read all the assigned materials before coming to class.
GRADING
Your performance in this course will be evaluated in four areas: class participation, seminar presentation, research paper (to be discussed in details in class), and exams. Each will be weighted as follows:
Class Participation - Individual (attendance, attitude, in-class demeanor, etc.)05%
Group Participation05%
Group Presentations (2)30%
Exam 130%
Exam 230%
Overall Grading Guidelines
Straight scale; 93%=A, 83%=B, 73%=C, 63%=D, below 63% is failing; will be applied in this course. Instructor may, however, ‘curve’ the grading scale, if need arises. The expected average grade of the course is ‘B’.
Class Participation
In order for the design of this class to work, we all must be actively involved in the class. First, you must attend. Second, you must have read and thought about the material. Third, we must respect each other’s opinion in class and be willing to share our thoughts and ideas to enhance our own and others’ learning. If you have any questions about your class participation, please see me.
Presentationsand Group Participation
Apart from discussing the subject-matter of a given topic, the additional goals of the seminar presentation/discussion are: (1) to give you the experience of working in team situations; (2) to give you the experience of making use of presentation technologies; and (3) to enhance your communication and presentation skills.Atthe end of the semester, you will be asked to provide feedback on your own and other team members' commitment. The objective of this peer evaluation is to encourage 100% commitment and performance from each team member throughout the semester. The topics and other related information about presentations will be discussed in greater details in class.
Presenting Team: Your work should be of professional presentation quality. This means you should be proud to share it with business people or other faculty members. Indeed, I may invite other faculty or business people to attend the presentations. So, be innovative with your audio-visual presentation techniques and dress appropriately (business attire) if you are a member of a presenting team.
Exams
There will betwo (2) exams in the course, one mid-term and one-final. Material for examination will be taken from lectures (which may cover material not in the text)and assigned readings. The exams will be comprehensiveand will be designed to assess your basic understanding of the concepts and their applications covered in the class.
Scheduled or unannounced quizzes are not planned; however, you are expected to attend class every day. If the class group as a whole requires motivation to study assigned material, unannounced quizzes will be given and the quiz points will be added to the course total of available points.
OTHER COURSE INFO
Plagiarism Policy. The university policy on plagiarism will be enforced to the fullest extent. A copy of this policy is available at the office of the Dean for Academic Affairs in Rendleman Hall.
Missed Exams/Incomplete Policy.Make-up exams or a grade of Incomplete willNOTbe givenunless some act beyond your control takes place which materially affects your ability to complete the course, for example, severe illness, emotional trauma due to a death in the family, or accident. If you get behind on course work, you will be graded on that portion of the course work that is completed. In no case will a grade of incomplete be awarded to someone seeking more time to master the course material in order to improve their grade. If you expect to miss an exam or to be unable to meet another requirement, please discuss this with the instructor before the scheduled date.
Score/Grade appeals. It is important to recognize that a grade reflects another's judgment of your work. In this sense, all grading is subjective. Of course, any grade you receive on an assignment or quiz is subject to appeal. However, score changes are at the discretion of the instructor. It is important to understand that your score may go up or down based upon a complete review of the work in question. It is usually the case that changing a few points on an assignment rarely makes a difference in the final grade. Time is much better spent discussing and clarifying the information content presented in the course.
Accommodations for Students with Special Needs. Any student in this class who has a documented visual or physical impairment, hearing disability, or any other disability covered by the University's Services for students with Disabilities should contact the instructor during the first week of class to discuss and arrange any instructional accommodations that may be necessary. Students who would like to serve as volunteer tutors, readers or note takes for students needing special assistance are encouraged to contact the instructor during the first week of class.
COURSE SCHEDULE
(Subject to modification depending on progress of the course)
DateTopicsOther Assignments
Feb. 20Introduction to Course Buy Book
Lecture: Chapter 1: The Information Economy In- class Group formation
Chapter 2: Pricing Information
______
Feb. 27Lecture:Chapter 2: Contd.Group get-together
Chapter 3: Versioning Information
Misc, Topic: Economics of Offshore Outsourcing
Discussion: ResearchPresentation Topics
______
Mar. 06Spring Break
Mar. 13Lecture: Chapter 4: Rights Management Group get-together
Video and
Discussion:“CEO Exchange: Innovators of Silicon Valley”
Group Presentations: Group1 (A) and Group5 (B)
_______
Mar. 20Lecture: Chapter 5: Recognizing Lock-InGroup get-together
Lecture: Chapter 6: Managing Lock-IN
Group Presentations: Group2 (A) and Group4 (B)
______
Mar. 27Midterm
______
Ap4. 03Lecture: Chapter 7: Networks and Positive Feedback
Group get-together
Group Presentations: Group3 (A) and Group3 (B)
______
Apr. 10 Lecture: Chapter 8: Cooperation and Compatibility
Group get-together
Video and
Discussion:“IT: The Look of the Business Future”
Group Presentations: Group4 (A) and Group2 (B)
_______
Apr. 17Lecture: Chapter 09: Waging a Standards War
Video and
Discussion:“Bill Gates: A Biography
Group Presentations: Group5(A) and Group1 (B)
_______
_______
Apr.24Chapter 10: Information Policy and Government Regulations
Catch-up and Course wrap-up
Security Applications: Data Warehousing and Data Mining
______
May 1Final Exam
______
GROUP PRESENTATION TOPICS
Your presentations must be accompanied by a two-page (maximum) Executive Summary to the class. The contents and structure of both the topics and executive summary will be discussed in greater details in class.
(A)
Assume that you are working as a Research Analyst for an internationally reputed brokerage firm and that your specialty is in the Technology Sector. Your firm has some large investors and your task is to provide to your clients a comparative analysis of any three companies in the Hardware or Software sector (OEMs or service providers) and offer investment recommendations (a formal presentation). In addition the financial performance data, your analysis should take into account the companies’ current and future products, pricing, promotional, and other business strategies such as complementary partnerships, etc..
(B)
One of the most talked about issues in the U.S. corporate world these days is ‘Management of Offshore Software Outsourcing’. As a student of ‘Technology Management’ and as an aspiring manager, you are to make a presentation on any relevant topic on this theme. Listed below are some possible topics on this theme.
Partial lists of Outsourcing topics you may want to consider are:
1. Economics of offshore outsourcing: a firm-level perspective
2. How executive leadership and vision, combined with outsourcing result in competitive advantage
3. What type of an organizational culture complements outsourcing?
4What's the difference between "Smart-Sourcing" and "Outsourcing"?
5. When does it make sense to insource rather than outsource?
6.Strategy, selection and outsourcing management systems
7.What does and does not work in outsourcing?
8.Key indicies for measuring success of an outsourcing project
9.How to Manage an Outsourcing Alliance?
10.Cultural issues related to the selection of outsourcing partners
11.Control issues related to outsourcing
12. Software Outsourcing according to the SDLC stages - what factors and criteria to consider?
13. Challenges in off-shore outsourcing (India, Ireland, Russia, China, Phillipines, Israel, Taiwan)
14.The Metrics of outsourcing success
15. CIOs role in IT outsourcing
16.Due Diligence in Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
17.Privacy and Security Issues in Outsourcing
18. Case studies in offshore software outsourcing (success as well as failures)
.
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