EMBA Technology Management Course, EMBA6, 2009
This is the home page for the EMBA course Technology management.
Questions or comments to 
Prior courses: [EMBA5 (2008-9)
| EMBA4 (2007)
| EMBA3
(2007) | EMBA2 (2006)
| EMBA1 (2005)]
Ch-ch-ch-changes...
- November 16: Material and other things for module 3 added.
- November 11: FAST day moved to BI for space reasons, some
other changes with assignment.
- November 4: All ready for an exciting day at FAST on
November 13!
- September 17: A few updates, mostly cosmetic and for
clarification. Study questions are not to be handed in - but the
assignments are.... And literature is in Blackboard, unless otherwise
noted.
- September 9: Fiddled around with articles and first
assignment.
Changed tenor from IT management to technology management, though this
is a gradual process and will be more complete with EMBA7. The
following modules will be added later.
- April 16, 2009: Inital page based on last-year's
course.
- The right to make changes at any time is most
explicitly reserved!!!
Course objectives
The intent of this course is to give the student an understanding of
the role of information technology in organizations, the impact of the
rapid technology evolution for business environments, and the challenge
of managing the technology (and the organizational units charged with
its introduction and support). The discussions will be within four main
areas:
- Understanding technology evolution:Focus
on how
technologies evolve, how to position your self as a provider or user of
technologies, phases of competition, sustaining and disruptive
technologies, network externalities and intellectual property.
- Understanding the role of technology in
organizations:
This part
of the course will analyze organizations in terms of the chains, shops,
networks framework, trying to understand how value is created in each
of these strategic configurations, and how IT supports this value
creation.
- Managing technology for competitive advantage:
Understanding how technology management - in particular
competitive use of ITcan give the organization a competitive advantage,
and how to sustain that advantage.
- Managing the IT resource: Understanding
the
organizational challenges of IT management, the interface between IS
and the business, governance models and organizational processes,
systems development and delivery, outsourcing.
Evaluation
Evaluation will be based partly on participation in class, partly on
assignments (all individual) that are to be handed in at each module.
Running assignment (or, if you wish, assignment 4)
In order to learn about collaborative technology and working online,
the students will take an active and reflective role in using and
extending the Wikipedia. The instructions for how to do this are given
at the Wikipedia
assignment page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Espen/emba).
Individual module plan
Module 1a: Managing technology for
competitive advantage: The evolution and role of IT in business.
(September 24, 1330-1530)
How does technology - particularly coordinating technology - change the
structure, processes and strategies of organizations? Information
technology is now available everywhere and used by all
corporations, and some argue that it can now safely be ignored by top
managers, since uses are standardized and the technology in itself
cannot offer sustainable competitive advantage to companies. Put
simply: What difference does really IT make?
Read and be
prepared to discuss:
- Malone, T. W., & Rockart, J. F. (1991). Computers,
Networks and the Corporation. Scientific American (September),
128-136.
- Hoffman, D. L., T. P. Novak, et al. (2004). "Has the
Internet become indispensable?" Communications of the ACM
47(7): 37-42.
- Carr, N. G. (2003). "IT Doesn't Matter." Harvard
Business Review (May): 41-49. (including the correspondence
from various people afterwards)
Study questions (to help your studying, not for hand-in):
- What are Malone & Rockart's key arguments? To what
extent were they right? Wrong?
- Who is Doug Engelbart?
- Is Carr right (in the title)? Is he right (in the paper)?
Module 1b: The
technology-integrated company
(September 24, 1330-1530)
How do we think systematically about how technology is used to
integrate activities in a company?
Read and be prepared to
discuss:
- Porter, M. E., & Millar, V. E. (1985). How
information gives you competitive advantage. Harvard Business
Review(July-August), 149-160.
- Venkatraman, N. (1994). IT-enabled Business Transformation:
From Automation to Business Scope Redefinition. Sloan
Management Review (Winter), 73-86.
- Fjeldstad, Ø. and E. Andersen (2003). "Casting
off the chains: Value shops and value networks." European Business Forum
(14): 47-53.
- Case: Matching Dell, HBS no. 9-799-158
Study questions (to help your studying, not for hand-in):
- Many companies have tried to ape Dell's Direct business
model, with a few exceptions not succeeding. Why?
- What technology, market or customer changes would make
Dell's business model less attractive?
Assignment 1
(400 words max, to be delivered into Blackboard no later than September 24, 2009, at 0830)
Answer the following three questions:
- Is Dell a value shop, chain or network? Why?
- What are the business benefits of Dell's Direct model?
- As a supplier to Dell, you have to deliver components, at
low prices, directly to their assembly line. It is hard work - so why
would you want to be a supplier to Dell?
Module 1c: Economics of
information technology
(September 25, 0830-1230)
In this session, we will look into how to think about IT and money, an
issue that never fails to raise controversy. One of the hardest
problems, for instance, is deciding on how much to
spend on IT and understanding what the economic effect of the
investment is - issues which we will explore.
Read and be prepared to
discuss:
- Hitt, L., & Brynjolfsson, E. (1996). Productivity,
Business
Profitability, and Consumer Surplus: Three Different Measures of
Information Technology Value. MIS Quarterly, 20(2),
121-142.
- The InformationWEEK 500, InformationWEEK,
September 1995.
(This is for the assignment, and we will discuss this in detail. A tip
for the analysis: Focus on the numbers, both those for each industry
and those for (or spreadsheet)
to compare across industries. And do remember that the individual
technologies discussed in the articles is rather old by now (not that
technology optimism has changed in any way....)
Study questions (to help your studying, not for hand-in):
- What are Hitt & Brynjolfsson's three measures of
information technology profitability -- and their conclusions about
them?
- How do you justify spending money on general technology,
such as
desktop computers and Internet bandwidth? How should you structure the
spending?
Assignment 2 (to be delivered into Blackboard no
later than September
24
2009, at 2000):
Answer the following question:
- Imagine you are a CEO worrying about whether you are
spending too much or not enough on information technology. How would
the InformationWEEK 500 numbers help you?
For the analysis,
here is an Excel
worksheet with the numbers.
Download the file to your own computer, then analyze it there using
Excel or any other software you would want. Note that the
numbers and stories are from 1995, so focus on the numbers rather than
the technical discussion (though you might note that the
language, attitudes and numbers are not very
different
from what they would be today.) Also note that I will apply the two
page
maximum
limit ruthlessly - that means two pages, nothing more, anything more
than that will not even be looked at.
Module 2a: Search technology and how it is
changing information access.
(November 13,
2009, 0830-about 1600 in classroom A2-075, BI Oslo.
FAST is a Norwegian search technology
company acquired by Microsoft in April 2008. The morning will be spent
together with another class (a M.Sc. class taking a course called
GRA6821 Technology Strategy). During this period we will hear
presentations from three lecturers:
- Kirsti Kierulf, Accenture, on Accenture's technology vision
and collaboration with FAST on search-enabled innovation
- Espen Andersen on the disruptive impact of search technology
- Torgeir Hovden on community-based search technology
For this session, prepare by reading something about search
technology - this blog post tells you what your M.Sc.
colleagues will read. I wouldn't dream of considering you any
less well-informed than they are....
After lunch, we will have two discussions:
- A discussion on the assignment, in light of what we leaned
earlier in the morning. How does increased access to information (as in
the DNV case) change our organizations and our business models?
- A discussion on the evolution of technology companies -
what are
the phases a technology company goes through? (Guess which company we
will use as an example.)
For the
latter discussion, here are two (+1) articles that I think you will
find both interesting and useful:
- Greiner, L. E. (1972). "Evolution and Revolution as
Organizations Grow." Harvard
Business Review (July-August): 37-46.
- Chapter 12 from Cringely, R. X. (1992). Accidental Empires:
How
the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign
competition, and still can't get a date. Harmonsworth, Middlesex,
England, Penguin Books.
- (Recommended): Chapter 3, "What products will customers
buy", from Christensen, C. M. and M. Raynor (2003). The Innovator's Solution:
Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth. Boston, MA,
Harvard Business School Press.
Assignment 3:
DNV (Det Norske
Veritas) is a
Norwegian global company with most of its business
in maritime risk management - i.e., ship classification,
certification and monitoring. Traditionally, certification of
ships has been done through inspectors, residing in harbors around the
world. These inspectors, typically with an engineering degree and a
background at sea, will inspect ships when they come into harbor
according to periodic or use-based schedules (much like cars are
required to be serviced at time intervals or after a certain level of
use.) A combination of new technologies - the use of sensors placed in
ships and on ship components, such as engines, and satellite-based
communication services - has meant that to a larger and larger extent,
ships can be monitored in real-time, anywhere in the world, and the
need for periodic inspections is reduced. How will these changes in
technology affect DNV's organization, business model, and strategy?
Note: It
is absolutely forbidden to contact DNV directly about this assignment -
I am not looking for deep specific information on the
company outside of what you can find on their website or from
publicly available sources!!
Max length: Two pages, about 7000 characters (with spaces).
(To be handed in Blackboard before November
12, 2009 at 1700)
Module 3a: Disruptive innovations
(December 3, 1330-1730)
Read and be prepared to discuss:
- Christensen, C. M., M. Raynor, et al. (2001). "Skate to Where
the Money Will Be." Harvard
Business Review (November): 73-81.
- Christensen, C. M. (2002). "The Rules of Innovation." Technology Review
(June).
- Christensen,
C. M., S. P. Kaufman, et al. (2008). "Innovation Killers: How Financial
Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things." Harvard Business Review
(January).
Study questions:
- It is easy to see that something is a disruptive innovation after
the fact - mainly because the leading companies in an industry have
been outcompeted by new companies. But how can you tell that an
innovation may be disruptive before the fact?
- As we saw in the previous class, companies evolve over time. How
does this evolution contribute to the risk of disruptive innovations?
- What is the difference between a "low-end" and a "new-market" disruption?
- Imagine you are working for a publishing house. Is the Amazon Kindle a disruptive innovation? How should you respond to it?
Module 3b:
Current and future IT.
(December 4, 0830-1230)
Society, ethics and the individual in a digital world.
Read and be prepared to discuss:
Further reading (for the especially interested).
Yes, I know I went off the deep end here, but you
need something to occupy you when this course is over.:
- Stephenson, Neal (1999). In
the beginning ... was the command line. (available
for free from various places on the Internet, including Stephenson's web site.)
A great "extended essay" on how technology, espcially information
technology, has evolved and will evolve in the future. Explores the
levels at which we understand technology and how we forge our
relationship with it.
- Hofstadter, D. M. (1979). Gödel,
Esher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
New York, Vintage Books. (Wonderful book on computers, music,
art, mathematics and most of all--self-referential systems.)
- Bolter, J. D. (1984). Turings
Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age.
Old Woking, Surrey, UK, Unwin Brothers Ltd. (Man always seen
himself in terms of the technology of the times--and now the technology
is the computer)
- Dennett, D. C. (1991). Consciousness
Explained. Boston, MA, Little, Brown &
Co. (What is consciousness--and where in the brain does it
reside?)
- Lessig, L. (2001). The
Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World.
New York, Random House. Brilliantly written on the connection
between copyright and innovation - and the need to have "commons" where
innovation can take place.
- Hafner, K. and M. Lyon (1996). Where
Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet.
New York, Simon & Schuster. Good history of the
Internet.
- Hafner, K. and J. Markoff (1991). Cyberpunk:
Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier. New
York, Simon & Schuster. Good book on computer
sabotage and why people do it.
Study questions:
- What is a disruptive technology? Why do existing,
dominant companies often fail to respond to it?
- When was the (computer) mouse invented, and by whom?
- How about the graphical user interface (GUI) with windows
(sometimes called WIMP interface)? The laser printer?
- How does thinking about privacy differ between Europe and
the United States?
- Within our lifetimes, computers that are smarter than
people will
not only be possible, but common. Agree or diagree?
Why? What is the singularity and do you believe in it?
- Check out www.archive.org. What
does the site do? Is this necessary?
- What is the Turing test? Do you think we can create a
machine that can pass it? Would that be a thinking
machine?
Assignment 4:
Wikipedia assignment, see above and the Wikipedia
assignment page for instructions.. To be handed in Blackboard
before December
3, 2009 at 0830)
Espen Andersen's
home page
Comments by email.