Technology-based Business Transformation
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Lecture Audio; Lecture Notes
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2007
- Department: Engineering Systems Division
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How technology transforms a business: IBM’s e-business turn, disruptive innovation, market experimentation, leadership and culture, with audio.
Why do business transformations so often fail, even when the technology is right? This seminar examines how a major technology advance can transform a business and an industry, drawing on IBM’s turn to the Internet and e-business in the 1990s. It works through strategy formulation, putting the strategy into the market, market experimentation and communications, and the organizational and cultural issues that can derail the effort.
What You Will Achieve
- Assess a disruptive technology’s opportunities and risks for a business
- Formulate technical and market strategies using internal and external factors
- Use market-based experimentation to shape strategy
- Plan how leadership and culture must change during a transformation
Program Overview
Strategy Formulation
Deciding how to respond to disruptive change.
- Technology-based, disruptive innovations
- Key external factors
- The internet as a disruptive force
- Key internal factors
Operationalizing the Strategy
Taking the strategy to market.
- Market and application segmentation
- End-user innovation
- LL Bean and e-commerce strategy
- Marketing and communications
Organization and Cultural Issues
The human side of transformation.
- Managing a virtual organization
- Role of leadership and management
- Class project presentations
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This thinking applies to technology strategy, general management and leading innovation inside established companies.
Good for: Managers and engineers leading technology-driven change who want a detailed insider case to learn from.
Keep in mind: The 2007 seminar’s central examples date from the 1990s and early web, so apply the lessons rather than the specifics. Readings include several books you would need to obtain.
Bottom line: A strong case-based look at corporate transformation, with lecture audio from practitioners who lived it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which guest lecturers took part?
John Patrick on the internet strategy, Chris McCormick of LL Bean on e-commerce, and Chris Wall of Ogilvy and Mather on the e-business marketing strategy.
What is the class project?
Groups pick an industry, identify a new technology that could transform a business there, and produce a strategy document and presentation covering strategy, organization and culture.
What readings does it use?
Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance, Innovator's Solution by Christiansen and Raynor, and von Hippel's Democratizing Innovation, alongside several articles.
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