Programme

ICTs and corporate strategy

1. Technology and strategy
• The inter-relationship between strategy and technology, cycles of technological change, drivers of innovation, sources of innovation, difussion of innovation, venture capital, Silicon Valley, Moore's Law
• Reading:
• Chapter 11 "Technology-based industries and the management of innovation"
• Moore's Law
• Case: Video games (Grant)
• Questions:
1. what factors drive the short life-cycle of this industry?
2. how have the manufacturers handled the launch of new products?
3. what are the critical success factors for this industry?
2. Strategy and the Internet
• Use of the Internet, auction mechanisms, disintermediation, repution, payment systems, phishing and pharming, http, rss, podcasting
• Reading:
• Case study: Online broking services (Grant)
• Questions
1. how was a new entrant able to challenge the established players?
2. how did the companies react to the events of the downturn of the market?
3. how stable are these "business models" and how must the companies behave?
3. Business-to-business electronic commerce
• Network externalities, compatibility, standards competition, switching costs, architectural leadership,
• Reading:
• Gabriele Piccoli and Blake Ives (2005) "IT-dependent strategic initiatives and sustained competitive advantage:  a review and synthesis of the literature" MIS Quaterly 29 (4)
• Duncan Copeland and James McKenney (1988) "Airline Reservation Systems; lessons from history" MIS Quarterly 12 (3) 350-370
• Case study: 
• Eric Marti Disintermediation in the US automobile industry Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Case EC-10
• Questions:
4. Retailing
• ICTs and the end-customer, distribution systems, business re-engineering, productivity of the service sector
  
• Reading:
• Case study: 7-Eleven Japan Company Ltd, reinventing the retail business model (MIT CISR 351)
  
• Questions:
5. Outsourcing
• Outsourcing, insourcing, smart sourcing
  
• Reading:
• Mary Lacity "Global information technology sourcing: More than a decade of learning," IEEE Computer 35 (8) 26-33, 2002.
• Case study: Technovate: creating competencies and business value through business process outsourcing (MIT CISR 347)
• Questions:
6. Risk management
• Project failure, overrun, changes to design, etc
• Reading:
• Case study PFPC: Building an IT risk management competency (MIT CISP 353)
• Questions:
7. Wireless applications and devices
• the mobile enterprise, cellular IP services, hot-spots, wireless broadband, personal area networks, security policies, appropriate use and return on investment
• Reading:
• Case study:
• Questions:
8. Directing the ICT function
• Role of the board of directors, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), portfolios, benchmarking
• Reading:
• Richard Nolan and Warren McFarlan "Information technology and the board of directors" Harvard Business Review October 2005, pp 96-106
• Nicholas Carr "The End of Corporate Computing" Sloan Management Review 46 (3) 67-73, Spring 2005
• Case study:
• Questions:
1. In which circumstances should the board of directors be actively engaged in the ICT function?
2. What forces are causing the role of Chief Information Officer to change?
3. Which areas of activity cannot be outsourced to vendors?
9. Student presentations
10. Student presentations