Managing in the Information Age

Course Number 1550

Associate Professor Andrew P. McAfee
Winter, 30 Sessions
Exam

In 1987, there were about $800 of IT investment for every worker in the US economy. By 2004, the figure had more than tripled, to $2600. American companies now spend almost as much each year in hardware, software, and networks as they do in office buildings, factories, and all other physical plant combined. Other economies have less IT at present, but are spending more heavily on it.

But so what? Do business leaders -- executives, entrepreneurs, strategists, innovators, line managers, etc. -- need to concern themselves with IT just because there's a lot of it? Can't IT be delegated to dedicated specialists like the CIO and her staff?

And even if they want to be involved, how can non-technologists contribute meaningfully to IT decisions and efforts? Don't people need deep expertise and experience to understand the language and concepts of the digital world? The IT landscape seems to be in a constant state of upheaval thanks to new offerings from established vendors, startups, and even boundary-less communities (like the ones that produce Linux and Wikipedia). Isn't it a full-time job just to stay on top of these developments, let alone to figure out which IT innovations to adopt?

Managing in the Information Age (MIA) has three broad themes. The first is that business leaders are the single most important group for determining whether a company succeeds or fails with IT. The second is that they don't need to become technologists in order to get involved; they just need to master a set of concepts, frameworks, and models about IT's impact. The third is that IT matters; companies that successfully select, adopt, and exploit IT will sooner or later open up large competitive gaps that are difficult to close.

(MIA) is devoted to understanding how information technology is changing the business world, and how insightful business leaders use IT to create value and win competitive battles. The course is not intended to train CIOs, and requires no technical background. MIA is not about hardware, software, or networks. It's about IT-enabled business models and IT-based capabilities. It's also about the critical roles played by business leaders outside the IT department -- the decisions they make and the roles they play in order to be successful with technology.

If you liked the Zara and ITC eChoupal cases in RC TOM, you'll find MIA's content compelling. We'll look at:

Ducati Racing's use of computers to help build the world's fastest motorcycles.
How MK Taxi was able to offer better service in the crowded Tokyo cab market with a good idea and a bit of technology.
Why Los Grobo was able to build a true 'network organization' in one of the last places we'd think to look: the Argentine soybean industry.
Google's internal prediction market.
An investment bank that deployed blogs and wikis to all its employees, and what happened next.
Recent controversies on Wikipedia
Why Cisco got into trouble because its managers liked IT too much.
How some companies are bringing Web 2.0 inside and creating 'Enterprise 2.0'

We will discuss case studies, read and write blogs, do hands-on demos, share experiences, talk with class guests, and collectively build a course wiki. Most course materials are less than three years old. Our goal is not to master any particular set of technologies, but instead to understand the trends, principles, and cause-and-effect relationships that will endure even as IT tools themselves change over time.

Audience: The course concentrates on the decisions business leaders have to make, and the work they need to do to ensure that technologies are productively used. CIOs, consultants, programmers, and vendors appear in MIA's cases and are quite important in some of them, but these professions are not the main subjects of the course, or its primary audience. The course's materials, however, should still be useful to IT entrepreneurs, technology managers, and vendors of hardware, software, and services. All of these groups benefit from understanding the challenges and opportunities that IT brings for business leaders.

There are no pre-requisites for the course beyond the materials covered in the RC TOM course and its IT tutorial. The MIA teaching method is heavily Socratic. Grading is based on participation in classroom and on the course wiki. There is a short multiple choice final exam.