Textbook Rant

Thank you, Seth. I couldn't agree more!! And this isn't strictly a Marketing course problem, it's an issue for 99% of the courses. I have a pile of books that I lug around each semester, and they will eventually take up space in my home office, and I can't remember one moment over the past 12 months when I was class I had a textbook instead of an electronic copy of something. Not once!!

[UPDATE - In all fairness, I need to note that Dr.Iacovou did conduct our ITMgm't course in an all electronic format. This approach seemed to be well received by at least 75-80% of the class, so consider that a step in the right direction.]

Feedback on Netbooks & Mobile Computing

Before our trip to China, I wrote about the 9" Asus Eee PC netbook that I would be taking to assist with blogging. Having discussed the product in ITMgmt class in the Spring'09 semester, I got a good chance to experience the difference between a netbook and a full-blown laptop.

Here's my thoughts...

Size & Weight - Considering that I carried this around in my backpack for 14 days, the weight and form-factor were perfect. The keyboard took me a few days to master, and it helped that I'm a two fingered typist. My roommate Gregg had a difficult time on the keyboard using traditional typing techniques. The screen size is obviously smaller, but this tradeoff was more than acceptable for the weight.

Usability & Mobility - I opted for the Linux version, instead of the Windows version, to get the true netbook experience. I wanted to focus on using applications that reside in the cloud, as opposed to local apps (MS-Office, etc.). Most of the applications I needed (Firefox, Skype, etc.) come pre-loaded on the machine, and they worked perfectly. Internet from the hotel rooms was decent, not exceptional, which sort of surprised me. What I didn't find much of was free WiFi access in coffee-shops, and netbook did not have any built-in 3G access, so the mobility aspects weren't something I could experience. WiFi worked fine at home in the states, so I'll give that a pass.

Cons - For the most part, it's a very useable machine and a great mobile computing device. But the one thing I truly disliked was the interaction with the mouse and trackpad. It was very inconsistent (mouse and finger-swipe movements) and the click-button was too stiff and very loud. The noise isn't that big a problem, except in quiet rooms. I think I woke up my roommate several times when I'd get up to write in the morning.

While the netbook seemed to be a decent platform for the trip, I eventually had to compare to using my iPhone. It was somewhat of a difficult comparison in China because the international data rate from AT&T were obscene (20Mb for $20). The netbook had the storage I needed to download picture and videos, and supported Flash for applications that required it. But if I could had gotten US rates for 3G data access, I think I could have been just as happy using my iPhone for all my mobile computing except for data storage.

Overall, mobile computing has come a long way in just a few years, with netbooks beginning to fill a niche in size, weight and functionality. The iPhone fills another niche, and I think there may still be room for an in-between form factor (or a storage add-on to the iPhone). I still had to carry my FlipVideo and others used their digital cameras, so the all-in-one mobile device still doesn't exist. And of course, ubiquitous & cost-effective mobile bandwidth still has a little way to go.

The Chinese seem to do everything from their mobile phone, so I wouldn't be against that form factor. A world without wires is critical, and the instant reponse times possible with a phone-like device make business in China move at the pace it does. Innovation in this area still has a alot of potential to drive huge amount of revenues and business opportunities.

How David beats Goliath

Every once in a while, usually late at night when I'm a little punchy, I come across an article like this from Malcom Gladwell which seems to connect a lot of dots that we studied throughout the semester. I sent this one to my classmates because not only did I think it was great to see OpsMgmt, ITMgmt, and StratMktg concepts all woven together, but because I believe the alternatve mindsets that are discussed are important to consider as we prepare to visit China, Japan and South America over the next 2 weeks. Much of what we'll experience on these trips will require people to recognize that other cultures see the challenges of the world differently, and that these alternative approaches may be their competition or partner. Having the flexibility to understand these differences, and either embrace or reject this alternative thinking, may make the difference between success and failure in the future.

Great Discussion about Disruptive Technologies

This one is coincidental, as we're just now getting around to discussing Disruptive Technologies in our ITmgmt course. I personally think the entire course could (or should) have been focused on that, but I don't make the syllabus. Oh well...

A few weeks back I talked about a B.S.Report podcast between Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman where they discussed the downfall of the newspaper industry and some of the reasons this was happening.

As a follow-up to that discussion, Bill interviewed (right side of page) John A. Walsh, one of the Sr.Execs at ESPN behind ESPN.com and SportsCenter. Not only did Walsh provide additional reasons why the newspaper (and traditional news) industries are struggling, but he provided excellent insight into the mindset that is needed to truly create disruption within an existing marketplace. His passion for creating change and thinking differently comes through in ways that make you wish that you were working on one his projects right now!!

If you get a chance, take a listen for the first 30 minutes (or more) and then determine which end of disruption your business is on today. And keep in mind that ESPN began during the middle of the 18% interest rates and recession of the early 1980's. There may be no better time than now to be disruptive.

What an MBA program should be like!

We're about 8 months into the program, and we finally had a weekend that was what I had expected the program to be like. Don't get me wrong, the program so far has been very fun, and we've learned quite a bit from both professors and classmates. But this weekend was just a little more rich, a little more complete in terms of the entire experience.

Here's a few of the highlights:

Every class spend much of the time working through cases. I've stated my preference for case method learning before, and this weekend was an excellent example of the types of learning and discussion that can occur when it's focused around multi-facted cases. OpsMgm't focused on capacity planning (for manufacturing & service industries); ITMgm't focused on runaway projects and outsourcing; MgmtAcct focused on companies that are looking at techniques like Open Book Management and Beyond Budgeting; and FinMgm't focused on capital budgeting for multinational companies. Great discussions of the issues within the cases, intermixed with healthy arguments of opinions and personal experiences from classmates. The prep work and actual discussion can be exhausting, but I feel like we learn so much more from this method.

In our MgmtAcc't class, Dr.Beatty has been talking about Open Book Management (OBM) throughout the semester as a topic that student may want to consider evaluating for their work environments. In fact, our final exam is being dropped in favor of a OBM project to create a plan to introduce OBM into one of the companies without our group. Our project (Team 5) will be for General Parts International (Raleigh, NC), a $3-4Byr privately-held company, where teammate Matt Johnson is a Sr.VP. After sending us a recent WSJ article on OBM, Dr.Beatty realized that Kindermusik (referenced in the article) was a local company and arranged to have their EVP/GM (Brian Healy) visit class and give us an overview of how they implement OBM within their organization. Mr.Healy did a tremendous job of sharing experiences and taking Q&A about how OBM helped shape the culture of Kindermusik, and focus each individual in the company on the "critical number" necessary to make that portion of their business successful.

The evening before our FinMgm't class, the amount of discussion between teams in trying to pull together all the information and analysis of the Whirlpool case was excellent. We were literally walking back and forth between rooms in the hotel comparing notes, debating analysis, struggling with how to handle missing data or assumptions, and generally putting in a ton of time for a piece of homework that effects a very small portion of our overall grade. By 2am we were completely blurry eyed and exhausted. But the journey was well worth it. Not only did we each learn quite about about the concept (capital budgeting), but I think we broke down a couple of mental barriers between the teams.

A few weeks ago a few of us where out late, signing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" with the local cover-band, and started talking about some ways that we could have a little fun and bring the class together a little better. Sometimes we get too focused on school work. The first attempt fell short (sorry Matt Kirk!!), but this weekend's Pajama Saturday turned out to be a big success. I'll get into that more later.

The 1st annual EXFT Ping-Pong Singles tournament reached the finals. This is our unofficial break-time activity. Congrats to Gregg Lewis and Brian Turner for reaching the finals. We're looking forward to the match next weekend.

So all-in-all a really great weekend. Lots of variety, lots of interaction within the class and outside of class, and I think the group is continuing to come together quite a bit more. It's a great bunch of people and a program that I'm proud to be a part of.

Connect the Dots - Unlimited Inventory

In a previous post, I wrote about the struggles I've had in trying to grasp some of the production concepts in my OpsMgmt class.  It's not that the idea of building something in a factory was foreign to me, but there was just something that wasn't clicking.  And I couldn't figure out what it was.

This afternoon, I came across this Hal Varian video.  Dr. Varian is the Chief Economist at Google, and a Professor of IT at Cal Berkeley.  In one of the segments, he talked about the production of "goods" in a digital economy.  His explanation of how these goods were made up of bits flipped a switch in my head.  That was it, that was the thing that had been my mental block for the last couple of weeks. I've become so ingrained with the thinking of everything being online and digitized, I've become somewhat immune to the realities of creating physical goods.  I live in a digital world, and so I've adapted my way of thinking to center around bits. And as he states below, "..there is no shortage....and there is no inventory" 

"The great thing about the current period is that component parts are all bits. That means you never run out of them. You can reproduce them, you can duplicate them, you can spread them around the world, and you can have thousands and tens of thousands of innovators combining or recombining the same component parts to create new innovation. So there’s no shortage. There are no inventory delays."

One of the things I constantly have to remind myself about the MBA program is that it's not just to make me think about my current environment.  It's to also make me think about different or unknown environments.  This is one of those areas.  I just need to keep reminding myself that these two worlds run in parallel, and finding interesting and productive ways to have them intersect is the challenge.  

Connect the Dots - Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Web Computing

Wow, this Obama guy really is promoting change....2 posts about accounting in less than 2 weeks!!  

This article shows how a software developer created a model that leverages cloud computing (Google AppsEngine, Amazon S3, Twitter), which is driving new computing and business models, and embedded Activity Based Costing (ABC).  ABC is one of the early focus areas of our MgmtAcct class this semester.

So instead of having silos between the production groups and the accounting groups, it's tightly integrated via software that is open to all developers and all customers.  

While this is a small example, it does create an interesting blurring between IT, Ops/Production and  Accounting, especially when you start thinking about the business opportunities that happen when companies leverage the cloud and open development environments. 

Growing the Business - Deep or Wide?

Reading through an HBR case for ITMgmt, on Merrill Lynch's decision to aggressively move to online services (1999), it highlighted an interesting contrast in strategies.  On one hand, they talked about aligning their services in a vertical manner, "holding more wallet-share of the existing customers".  This model is less expensive for customer acquisition, but it adds the cost and complexity of providing greater value through an integrated set of products.  On the other hand, Merrill Lynch set huge 2005 growth goals with these new services, and the only way to reach those numbers would require them to aggressively add new customers, outside of their sweet-spot customer segments. These new customers were typically younger customers, with net-worth less than $75,000, and more familiar with online transactions through low-cost providers like Charles Schwab (this was pre-eTrade, etc.).

Some questions come to mind:

• Can both strategics co-exist in the same organization, especially with different capture models and different margin models?
• Does one model work better with new products than with existing products?  
• Is this just a matter of market segmentation, and not really two different strategies?
• Should a company go-to-market for new customers with a deep vertical offering, or should they initial start with a simpler model to ease adoption by new customers? 

Both my previous and existing company are both going this dual strategy challenge, so I'll be very interested to see how the discussion in class, with viewpoints from classmates experience, matches or diverges from my experiences.

The Intersection of Marketing and Technology

I wrote Monday about our Strategic Marketing project on the social media aspects of Obama's election.  Yesterday was the Inauguration, the significance of which could cover multiple pages (or books).  I'm not going to talk about the historical significance, because I don't have the words right now to do it justice.  So I thought I'd talk a little about how the intersection of Marketing and Technology and President Obama have directly affected me, and give some previews into aspects of our paper. 

P-E Obama took the train into Washington DC, a slower path that allowed more people to join in the momentum building towards the inauguration. Building community.  Allowing multiple media outlets to add their unique angle to the moment.  

I watched the Inauguration through multiple sources:

1. It was a snow day in NC, so I downloaded the UStream (like TV viewer) application for iPhone, and was able to watch on my handheld device while watching the kids make snow angels outside. 
2. When I had issues on the iPhone, I switched over to my laptop to get the live stream from CNN, which had partnered with Facebook to provide an integrated Media + Social Networking experience.  
3. I watched as CNN partnered with Microsoft Photosynth to create real-time 3D views of the Inauguration the pictures of thousands of people in attendance.

Over and over the themes were visible.  Building Communities.  Allowing people to modify the experience to their desires.  Integrating technology so it got to people in ways they wanted. Giving away information to the communities to allow them to build new concepts.

Transitioning Traditional Business to Online Business

Anytime we learn something new, we frequently search for an analogy or previous experience to relate with it.  It makes us feel comfortable.  Combine this with the fact that many things computer-related can be unknown or frightening to people 30+, that weren't born with Internet DNA.  Seth makes a great point of this on his blog today.  Taking advantage of the technology or moving aspects of your business to the Internet is not as simple as "add computer".  

The good news for non-IT managers is that the equation is more heavily skewed towards their experience than one may initially think.  Their knowledge of the business is critical as a foundation for understanding what is needed to make the move to the Internet (or any automation) work.  But of course that experience needs to be combined with an open-mind that aspects of the online business make be very different from the tradition business.

More WFU EXFT2009'ers join the Blog Discussion

I'm happy to announce that WFU MBA classmate Jim Schweitzer has joined the discussion about our program in the blogosphere. Jim's blog can be found here.  Jim runs multiple aspects of a regional software development company, so his insight into that side of ITMgmt should be very interesting. He's also an excellent economist, so I suspect that he'll bring much more than a technical slant to the discussion.

Welcome aboard Jim!!

Connect the Dots - The Give and Take between Old World and New World Media

As I've mentioned before, one of the things I hope to do on this blog is draw some linkages between the topics we study in the classroom and their usage in the real world.  One of the discussions from our last ITMgmt course was the pace of technology change and how it's impacting many traditional businesses.  Most of the discussion was about how innovation, specifically technology-centric innovation, was creating something called creative destruction.  

The USAir plane crash yesterday actually did a nice job of highlighting both sides of the discussion.  Initially, several people commented on the speed of content which emerged from citizen journalists using social networking tools like Twitter. They lamented that journalism and mass media were becoming dead industries as media companies weren't able to keep up with the pace of information flow that could be achieve through today's popular consumer technology.  Today, CNN representatives commented that they weren't worred about the pace of the information, but were actualy happy that they now had a free content source, instead of what they were used to paying for.  

It's interesting to look at both sides of that argument.  While I believe that CNN should still be concerned about continuing to maintain viewership to their flagship product (CNN TV), it's good to see that they are farsighted enough to embrace the technology change to the advantage of their business.  

"Decision of the Week" - Building a 21st Century Car Company

OK, here goes...we're going to see if we can create some interaction on the site. This question is open to everyone, and all comments are welcome. I'm thinking this one relates to everyone (we almost all drive cars) and it relates to class, as we're taking a mix of Marketing, Operations, Technology and Accounting classes.

We've all been watching as the Big-3 US Auto companies fly to Washington DC and ask for money (bailout, bridge loans, etc.). I believe the total is somewhere between $25-$34B at this point. While these companies all have their share of HUGE challenges (retirement costs, union costs, inefficient operations, poor brand images, etc.), they also have a number of valuable assets (engineering knowledge, production facilities, etc.).  

So here's the question... 

What if the US Gov't (Congress, TARP, Treasury..whoever) decided that instead of giving the existing companies the $25-$34B, they were going to give it to you and asked you to create an automotive start-up. You'd be allowed to pick and choose from existing US Auto expertise, personal, facilities, suppliers, etc., because they all went under. How would you build a 21st century automotive company?  

Some initial thoughts...

My initial thought was to see if I could envision an automotive company being setup and run like a Silicon Valley company that sells hardware and software.  So this new company might look something like this:

• Design - This would be a combination of world-class engineering talent (in-house) and the use of crowdsourcing efforts to continue to stimulate innovative ideas and leverage "proudly found elsewhere" mentality for global ideas.  Build communities of potential consumers to give you real-time feedback on potential designs and demands.
• Production - Why do the automotive companies need to own their own plants?  I wouldn't advocate outsourcing all the production, especially since the funding came from US Taxpayers.  But I would advocate using some of the funding to kick-start a few production facilities that would be spun-off and allowed to compete against each other for the business.  
• Sales and Distribution - We buy books and media from Amazon or iTunes.  We buy groceries and homegoods from Target.  But we have to go to a brand-specific dealer for a car?  No way does that model continue.  And I'm not even sure the Auto Superstores are the right answer either.  
• Messaging & Vision - Maybe this is really advertising, but the American automotive companies really need to start making ads that create a desire to be in their cars. Knowing that I get the employee discount does nothing to give me that awesome feeling you get in a new car and the adventures it could bring.  

OK, that's a few starting points.  I'm interesting in other areas of innovation, or other aspects to consider for change.  Ideas are welcome....

2nd Semester Class Poll

IT for Competitive Differentiation

Following up on my recent post on the impact of IT for market change and differentiation, I say this article from HBS Professor Andrew McAfee.  He makes a nice analogy about how competitors can buy the same conversion technology (for raw materials or digital information) and create completely different outputs.  It all depends on how they want to apply it.  How they want to create competitive differentiation.

IT is just a digital process factory.  

That's an interesting way to think about it.  I'll have to wrap my head around the concept, especially as we have both OpsMgm't and ITMgm't courses this semester.  Academia often tries to keep topics in silos, but in this case, it'll be very interesting to see how they merge and intersect.   

Discussion of the Week - Exponential Times

We had several interesting discussions in class this weekend, but I'll go ahead and pick a discussion from our IT Mgm't course as the introductory "Discussion of the Week" topic.  I actually learned more in the early discussions in the OpsMgm't and StratMktg courses, but I think this discussion had broader relevance to our overall MBA program.

The discussion centered around a snazzy Exponential Times video, looking at the pace at which our world is changing due to this technology they call "the Internet".  Prior to watching the video, we were asked a simple question, "How do you see the trends of the last 10 years continuing (or failing)?"  The responses ranged from Globalization to Big Box Retail to Greater Customization, alot of stuff that you read about in the press on a daily basis.  All good answers, but then we watched the video.  

As a group of (on average) 30-40yr old folks, the immediate response in the room was fairly quiet.  When you're between the Boombers and GenY demographics in the US, and the mass of humanity in both India and China, it's an interesting place to be...to say the least. 

As a group, we face several challenges and opportunities:

• While we're technology literate, we're really the first generation to move through this as a learning curve, not as a part of our DNA (sorry Boomers....you're on the way out, so I'm not counting you anymore)
• We've grown up in a world where companies followed the strategies and models defined in the 20th century.  We learned and been trained in companies that sold locally and regionally, and that survived over many decades.  Our MBA program is somewhat of a bridge between those 20th century models and scratching the surface on 21st century ideas.  

Having lived on Internet time for the past 15 years, I felt comfortable (as much as anyone can be) with the explosiveness of the numbers in the video.  I've lived with growth on that scale for a long time.  What I need to get my head around is the idea that many of the current business models I know will be (or already are) obsolete.  The good news is I have Fred, Seth and Umair to balance my work experience and MBA learnings.

Was excited about 2nd Semester..Now I'm Torn

It's 11:15pm on Wednesday and I'm almost finished with my prep-work for this weekend's classes, which kick off the 2nd semester.  While I'm still not that excited about Managerial Accounting (because it's Accounting), StratMktg, OpsMgm't and ITMgm't all have aspects that I'm looking forward to exploring.  

I've been giving OpsMgm't quite a bit of thought, as the first class is focused on Operations Innovation, and the concept that 21st Century business success will be driven by new thinking about these types of innovations.  With the Internet and global competition able to commoditize so many things so much faster, it makes sense that OpsMgm't has the ability to provide consistent financial & strategic buffers between product innovations.

But then I'm scanning my RSS Reader and noticed an updated post from Umair Haque, 21st Century Economics.  On the surface, Dr.Haque probably comes across to some people as an angry guy because of the tone of some of his posts.  I've never met him, maybe he is and maybe he's not.  But one thing he definitely is is passionate about the need to really, REALLY think hard about the types of changes that are going to be needed for the world to recover from the mess it's in today.  I'd love to get access to his lab research and better understand some of his analysis, because on the surface they make alot of sense to me.  The concepts around edge economies, asymmetric competition, creating actual vs. perceived value seem to align very much to the other global topics we covered our the BGE class.  We've seen this environment where short-term rapid consumption and lack of concern about global results has consistently caused crisis (US Currency Crisis in 1970s; Formation of the EU; US Credit Crisis of 2008, etc.).

Why do I bring this up?  Because there is part of me that's eager to learn more about these interesting topics, and part of me that wants to throw out many of those existing theories and explore "innovations" in those areas that will sustainable for the 21st century.  Hopefully there will be enough flexibility to find a balance.  I've told my team that I intended to push that envelope quite a bit during the semester, so we'll see how it turns out.  

The long break for work and school is over....back to the routine.

The 2nd Semester Approaches

I think I'm finally caught up with my summaries and impressions from the 1st semester, so it's now time to take a look at the upcoming (2nd) semester, which starts next weekend.  The course list looks like this:

Operations Management - Dr. Jack Meredith

Managerial Accounting - Dr. Bern Beatty

Strategic Marketing - Dr. James Narus

Financial Management - Dr. Sandra Dow

IT Management - Dr. Charles Iacovou

Commercializing Innovation - Dr. Tom Clarkson & Dr. Stan Mandel (Elective)

Based on some initial reading and syllabus review, both Strategic Marketing and Operations Management appear to be extremely interesting.  StratMktg includes an online simulation model, and OpsMgmt appears to be very much about active discussion and the case-study model.  As much as I like Dr. Beatty, I can't say that I'm really looking forward to another accounting course.  I know it's good for me, and so are certain vegetables, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.  Luckily I have a few teammates that seem to grasp it better than me, so I'll be leaning on them again this semester.  I'm interested to see what is covered in the ITMgmt course, since I've spent the past 15 years in the IT industry, although almost entirely on the side of the vendors selling products as opposed to the day-to-day management of those systems.  I'll be interested to see what ROI models and metrics are discussed...maybe it'll help me position and sell my vendor-side products better. The FinMgmt course doesn't have the syllabus released yet, but I suspect that will also be a favorite of mine, as I'm a closet finance junkie.  

I suspect this semester will be as challenging as any in the program, both in terms of the coursework (seems like quite a bit in several courses) and the navigation in the economy in early 2009.  I suspect that we'll all be learning alot from each other as we cope with additional layoffs, economic swings, a new government in place and the overall uncertainty in our connected world.  

The break for the past couple of weeks has been nice and much appreciated, but I'm looking forward to getting back in a routine next week.  I just need to keep reminding myself that 2009 is not 2008, and new thinking and optimism will rule the day.