This course is intended to improve your ability to determine whether,
when and how to commercialize technological innovations. It will also
enhance your ability to manage your firm's technology strategy
post-commercialization. As such, this course will be of particular
interest to students interested in technology-driven businesses and
new ventures, as well as financial analysts interested in how to
assess and value a firm's technology-related activities and even
policymakers interested in formulating supportive technology policy.
This course is highly complementary with several other strategy
electives including Cooperative Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Game
Theory and Competitive Dynamics, Strategy in the Creative Industries,
and Technology Strategy.

Commercialization of technological innovation entails facing a host of
challenging questions including: What is the value of an innovation?
What is the right way to commercialize it – when is licensing
preferred to joint ventures or diversification? How can I understand
and anticipate technological change, and pursue strategies to take
advantage of my insight? Can technology strategy be a source of
competitive advantage?

This course will introduce you to the issues and analytical arguments
behind these questions and others, drawing on recent advances in the
literatures on competitive strategy, organization economics,
industrial organization and technology management. The theoretical
arguments developed in the course will consistently be applied through
case analysis and the course project. In addition, the course will
provide insight into current “hot” technologies, including
nanotechnology and information technology.

The overall objectives of this course are to provide you with
analytical frameworks and tools that will sharpen your ability to:

• Recognize and evaluate commercialization opportunities;
• Anticipate problems faced by technology-driven ventures;
• Understand the relationship between market and organizational characteristics and the success or failure of an innovation;
• Develop and assess an overall technology strategy.

Technology and innovation must be actively managed. This course
focuses on the concepts, techniques and processes used to facilitate
successful technological innovations in firms. The objectives of the
class are to (1) introduce students to the multiple factors involved
in successful technological innovation in firms and (2) provide
students with opportunities to integrate and synthesize the multiple
demands and requirements faced by managers in innovative firms. This
course is a requirement for all students in the Skoll BASc/MBA
program. Other MBA students interested in technology are encouraged to
take this course.

The purpose of this course is to learn how social networks affect the
organization and coordination of work, and create economic value. In
particular, we will focus on network entrepreneurs – individuals or
organizations that use social networks to discover and exploit
economic opportunities. We will begin with some recent examples of
network entrepreneurs, and then introduce the underlying network
principles, followed by a discussion of network forms of organizing.
The course will focus on the relevance of social networks for both the
formulation of strategy for new (i.e., entrepreneurial) ventures and
the implementation of strategy in existing organizations. Social
networks will be examined at the individual level (e.g., the pattern
of friendship relationships among individuals in a firm) and at the
organizational level (e.g., the pattern of strategic alliances among
firms in an industry).

The rapid evolution of high-tech products and their technology offer
many new challenges to the marketer. Marketing start-ups as well as
established products, managing the introduction of upgraded or
innovative products, distribution channel selection, branding,
advertising, the use of media such as the Internet, and developing
strategies to profit from the convergence of previously diverse
technologies, are some of the topics covered.

The Computer Science department is also offering an interesting course this fall:

The course identifies the principles for starting and operating
successful and growing software venture. Students are expected to
understand the "why" these principles by the end of the course.
Student work is centred on building a real business plan for a
software venture with a group of other students. The intended audience
for these business plans are potential investors, including angel
investors and venture capital funds. Guest entrepreneurs and other
industry participants provide "real world" perspective.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of this course include development of:

• An understanding of the high-technology business environment in
  general and of the computer and software industries in particular.
• An understanding of the basic principles involved in crafting a
  small healthy growing business within the software industry
• The ability to write, present, and critique business plans and to
  formulate basic computer-based financial forecasting models.
• A capacity to analyze the first-person perspective of entrepreneurs
  and other industry participants.

SYNOPSIS

Topics will include the definition and scope of the computer and
software industries; an analysis of the sources of innovative
opportunity; a discussion of strategy and, key trends such as open
source, outsourcing and "software as a service"; software market
planning and product planning; the management of R&D and software
development; software product marketing; software sales and sales
management; software support; the financing and financial management
of high technology ventures; legal protections for software as
intellectual property; and leadership, management, and human resources
for high technology industries.

The class will be enriched by the participation of guest entrepreneurs
– skilled practitioners active in the industry.