Bus 281: Management of High-Technology Organizations

Fall 2009: Business 281
Management of High-Technology Organizations
Last modified October 6, 2009

This course provides an overview of issues facing companies in I.T. and other technology based industries.

Note: Previous students have rated this course quite demanding, both in terms of the amount of material covered and the technical content.

The course materials (including assigments) will posted to a password-protected website on Blackboard.

For guidelines for logging on to Blackboard, see http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/blackboard.htm

Meetings

All meetings are at Rose Orchard. Because we have two holidays, the two Saturday sessions will be all day.

Wednesdays, Oct. 21-Dec. 9 (except Nov. 11,25): 6:00-9:45 p.m.

First Class Meetings

Oct. 21: See the week 1 assignment page.

Oct. 24: You are expected to read the Chapters of 1-9 of the Shapiro and Varian book (almost the entire book) prior to our Oct. 24 meeting. Specific cases will be discussed on Oct. 21.

Readings

The following books are required:

Geoffrey A. Moore, Dealing with Darwin, New York: Portfolio, 2005. ISBN: 1591841070.
Carl Shapiro, Hal R. Varian, Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, c1999. ISBN: 087584863X.
Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma, pbk. ed., New York: HarperBusiness, 1999. ISBN: 0060521996

Used books are of course equally acceptable. Note that students who have not completed Bus 202 and do not have an undergraduate major or minor in business or economics will be required to complete a supplemental reading: David Friedman, Hidden Order; before ordering books, please contact the instructor ASAP if you fit into this category.

In addition to the books, there will be an a course reader and articles available for online downloading. The schedule of readings will be posted to the password-protected web page, available to registered students.

About the Instructor

For those who want to know about my background, a professional and academic biography is available online