New MBA class on key tech trends

An update for those of you interested as I will deliver a new class for Kedge's MBA students in Paris/Shanghai about technology trends.

Here's the syllabus:

How Key Technological trends translate into innovation (or not)

Key Points

The ambition of this course is for students to understand how emerging technologies shape the future of business in different ways, to identify key current trends with their possible political, societal, environmental, or economical impacts, and more importantly develop a strategic understanding on when to leverage these trends by finding a proper timing in regards of specific objectives.

Course Perspective

The concept of "progress," formulated in the early 19th Century with the idea that new technologies would consistently enhance human well-being, appears increasingly unsustainable in the face of climate change and societies fracturing due to social media disinformation. Despite this, recent decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in technology, automating labor, discovering new cures for chronic diseases and unexpected pandemics, and empowering individuals collectively.

This course will initially break down the conventional cycle of "tech," spanning from public research and R&D to market inception, with a specific focus on factors that accelerate or impede market adoption in B2B or B2C contexts. During this segment, we will delve into the concept of "deeptech," exploring whether it's a weak signal or a legitimate trend. Subsequently, we will examine how large companies navigate various stages of tech maturity, encompassing foresight explorations, open innovation, internal R&D, and corporate venturing.

In the second part, we will analyze five major technology trends, assess their maturity levels, and establish a framework to comprehend the potential impact on diverse markets. Technology disruption will be discussed, emphasizing why it's seldom (if ever) a single technology that can overturn an old business paradigm and reshape a market independently. We will assess here how environmental and societal issues are accelerating factors of such disruptions.

The third part of the course will concentrate specifically on digital technology trends, deconstructing the different strata involved, including dematerialization, disintermediation, network effects, and the pivotal role of data.

In the final segment, we will reverse our approach, examining two to three business sectors as examples of how technologies are handled and integrated by diverse ecosystems. The goal is not to present an exhaustive overview of all conceivable types of tech and market combinations but to provide a clear understanding of the diverse approaches to tech trends.

Learning Objectives

After this course students should be able to:

• Understand the granular and diverse nature of “technology” and how it influences the adoption of tech trends into the market (or not).
• Assess what are viable technology trends for a given market and be able to expand their horizon outside of the usual silos.
• Have a precise understand of the mechanisms at play under the broad notion of digital technologies.
• Develop a proper strategy for how their business could deal with and make use of technology trends with adequate timing.

List of References

1. Kai-Fu LEE (2018), AI Superpowers, Harper Business, ISBN: 978-1328546395
2. Lessig, L. (2009), Remix, Penguin Books, ISBN: 978-0143116134
3. Mike ISAAC (2019), Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN: 978-0393652246
4. Treacy, M. & Wiersema F. (1997), The Discipline of Market Leaders, Basic Books, ISBN: 978-0201407198
5. Clayton M. Christensen (1997), The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, Harvard Business Review Press, ISBN: 978-1633691780.
6. Amy Webb (2016), The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, PublicAffairs, ISBN: 978-1610396660.
7. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (2014), The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN: 978-0393241259.
8. Thomas H. Davenport and Julia Kirby (2015), Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines, HarperBusiness, ISBN: 978-0062388739.