MBA 584: Competing in the Information Age

In order to successfully compete in the information age, we must manage information and exploit information technologies effectively. The purpose of this course is to develop an understanding of the role of IT in the value chain and the ever-changing competitive arena of today and tomorrow. In short, this course focuses on the use of information and information technology for competitive advantage. The course is directed toward future IT specialists, consultants, and managers who must have a basic understanding of information technologies, including identifying strategic opportunities for IT deployment, managing IT resources, and evaluating IT investments. We make no assumptions about the student's experience with IT, but we require that students have had some course work or work experience in business management.

There has been a radical rethinking of the role of computers in business organizations in the last decade. More and more organizations have begun to use information technologies as a strategic weapon. Therefore the first performance objective of this course is for students to develop the skills necessary to identify how IT redefines the strategic options available to organizations.

While some organizations have been successful in using information technologies as a strategic weapon, others have failed to do so. This uneven rate of success can be traced to the inability to understand the relation between IT architecture and organizational design. In addition, companies have not fully exploited the potential of IT because of their preoccupation with automating rather than redesigning fundamental business processes using IT. Thus the second performance objective of this course is to develop a plan to harness the power of new technologies to compete more effectively.

Finally, every organization needs to develop and execute an IT plan which is fully integrated with its business plan. An important element of this plan entails the capability to acquire and manage IT resources. This challenge becomes especially acute in a global setting. Another method for managing the IT function to run it as a business within a business. Thus our third performance objective of this course is to plan to manage information resources.

Syllabus

• Module 1 or return to previous page.