Marketing of High Technology
BA 463
Term 3,
Spring 2000
Professor Joel
Fuqua School of BusinessAssistant: Anita Tapp
203 East TowerTel:660-7728
Office hours: Wed 1:00-3:00Class: T-Fr. 1:15-3:30
Course Description:
Marketing is the business function that deals with discovering and meeting customers needs and wants. Marketing in high technology environments posses its own unique problem—information on customers is either unavailable or quickly becomes obsolete. Thus firms have to make decisions in the face of incomplete and rapidly changing information. Succeeding in this turbulent environment requires companies to be able to understand unarticulated customer needs in a context where there is substantial uncertainty about competitor response and the firm’s own ability to deliver the product.
The specific objectives of the course include:
- To understand the operational and strategic implications of competing in technology-intensive environments
- To become familiar with customer selection and positioning strategies
- To understand how adaptation to the product life cycle needs to be modified for the new economy
- To enhance skills of multiple product line positioning and bid pricing
- To learn to thrive despite rapidly shifting and overlapping distribution channels
Course Requirements:
Class participation (40%)
Classes will follow lecture/discussion model—typically with each class focusing on one case and set of readings. Rather than relying on exams, you will be evaluated by your contribution in each class. You may augment your class participation grade through postings on the class bulletin board.
Attendance:
Your attendance is very important for the course. If for any reason you will need to miss any class then you need to let me know ahead of time. Out of the 13 meetings you may miss any one class by sending me an E-mail. The second class missed can be made up by writing an extra 2-page essay on the case or readings for that day. A third absence automatically reduces your grade by a group. A person with four absences may not receive credit for the course.
Individual Essays (30%):
You will be asked to write two, two-page essays. These carefully crafted documents need to focus on one managerial idea. The criterion for these essays is whether your classmates would find them to be interesting. One of the two essays must be about a case, while the other can be about an issue. The essays will be posted on the bulletin board for the class to read. The first essay is due on or before the sixth meeting (Feb 4) of the class. Please submit your essays electronically as an E-mail attachment. Essays will be graded and returned electronically.
Guest Editor Option:
Learning how to effectively edit another person’s work is an important skill and will help you and your classmates become better writers. Accordingly, you have the option of allowing a class members to give you feedback to improve your essays. If you elect that option, your submitted essays will include your name and the name of your guest editor. Both of you will receive the same grade for the paper, but the weight for a guest editor is equivalent to half of an essay (7.5%). Only class members can be editors, and a given class members can only get credit for editing two essays.
Study Groups:
You are encouraged to form a diverse study group of no more than 5 people to discuss cases before class. Groups will complete one large project and small assignments before particular classes. You will need to register your study groups and your likely group project at the time of the second class (Jan 21).
Group projects (30%):
The major group project involves either a case analysis of the analysis of an idea. It will typically be about 10 pages not including tables and appendices. Instead of a written version, the analysis can be presented to the class. If so, then your deliverable will be PowerPoint summary sheets. Because a given class can have at most two presentations, you will need permission from me if your group wishes to present their project as a presentation. The first groups requesting a time in class will have priority.
Honor Code:
What you submit must be your own new writing. Taking sections of text or even direct paraphrasing from another source, even your own, without referencing is a violation of the honor code. Further, you are responsible to understand thoroughly any group project with your name attached. You may be questioned about the sources of both individual essays and group projects.
COURSE SCHEDULE
1.Fri 1/14
Marketing in the New Economy:
Don Tapscott (1996) “Twelve Themes of the New Economy” Ch. 2
Nelson Schwartz (1999) “Secrets of Fortune’s Fastest Growing Companies,” Fortune,
September 6, 1999.
Case: “Genentech, Inc (A)”
For this case we will focus on the critical selling jobs of Genentech in its early days--how to get venture capital support. Evaluate Genentech’s strategy from that perspective in the seed capital era in 1976 and in its capital expansion era in 1978.
Optional additional task: Using a web search, provide an update on where Genentech is today.
- Fri 1/21
Market Acceptance of Innovations
Everett Rogers (1995) Diffusion of Innovations, Chapter 6
Case: “Rogers Communication, Inc: The Wave,”
3.Tue 1/25
Technology product life cycle
Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm. Introduction and Chapter 1, Harper Perennial, revised 1999 edition.
Geoffrey Moore “How to Profit from Turbulent Change” (Summary of Inside the Tornado) Success December 1995.
Malcolm Gladwell (1999) “The Science of the Sleeper,” New Yorker, October 4.
4. Fri 1/28
Estimation of consumer acceptance of innovations
Live case: Consumer acceptance of competition in electricity suppliers
Guest: Patricia Garber, Electric Producers Research Institute (EPRI)
5. Tue 2/1
First Mover Advantage
Reading: Gerry Tellis and Peter Golder (1996) “First to Market, First to Fail? Real Causes of Enduring Market Leadership,” Sloan Management Review, 1996 #3725
Case: “Compaq Computer Corporation.”
6. Fri 2/4
Market evolution
Anita McGahan, Leslie Vadasz and David Yoffie (1997) “Creating Value and Setting Standards,” Ch. 6 in Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence, David Yoffie, Editor.
Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen (1995) “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,” Harvard Business Review #95-103
David Collis, William Bane and Stephen Bradley, (1997) “Winners and Losers: Industry Structure in the Converging World of Telecommunications, Computing and Entertainment” Ch. 4 in Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence, David Yoffie, Editor.
7. Tue 2/8
Company Line Evolution
Case: “Biopure Corporation”
8. Fri 2/11
Customer Selection:
Michael Porter (1980) Competitive Strategy, Ch. 6 “Strategy Toward Buyers and Sellers”
Free Press
Case: Fabtek (A)
9. Tue 2/15
Pricing strategies
“Intel Corporation: Going into Overdrive,”
10. Fri 2/18
Live case: “ObjectIntelligence and Harris Publications”
You will be provided the history of the bid process from the RFP (request for proposal) to the final decision. You will be asked to critique the process from the perspective of the bidding company. Representatives from both the bidding firm and the publisher will react to your recommendations.
Guests: Robert Barth, ObjectIntelligence, and Tom Baker, Harris Publication.
11. Tue 2/22
Channel evolution
Adam Fein and Sandy Jap (1999) “Manage Consolidation in the Distribution Channel,”
Sloan Management Review, (Fall) #4115.
Case: “InPart”
12. Fri 2/25
High tech and the Web
Philip Evans and Thomas Wurster (1999) “Getting Real About Virtual Commerce” Harvard Business Review (Nov-Dec) p.85-94. #99605
Case: “Dell Online”
13. March 1-3
During the exam Period—We will meet once for a 3-hour session for group presentations or for a presentation of the Fujitsu Live Case. The Fujitsu live case builds from Fuqua’s Next Generation Client Computing Project. Each student will be part of an alpha test for a Fujitsu ‘pen tablet’ containing the readings, cases and lecture notes for the course. A team of student will monitor the effectiveness of this device and, along with the rest of the class will present their findings to Fujitsu.