Wharton School - Mack Center - 2008 ET Update Day

Presented by the William & Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation

A Wharton School Conference Designed & Sponsored by the William & Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation

Organized by Professor Harbir Singh, Co-Director of the Mack Center, and Prof. Nicolaj Siggelkow

Conference Description & Agenda

In today's increasingly interconnected world, the use of communication and computational technologies has transformed the way firms do business. Companies have redefined how they perform their internal operations.

As new products and even industries have emerged, enabled by digital technologies, so also have new paths toward competitive advantage and profit.

The progress of Internet and communication technologies is changing the interaction between employees, corporations, customers and society at large. A number of firms are capitalizing on the emergent opportunities, and are leading the creation of an electronically networked world. In doing so, the boundaries between firms, industries, and societies are blurring and evolving in new ways.

Critical Issues and questions addressed in this event will include:

v How is “technology-enabled business transformation” influencing Corporate Strategy?

v What lessons can be learned from industries that have been transformed by emerging digital technologies?

v How is digital connectivity changing how we live and work?

v How are best practice firms creating and benefiting from Information Networks?

v How is digitization transforming business processes, international services and workflow?

Conference Participants: Attendees included more than 90 senior executives from large corporations involved in technological innovation/emerging technologies, including decision makers responsible for strategic planning, R&D, market scanning, marketing and organization development.

Agenda

8:00 - 8:30 Continental Breakfast and Networking

8:30 - 8:35 Welcome and Introduction

Harbir Singh - Co-Director, William & Phyllis Mack Center;
Acting Chair, Management Department; and
Mack Professor of Management, The Wharton School

8:35 – 9:20 Digital Transformation and Corporate Strategy

Professor Thomas Eisenman - Assoc. Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

9:45 –11:15 Transformation of Corporations Through Connectivit y

IBM’s Proactive Approach to Transformation:
Leading Change When Business Is Good

Steve Kloeblen – Vice President, Business Development, New Growth Platforms

Moneshia Greafin Zu Eltz – Corporate Development Executive, IBM

Microsoft: Enterprise Awareness Networks
Jon Udell - Technical Evangelist, Microsoft

In the blogosphere and in social networks, people are now astonishingly well-informed about news and about each others' activities. How can enterprises, lacking Internet scale,
create the same high levels of awareness in the same easy and natural ways? By recognizing and exploiting the power of syndication. The same publish-and-subscribe mechanisms that are turbocharging awareness at Internet scale can be adapted for use in the enterprise. This talk will summarize both the technical and organizational strategies that together can create an enterprise awareness network.

11:30 – 12:15 Ten Years of Napster: Ten Lessons Learned

Professor Peter Fader - Francis and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing; The Wharton School

12:15 – 1:15 LUNCH

1:15 – 3:15 The Digitization of Services and the Transformation of Work

DuPont: Using IT to Effect Business Transformation

James D. Thompson - Assoc. Director, Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs
and Director, Societal Wealth Program, The Wharton School

John Ranieri - Vice President and General Manager, DuPont Bio-Based Materials

Outsourcing Lessons

Professor Ravi Aron – Asst. Professor of Information and Operations Management, The Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
and Senior Fellow, Mack Center; The Wharton School

Citigroup: Transformation in Banking & Financial Services

Peter Nag - Citigroup Global Wealth Management Offshore Initiative

3:15 Closing Comments