Anatole Gershman
Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science
Language Technologies Institute
Course Motivation and Objectives
Inventing the Future of Services is a course that focuses on the development of innovative thinking in a business environment. CMU graduates should not be waiting for their employers to tell them what to do – they should be driving radical innovation in their businesses. Drawing on my 17 years experience directing applied research at Accenture Technology Labs, I teach students systematic approaches to technology-driven business innovation in services industries.
The course will focus on the role of technology as a key driver of business change. The students will learn:
· How emerging technologies often dramatically alter the economics underlying many business processes
· How to evaluate the potential impact of various emerging technologies
· How to spot likely areas for business innovation
· How to create convincing visionary scenarios for new business processes; analyzing social, economic, environmental and other factors
· How to think creatively in a business context and how to present their ideas to future employers or sponsors
Teaching Method
The course is a seminar emphasizing student presentations and discussions:
Part 1 – Technology trends (2-3 weeks)
Students learn how to create a technology vision presentation suitable for business audiences. They examine and discuss several technology vision presentations used in industry and create their own presentations in a technological area where they have expertise. Students give 15-20 min presentations in class and get personal coaching. The main reading text for this part of the course is "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen.
The home work consists of technology trends investigation. By the end of September, students are expected to turn in their initial technology vision presentation and a short paper on the same subject.
Part 2 – Innovation in Services Sectors (5 weeks)
This part of the course is focused on technology applications to services because services constitute 70-80% of the US economy, and because they are undergoing radical technology-driven transformations. We dedicate 1 week to each of the following five sectors of services:
· Financial Services
· Healthcare
· Retail
· Media and Entertainment
· Education
Students do pre-reading about each sector and prepare their questions for an industry expert. Students are asked to identify critical problems and issues and to find examples of both successful and unsuccessful technology-driven innovations. An invited industry leader gives an overview of the sector and shares his or her professional experiences and challenges. Students get a chance to discuss their questions and ideas with the expert. Past visiting experts included Director of Services Research at IBM, the Global Head of IT Strategy at Bain & Co., the Global Head of Retail Practice at Accenture, the Head of Advanced Technology at the Bank of New York Mellon, the Head of regional Healthcare practice at Accenture, Chief Scientist of Accenture, CEO of Carnegie Speech, Chief Scientist of Alelo Technology and a former EVP of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Students are given challenge problems in each sector which they research and discuss at the next session. Here are two examples of past challenge problems:
1) The rapid adoption of PVRs leads to wide-spread skipping of commercials – the main source of television financing. What can replace it?
2) Emergency room visits by asthma patients is a big and largely preventable expense. How can technology help?
By October 16, students are expected to turn in a presentation and a short paper describing an innovative application idea in an industry of their choice. This assignment serves as a final for the students who take this course as a mini. For the rest of the students, it serves as a mid-term.
Part 3 – Technology Vision (2-3 weeks)
Having heard from industry experts, students revise and expand their technology vision presentations and adapt them to specific industries. They get to practice their presentations in class. They also get personal coaching.
Part 4 – Innovative Applications (2-3 weeks)
Each student is expected to propose, present and discuss innovative ideas in class. They are taught an analytical method for innovative thinking based on the following observation:
The evolution of technological capabilities in the last 30 years has been driven by Moore's and other similar "laws". Any application or device dependent on electronics either increased its capability by an order of magnitude every 5 years at a constant price or the price of the capability dropped by an order of magnitude, which typically leads to dramatically different uses of technology – what was economically impossible becomes possible.
The method consists of five steps:
1) Spot the likely order of magnitude changes in the next 5-7 years
2) Find the barriers that this change will eliminate
3) Figure out the new business capabilities this will create
4) Create a business scenario
5) Analyze various factors that might either impede or speed up the proposed innovation
At each step, students are supplied with the key questions and heuristics that help them think through the issues.
Part 5 – Final project presentations (2-3 weeks)
For the final project, students develop a specific idea for service innovation in an area of their choice. They are expected to:
1) Describe the problem and its importance
2) Explain why the problem has not been solved and why there is a chance to solve it now
3) Describe the proposed solution and illustrate it with a mock-up demo
4) Sketch the solution architecture and explain which parts would be off-the-shelf and which would require development
5) Make a rough estimate of the required development effort: two people in a garage vs. nationwide infrastructure
6) Outline potential extensions and benefits of the proposed solution
The last 2-3 weeks of the course are dedicated to student presentations of their service innovation ideas for which each student gets 1 hour of personal coaching. As a final deliverable, students submit their presentation and a paper on the same subject.
Intended Audience and Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites for this course. Any 3rd or 4th year undergraduate engineering, computer science, science or business major should have sufficient grounding in technology to be able to participate. This course should be of particular interest to seniors, master-level and doctoral students who intend to pursue non-academic careers. Given the participatory nature of the course, the optimal size is no more than 15-20 students. This is a 12-credit course which is offered each fall. Some students take the course as a 6-unit mini 1 (mostly Tepper students). SCS and Engineering students are encouraged to take the full 12 unit course.