It Strategy

B19 – IT Strategy Syllabus Start January 31, 2013 Ends April 25, 2013 Day and Time: Thursday 12-14 & 14-16 Instructors:Stefan Henningsson (sh. [email  protected] dk) Jonas Hedman (jh. [email  protected] dk) + guests Course Description This course uses the IVK Case Series to examine important issues in IT management through the eyes of Jim Barton, a talented business (i. e. , non-technical) manager who is thrust into the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role at a troubled financial services firm. The course follows Barton through challenges, mistakes, travails, and triumphs.We take this journey with him, commenting on and debating his choices and decisions. During his first year as CIO, Barton confronts issues related to skill and talent management; IT costs, budgets, value, and chargeback systems; priority setting and financial justification of IT investments; project management; runaway projects and underperforming vendors; security risks and crises; Web 2. 0 policies; com munications with other senior executives; vendor management; infrastructure standardization; support for innovation; and risk management. As Barton encounters these issues, we address them too, through associated readings.As we examine and critique both research and conventional management wisdom on these topics, we’ll derive a framework for managing IT as a business leader. Course Book The main text for this course is the book â€Å"Adventures of an IT Leader†, also called IVK after the company in the book. Adventures of an IT Leader Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan, Shannon O’Donnell | Apr 21, 2009 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (1 Mar 2009) ISBN-10: 142214660X ISBN-13: 978-1422146606 Among other places, the book is available from http://amzn. com/142214660X Obtaining Harvard Business School Publishing MaterialsSome of the readings in this course must be acquired online from Harvard Business School Publishing. You can access the site to download th ese materials here: https://cb. hbsp. harvard. edu/cbmp/access/17620259 At this site you will need to use a credit card to purchase copyrighted materials, which you will then download in PDFs and be able to print as is convenient. Please be sure to use this link, not the main HBSP website, so that you get the discount associated with the course. Course blog The course blog is the official source of information, where updates, session presentations, etc. ill be posted. http://www. itu. dk/courses/EB19/F2013/ Session 1: Introduction to the Case Method and the Course (Thursday, January 31, 12:00 to 12:00, ScrollBar) Reading (please read before class): â€Å"A Note on Case Learning,† HBS 899-105 (download/purchase from HBSP website) IVK 1 – The New CIO â€Å"Understanding Financial Statements† HBS 5238BC (download/purchase from HBSP website) Assignment Questions (think about and discuss with others before class): Consider the exhibits at the end of IVK-1; what do th ey tell you about the IVK Corporation’s business situation? Why has this company replaced its CEO?If you were Jim Barton, would you accept the CIO job offered by the new CEO? If he accepts, what should be his plan of action? What should he do first? Second? What would be your best single piece of advice to Barton if he decides to take the job? What should he watch out for? Where should he be careful? Session 2: Challenges Facing the New CIO (Thursday, February 7, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) *** IBM Guest Presentation *** Reading: IVK 2 – CIO Challenges IVK 3 – CIO Leadership IVK 4 – The Cost of IT Assignment Questions: How do you interpret the kid’s advice to Barton: â€Å"You need to know what you don’t know? †Davies predicts that Barton will be gone in a year; why does he say this? Do Maggie’s notes (exhibit at end of IVK-2) shed any light on Davies’ assertion? What should be Barton’s plan for reaching out to oth er CIOs and industry experts to gain expertise quickly about running an IT department? Whom should he talk to first? Do you agree with Ruben that IT is a â€Å"unique† business function, that it is different from other departments in the organization? What did Barton learn from his trip to the bookstore and subsequent night of studying? Session 3: The Value of IT (Thursday, February 14, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar)Reading: IVK 5 – The Value of IT â€Å"Zara: IT for Fast Fashion† HBS 604-081 (download/purchase from HBSP website) â€Å"IT Doesn’t Matter† HBS 0306B (download/purchase from HBSP website) â€Å"Dog Eat Dog† http://online. wsj. com/public/article_print/SB117735476945179344. html â€Å"The IT Productivity Gap† http://ebusiness. mit. edu/erik/Optimize/pr_roi. html â€Å"Zara: IT for Fast Fashion† Assignment Questions: How would you advise Salgado to proceed on the issue of upgrading the POS terminals? Should he upgrade to a modern operating system? Should the POS applications be rewritten to include any additional functionality?If so, what functionality? What benefits does Inditex/Zara get from its IT infrastructure? How difficult would it be for a competitor to acquire these same benefits? IVK Assignment Questions: What is the â€Å"right† amount for a company to invest in IT? How should Jim Barton respond to the CEO when he asks: â€Å"What is the ‘right’ amount for IVK to spend on IT? ’ What is the purpose of a â€Å"chargeback† system for returning IT costs to business units? Why implement such a system? As we learn in IVK-4, at IVK business units control all of the IT budget; what do you think of this arrangement?Should Barton try to â€Å"pull back† some of the budget that is allocated to business units, to create his own discretionary budget? How does IT create or enable the creation of value within a company? How should we value IT capabilities requi red to keep us in business, but that do not differentiate us from competitors (so-called â€Å"qualifiers† in the discussion in IVK-5)? Session 4: Managing Projects (Thursday, February 21, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) Reading: IVK 6 – Project Management IVK 7 – The Runaway Project â€Å"Cisco Systems, Inc. : Implementing ERP† HBS 699-022 (download/purchase from HBSP website) Managing Project Uncertainty: From Variation to Chaos† by Arnoud De Meyer, Christoph H. Loch, and Michael T. Pich, MIT Sloan Management Review 42, 2, (Winter 2002); CBS Library Database: http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&db=bth&AN=5982685& amp;site=ehost-live&scope=site Cisco Systems Assignment Questions: Cisco was highly successful with its enterprise resource planning (ERP) effort. What accounts for this success? What were the most important things that Cisco did correctly? Did Cisco do anything wrong on this project? If so, what? Was Cisco smart or lucky wi th its ERP implementation?IVK Assignment Questions: Which side would you take in the debate between Henderson and Calder? What do you think of the approach that Davies seems to have used (judging from documents found by Barton) to managing uncertainty in projects? What should Barton do to get the IR initiative back on track? Should he fire NetiFects? How do you manage project problems you cannot anticipate? Session 5: Prioritization, Governance (Thursday, February 28, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) Reading: IVK 8 – IT Priorities IVK 9 – Governance â€Å"Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities† HBS 605-003 (download/purchase from HBSP website)Volkswagen of America Assignment Questions: What is your assessment of the new process for managing priorities at Volkswagen? Are the criticisms justified? Is it an improvement over the old process? Who controls the budgets from which IT projects are funded at Volkswagen of America? Who should control these budgets? How sh ould Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatment outside the new priority management system? IVK Assignment Questions: Should Barton try to take control of the entire IT budget? Should he ask for a percentage of the overall budget to be placed under his control?Or should he try to fix the committee structure put in place by Davies? What should Barton do about â€Å"managing Beckworth? † Managing Williams? Session 6: Crisis and Damage control (Thursday, March 7, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) IVK 10 – Crisis IVK 11 – Damage http://www. nytimes. com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/16stuxnet. html Symantec Internet Security Threat Report: Executive Summary April 2010 http://eval. symantec. com/mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-whitepaper_exec_summary_internet_security_threat_report_xv_04-2010. en-us. pdf Viruses and threats Questions: What type of malware is the Stuxnet, and how did it work?How did the Hydraq Trojan operate? Could it be a potential threat to IVK? IVK Assignment Questions: What is your assessment of how IVK handled the crisis during the event itself? Did they do a good job of crisis management? How would you recommend that Barton handle the analyst meeting? If you were on the team coming up with the strategy for the meeting, what guidelines would you suggest to Barton? Session 7: Communication (Thursday, March 14, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) *** Danske Bank Guest Presentation *** Reading: IVK 12 – Communication â€Å"The Lessons of ValuJet 592,† by William Langewiesch (March 1998) The Atlantic. ttp://www. theatlantic. com/issues/98mar/valujet1. htm â€Å"Ready to Acquire: IT resources for a growth-by-acquisition strategy†. To be distributed. IVK Assignment Questions: Which option for securing IVK in the aftermath of the attack would you choose? Would you recommend shutting the company down? If so, when? Do you agree with the CEO’s decision about what to disclo se about this possible hacker attack? How should Barton handle the CEO’s new tendency to offer him helpful but misinformed advice? How should Barton communicate with people outside the IT department to rebuild his and his department’s credibility?How frequently should he communicate with the CEO? With his peers? Should he rely on â€Å"The Doctrine of Completed Staff Work† as he formulates a communication strategy? Session 8: Emerging technologies and Sustainable IT (Thursday, March 21, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) Reading: IVK 13 – Emerging Technology â€Å"Three strategies for Green IT† by Hedman & Henningsson http://www. computer. org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10. 1109/MITP. 2010. 141 (see also course blog) â€Å"Organizational self-renewal: The role of IS in developing organizational eco-effectiveness† by Hedman, Henningsson & Selander. 2012. To be distributed in class. Green IT TBDIVK Assignment Questions: How would you respond to Bernie Rubenà ¢â‚¬â„¢s three questions concerning possible action on the blog issue? What technology can IVK use to improve business? March 28: Easter Break Session 9: Outsourcing, Infrastructure, and Vendor Partners (Thursday, April 4, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) Reading: IVK 14 – Vendor Partnering IVK 16 – Standardization and Innovation IVK Assignment Questions: Which vendor should IVK choose for the IR project? Which approach to an SLA? Service delivery model? How much technical expertise does a company like IVK need to keep in house if it plans to outsource much of it’s IT work?How can it retain expertise when most of the interesting work is being done by vendors? What information should a company like IVK ask for in a â€Å"Request for Proposal† (RFP) document? What questions should they ask a vendor to answer? Should the IR project implementation be â€Å"fixed price† or another sort of contract? Which approach should IVK take to infrastructure standardizat ion? Are IT standardization and innovation (or flexibility) in conflict in an organization like IVK? How do you interpret the kid’s story about the great man who went missing? Session 10: Managing Talent (Thursday, April 11, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) Reading:IVK 15 – Managing Talent â€Å"Bridging the Gap Between Stewards and Creators† (download/purchase from HBSP website) Online Streaming Video: â€Å"Panel Discussion: The Organizational Dilemma of Stewards and Creators† http://www. uwtv. org/programs/displayevent. aspx? rid=4858 Assignment Questions: What should Carter and Barton do about the Ivan Korsky situation? Should Barton seek a technological way of monitoring what his employees are doing? Why or why not? Should IVK have a management system for identifying its top value people assets? If so, how might such a system work? How would it interact with training and skills development?Should Barton reorganize the IT function so that the best talent is in a central â€Å"shared services† organization available to the entire organization (rather than just a particular business unit)? What are the pluses and minuses of such an arrangement? What might Barton be able to learn from the way jazz ensembles work about how to manage top notch IT talent? Session 11: IT Risk Management (Thursday, April 18, 12:00 to 16:00, ScrollBar) IVK 17 – Risk IVK 18 – Looking Forward â€Å"The Evolution of Security† http://www. acmqueue. org/modules. php? name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=478 â€Å"CareGroup† HBS 303-097 (download/purchase from HBSP website) The Myth of Secure Computing† HBS 0306J (download/purchase from HBSP website) IVK Assignment Questions: What do you think of CEO Williams’s explanation of his actions in the aftermath of the crisis described in IVK-10? How should a company like IVK approach its cost and risk tradeoffs? CareGroup Assignment Questions: What caused the network outage at CareGr oup? Consider the lessons learned that Halamka enumerates at the end of this case—are these the right lessons? Has he missed any? Session 12: Mini-project presentations (Thursday, April 25, 12:00 to 14:00, ScrollBar) ***Mini-project presentations ***