Online Discussion Questions
Day 13 – IT-Driven Competitive Strategies – online discussion questions
- With ITC eChoupal, who would be unhappy? How does ITC address the resist of those unhappy?
- While eChoupal seems to be beneficial to farmers, they are not well-versed in using PCs and the Internet. How does ITC help them adopt eChouapl?
- Why is trust between farmers and ITC important for ITC eChoupal?
- How does eChoupal contribute to the competitiveness of ITC?
- Knowing about both business and technologies, what would be valuable business skills that MIS majors can have but other majors (marketing, finance, or engineering) don’t?
Day 12 – IT Risk Management – online discussion questions
- As CIO of IVK, how would you explain the incidents at Ch. 10 to Wall Street analysts?
- How would you explain the difference between a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and an intrusion to a non-IT boss or colleages?
- Why is the “rush-a-change-into-production” happening at IVK?
- What would be proper procedures and policies for a database?
- What would be proper procedures and policies for personal devices?
- Why may we lose flexibility, innovation, or responsiveness to business due to policies and procedures for IT risk management?
Day 11 Strategic IT Outsourcing – online discussion questions
- What constitutes “transaction costs” in capital expenditures?
- How unconventional are the proposed deals with the network vendors and IBM?
- Whose wage structures are similar to restaurant servers? Why do they get paid similar to servers?
- What would be the reasons for Ericsson or IBM to sign the deal with Bharti? What would be the reasons not to sign?
- Why do trust and mutual cooperation matter in a long-term outsourcing contract?
- Why is a service-level agreement important?
Day 9 – Strategic IT Outsourcing (I) – online discussion questions
- Why is Google operating its own cafeterias with full-time chefs and cooks for its all employees, instead of outsourcing to external caterers?
- Why is it more difficult to control an external vendor than to control your own employees?
- Why is there a “non-disclosure agreement” in any contract?
- Any examples of “conflicts of interests” and “information asymmetry” between a client and a vendor (except the examples that were discussed in class)?
- What kind of “homework” or research would be needed in selecting an IT outsourcing vendor?
Day 8 – Enterprise Architecture – online discussion questions
- What kind of standards do we enjoy in our daily life? (except language, currency, and electricity)
- Any other example like SmarTip or MetroCard in which customers can use a standard payment system to use different services?
- Why is flexibility in IT important for competitiveness?
- How does complexity in IT “kill” business flexibility?
- Any example in which IT complexity inhibits competitiveness?
- What would be valid, legitimate reasons that some business units are using Oracle database, while others are using Microsoft SQL?
- What does it mean by coupling in IT systems?
Day 7 – IT Governance – online discussion questions
- What would be a case in which senior management does not serve the best interests of shareholders?
- How to make sure that the interests of senior management are aligned with those of shareholders?
- What would be a case in which a CIO does not serve the best interests of shareholders?
- What are the duties of an information systems auditor?
- As a CIO, what would you say to a member of the board of directors who is saying that he/she is so busy that he/she does not have time to hear your presentation?
Day 6 – Cost of IT (II) – online discussion questions
- As the CIO of IVK, how would you convince business unit heads to come up with funding for the IT security fix?
- How would you calculate a probability and potential damages in IT security breach?
- Any examples in Tragedy of Commons?
- Any examples in Public Goods in our life?
- Any examples in Prisoner’s Dilemma in our real-life?
- What would be a problem in Volkswagen of America’s IT funding decision process?
Day 04 – Business Value of IT – online discussion questions
- How would you justify millions of dollars of investments in ByRequest?
- What are the problems and the risks in the current SFO security system?
- What can be intangible or unexpected costs of SFO’s new system?
- How would you quantify the benefits from reduced security risks?
Day 03 – online discussion questions
- What would be the core competencies of Toyota?
- What are most competitive advantages temporal and not sustainable?
- How has the Internet changed the lodging industry’s profitability?
- How does a strong “brand” affect the five forces in the lodging industry?
- Why does Wyndham target on business travelers?
- Why would it be difficult for other hotel chains to copy ByRequest?
- Why would it be difficult for other hotel chains to standardize the IT systems across the chain?
- Why is IT itself not a source of competitive advantages?
Day 02 – online discussion questions
Let’s keep the discussion on-going!
- What are the examples of “switching costs” that reduce the bargaining power of buyers?
- In the presence of fierce rivalry among competitors, what should you do in order to better compete with them and achieve high profitability?
- Why is an elevator service business more profitable than a manufacturing, based on the five forces?
- Why do companies sell bundle?
- The case states on Page 8 that “The next step in our evolution will be the management of information flows between all the participants.” What does it mean by information management? Why is it important?
- The case states on Page 8 that “To achieve continuous transformation, the e*Logistics program makes sure the business process change sticks. … With the e*Logistics program, best practices from SIP are baked into the organization and institutionalized to achieve that continuous transformation.” What does it mean by “stick” and “baked”?
- Would the change from manufacturing to a service company at Otis be easy? Who would be unhappy with this change?
Day 1 – Discussion Questions
Yesterday, we discussed the following questions. Please post your thoughts on any of these questions.
- Should a CIO be chosen among technically-trained managers or business-background managers?
- Which skill is easier to learn? IT or Management?
- Why do you think the board of directors chose Mr. Barton as a new CIO?
- What does it mean by “IT management is about management”?
- What does it mean by “IT department is positioned to understand how the business works better than any other department” ?
- What are the common characteristics of the CIOs, who we saw in the videos, in Walmart, Harrah’s and the United States?