Online discussion questions – Mar 30

Published March 30, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

If you were Mr. Barton, how would you explain the situation in Chapter 10 to your 70-year old grandma?
If you were Mr. Barton, how would you explain the situation in Chapter 10 to Wall Street analysts you’re scheduled to meet today?

Online discussion questions – Mar 27

Published March 27, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

How can we define service levels of a tutor? (The service levels must be observable and verifiable.)
Why is there a risk to Bharti of losing innovation or competitiveness?
Why would it be difficult for the vendors to take over Bharti’s employees in network operations and IT?
Would Bharti’s employees in network operations and IT prefer working for Ericsson or IBM or prefer continuing to work for Bharti?
From “One Year Later” case, what are other changes in the proposed outsourcing contracts?

Published March 25, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

What constitutes “transaction costs” in capital expenditures?
What “opportunity costs” would Barti pay in case of over-investment in network capacity?
What would be the reasons for Bharti’s CEO or board of directors not to approve the new outsourcing deal?
What would be the reasons that Bharti’s vendors must sign the deal with Bharti? Are they afford to lose Bharti?

Published March 23, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

In a contractual relationship between a tutor and a parent,

What would be the risks to the parent? What could go wrong? How to prevent them from happening?
What would be the risks to the tutor? What could go wrong? How to prevent them from happening?

Published March 20, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

How should IVK choose the new vendor among VerxaWeb, ServoLith, and HiOSoft? Is a voting the best way to pick a vendor?
What should a client do before finding and selecting an IT outsourcing vendor?

Published March 18, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

What can you explain about information asymmetry and conflicts of interests in any other contractual relationship that you can think of?
What kind of “homework” or research would be needed in selecting an IT outsourcing vendor?
What would happen if you did not do enough homework in finding a mechanic, a contractor, or a doctor?

Published March 16, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

If you outsource your car maintenance to outside mechanics, how do you find and choose a mechanic?
If you are running a manufacturing company, when/why would you let outside vendors (e.g. UPS, Fedex) handle logistics and delivery to customers?
When would you keep delivery/logistics in-house and let your own employees do it?

Published March 11, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

Other examples of a standard payment system such as E-Zpass or SmarTrip?
What would be a valid business/technical reason for a business unit to use Oracle database while everyone else uses My SQL?
By adopting one standard technology for all employees/units (e.g. Microsoft Windows, Oracle database, SAP ERP), what would be the risks?

Published March 9, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

What are the other examples of standard we’re enjoying in our everyday life (other than language, currency, railroad, power outlet)?
What should be changed if the U.S. adopts the Metric System as in other countries?
Why does a standard stifle innovation and creativity?

Published February 25, 2015 | By Min-Seok Pang, Ph.D.

Any examples of IT failures that were due to management failures rather than technical failures? (other than Target and Healthcare.gov)
Any examples that an IT group says no to a technology request from business units?