COURSE NUMBER: MBA290E.1

COURSE TITLE: Innovation Strategies for Emerging Technologies

Formerly “Marketing for High Tech Entrepreneurs”

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3

INSTRUCTOR: Andrew M. Isaacs

E-MAIL ADDRESS: isaacs@haas.berkeley.edu

PREREQUISITE(S): none

CLASS FORMAT: Lectures, cases and discussion in a seminar format.

REQUIRED READINGS: Texts plus cases.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: No exams will be given. Grades are based on one group project (25%), case study questions (65%) and class participation (10%).

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This course is intended to provide the core marketing skills needed for the management of entrepreneurial high technology ventures, regardless of the student's "home" skill set, whether technical or managerial. We examine in depth the marketing approaches most likely to succeed for entrepreneurial companies as a function of their markets and technologies.

Emphasis is placed on the special requirements for creating and executing marketing programs in a setting of rapid technological change and limited resources. The course is particularly suited for those who anticipate founding or operating technology companies.

Primary Objectives: The primary goal of this course is to develop the marketing skills needed to compete aggressively as an entrepreneur in technology fields. Upon completion of this course, the student should have developed the following skills:

- The ability to assess and predict customer needs in markets that may not yet exist;

- The ability to create and execute marketing plans that necessarily integrate sophisticated technological development with rapidly evolving customer requirements;

- The ability to create and grow a focused marketing organization rapidly and efficiently;

CAREER FIELD: Technology and Innovation

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Andrew M. Isaacs is Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley and Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Management of Technology Program, the joint graduate program of Berkeley's Haas School of Business, College of Engineering and School of Information Management and Systems.

Management of Technology is a graduate and executive level program offering 50 courses in management and high technology plus a wide range of programs that integrate high tech companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere with UC Berkeley. Since joining MOT in 1999, the program has grown to be the largest interdisciplinary program on the Berkeley campus, with approximately 1,400 graduate student enrollments in the program annually. Berkeley's Management of Technology Program is one of the largest programs of its type in the world.

Isaacs also directs the joint UC Berkeley UNIDO program on Technology in the Developing World, begun in 2003, including the annual Bridging the Divide Conference held each April on the Berkeley campus. UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, has established a close working relationship with UC Berkeley's MOT Program.

Isaacs' graduate courses at Berkeley include:

-Introduction to Management of Technology -Marketing for High Tech Entrepreneurs -Opportunity Recognition: Technology and Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley -Technology in the Developing World -The Business of Nanotechnology He is also a frequent visiting lecturer at universities, corporations and government agencies in the US, Japan, China and Korea.

Isaacs' experience includes a successful and on-going consulting career as well as executive and technology leadership:

- President, California Technology International, Inc., a consulting firm he founded in 1990, ranked among the Top 10 fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley in 1994 and 1995. CTI's operations in Silicon Valley and Asia specialize in strategy and marketing for US, Japanese, Chinese and Korean technology companies.

- Corporate officer and marketing executive at public and private high tech companies in Silicon Valley, 1983 1990.

- Senior Scientist, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 1981 - 1983 As part of the Management of Technology Program, Isaacs directs several graduate fellowship programs, including the IBM Venture Fellows Program, the Hitachi Fellows Program, the Mayfield Fellows Program, the MOT China Fellows Program, the Sandia Fellows Program and the Berkeley MOT-UNIDO Fellows Program.

His current areas of interest include international marketing, technology company strategy, technology start-ups, technology in the developing world, and US-Asia business strategies.

Isaacs serves on the advisory board for the University of Michigan as well as numerous corporate technical advisory boards. He is also a government advisor on Nanotechnology policy and IBM Faculty Award Recipient for 2005. He holds BS and MS degrees from the University of Michigan.