COURSE
NUMBER: MBA290E.1
COURSE
TITLE: Innovation Strategies for Emerging Technologies
UNITS OF
CREDIT: 2
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 case study questions
(80%) and class participation (20%).
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.