UNIVERSITY OF UTAH TAKES UNIFIED APPROACH TO E-BUSINESS
Look in any higher-ed journal, newspaper or magazine, and you're sure to see signs of it everywhere. There's a revolution afoot, and business schools are leading the charge.
It's called "e-business," and as buzzwords go, this one has the power to make potential employers weak in the knees, future titans of business swell with confidence and professors of business dizzy with excitement.
With "e-business" courses, programs and majors popping up around the country, business schools that don't have an "e business" program are left feeling like they missed the bus. As business schools rush to institute these new programs, the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah is working hard to buck this reactionary trend by incorporating electronic business into every aspect of business education, from management and marketing to accounting.
Beginning in the spring of 2000, the Accounting Department will institute a new independent study course in "e-business" for all master's level students.
Assistant Professor of Information Systems Kay Nelson, the course's instructor, says the development of a competitive "e curriculum" takes much more than mimicking other e-commerce curricula. "E-business goes way beyond e-commerce," Nelson said.
"It's about restructuring brick and mortar business by leveraging the connectivity provided by technology. Technology is going to get infused into all business curriculum eventually."
David Eccles Professor of Marketing Bill Moore couldn't agree more. "It (e-business) isn't anything we can compartmentalize," he says. "All businesses are going to be e-businesses. I don't see this as just a fad, rather I see this as something that will be with us for the foreseeable future."
Moore and Nelson agree that to meet this increased demand for e-educated graduates, the Eccles School must infuse the entire curriculum with high-tech components.
Beginning in the spring 2000 semester, Moore is teaching an advanced MBA class called "Marketing.com _ Marketing in the Information Age." Moore says the most exciting part of teaching such a class is that it's a work in progress.
The syllabus for the class states that the reading assignments may change as information becomes available on the Internet. "I told the students signing up for this class that I didn't know everything about this -- that I would be learning right along with them," Moore said.
Moore and Nelson's classes are just two of several "e business" related courses being taught at the Eccles School in the coming year. The School of Accounting is starting an updated IS (Information Systems) certificate program for master's students next fall, which focuses more on "e-business" demands, and also hopes to have an undergraduate major in IS next fall.
In addition to Moore's "Marketing in the Information Age" class, Professor Gary Bamossy of the Marketing Department will offer an upper division undergraduate course in Internet Marketing in the Fall semester of 2000. Preparations are also underway to develop an electronic commerce course for the undergraduate Honors Program, which will be offered university-wide.
Assistant Professor of Operations Management Leslie Olin Morgan will teach a class entitled, "Technology Integrated Supply Chain Strategies" in the spring 2001 semester. Recent developments in e-business and information technology have motivated firms to rethink their supply chain strategies.
Morgan notes that cross-functional coordination within the firm and integration of decision-making throughout the value chain, from sourcing of raw materials to delivery of finished goods to customers, will be critical to success in any industry, be it service or manufacturing oriented. This coordination is achieved through an integrated approach to supply chain management.
"In the late '80s, the big guys (car companies like GM) moved from vertical integration to outsourcing production of components," Morgan says. "Now, Michael Dell talks about virtual integration and the importance of outpartnering. Understanding how and why a firm's supply chain strategy needs to evolve to exploit information technology and to support e-business will be a focus of the course."
Moore says that management of the supply chain is crucial to the ever-quickening pace of business. "The most important thing (in business) is that you need to make it easier to have customers do business with you," he says.
Morgan agrees, saying that her new class will help students understand how cutting-edge supply chain management strategies facilitate development of a successful, integrated strategy for the firm as a whole.
"This class (supply chain strategies) will be very well integrated with IS classes and with internet marketing classes," Morgan says. "Ideally, we'd like the students to see the benefit of the whole sequence across disciplines."
Nelson says students will have to become more open to the influences of technology on every aspect of their education. "Technology is the single biggest thing to happen in businesses in the past 20 years," she says. "There are innumerable opportunities, both here in Salt Lake and throughout the world, and we can proactively meet those needs with technologically advanced students."
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For more information, contact:
Kay Nelson, Assistant Professor of Information Systems 587-9164
Bill Moore, David Eccles Professor of Marketing 581-5023; [email protected]
Leslie Olin Morgan, Assistant Professor of Operations Management 581-3823
Meredith Bloom, Marketing & Communications Coordinator 581-5407; [email protected]
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