WEEK 13 - PRESENTATION PART 2

Tablet Technology

The group discussed the growth of tablet technology... One thing that dawned on me as they presented was their point on 'ease of use', especially with touch screen technology, the group mentioned a little bit on how kids, and I mean young kids, can start using the iPad with such ease and within seconds, it's almost baffling. Well I think this just speaks volume of the 'naturality' of such technology.

The group also posed a question to the class - do we wear watches? A bunch of us still do and the group  mentioned how we, humans, love multi-tasking objects, so we rely on our phones for the time, the weather, for setting an alarm, to remind us of deadlines and whatnot. Well I see the point that the group was trying to make, except most of us actually raised our hands! But then again, perhaps the whole function of a watch has changed. It has become an accessory. It is multi purpose now!

During the Q&A session, one of our classmate questioned if we were really going to replace PC with tablet technology in offices. I believe this appears to be the direction we are taking. Both my brother and dad's office replaced all desktop with laptops.. and perhaps they will slowly attempt to replace laptops with tablets. There is really no reason why we shouldn't, with advancing technology, tablets should be able to perform the same tasks that a PC does. I certainly look forward to the day where tablets are the norm. Besides, this 'disruptive' trend will offer opportunities for businesses - if they are able to manage the 'changes' in computer trends. A laptop maker doesn't always have to make laptops.

Beauty enablers through technology

This is the most interesting presentation I've seen in SMU, the transitions were funny, group members actually 'pushed' each other off the stage and free perfume samples were given out to people who asked their questions.   The project was basically on how technology 'enabled' beauty, which is an interesting topic and was probably a fun research topic. One would expect the group to dwell on surgical processes but they didn't!

Technology has enabled beauty - no one can argue that. When the group discussed the future of beauty, it dawned on me that the future direction appears to be more secretive, you pop a perfume pill (almost as though you smell perfect inside and out), you use dissolvable lenses (no need for contact lens or glasses - nobody has to know you're short sighted), you create a perfect baby (nobody has to know your true self as you can just put in genes and stuff you like). Perhaps the goal is to look beautiful naturally and no one needs to know you had those procedures.

Well, in any case, I felt that the group could have discussed the use of technology in creating creams and lotions. In recent times, I do believe none of us have been able to pass cosmetic halls in department stores without huge posters from luxury brands claiming that they have some special nano particles or timed 'particles' or whatever in their creams that promises to make you young and beautiful.

Social media and politics

This project focused on the use of social media in elections and politics... The advent of social media has changed the face of communication in all areas. The group discussed the impact of social media in elections campaign.

Well, although I had to vote, I wasn't entirely up to date on all of the campaign happenings. From what I know, social media helped to highlight every detail of the candidates involved.

Communications online - whether from the candidate himself or stemmed from discussions of netizens... will be dissected and pull apart and commented on and re-tweeted and whatnot. This only goes to show that activities online and on social platforms needs to be monitored closely. More firms are actually making sure their employees take a course on how to communicate effectively online.

Technology in terrorism

The group discussed the use of technology in terrorism and counter terrorism.. I thought the presentation was very clear and concise. The presentation offered insights into how technology is used to create terror and stop terror.

I believe communications between rioters in the London 2011 riots depended on BlackBerry messengers, FB, and twitter.. Obviously these technologies were not invented for the purpose of organizing riots. However, it was created to allow seamless/fuss free communication between people across the globe and etc, technology will often offer us opportunities and it is up to us to use that opportunity and we could use it for both good or bad. I suppose this is where technology assessment or change management (esp in the workplace) comes in to ensure that the 'changes' caused by technology are primary good.

And that marks the end of our class!

WEEK 12 - PRESENTATIONS PART 1

EcoTechnology

The first presentation was on EcoTechnology. (This was my initial choice of topic for my review paper!) The group identified Starbucks as a good corporate citizen and demonstrated a few examples of Starbuck's green initiatives. The group also identified other initiatives whereby corporations engage in responsible behaviour. I think this really points out the fact that you can do business with the environment in mind. It can't always be about economic sense over environment protection.

Photography

When I first saw that a group in our class was focusing their final group project on photography, I was pretty amazed. I had wondered what you could possibly discussed about a camera. After the presentation, I realised I took the camera for granted and saw it as a baby invention that didn't warrant much time/research.. I realised now, after browsing the site, that cameras are important documentation tools, which was a main purpose for the invention of this technology. Where would people be if cameras weren't invented. I bet this would be a good movie idea. We would have led our lives very differently and all history would have to be reliant on words. In any case, it was mentioned in the website that 3D camera technology will advance and become commercialized most quickly. A bit of googling showed that a tech blogger suggested that 3D camera would hardly be a requirement. Well, I'm pretty sure that's what a lot of people said about a smartphone.

E-commerce

Well, I was really happy to see some one doing a project on this topic as I think it is super interesting and I thought the research part would have been quite fun. I remember reading somewhere that people can BUY anything online and most have started to order everything online and nobody has to go anywhere to get anything.

Prof posed this same question to the class - What couldn't you buy online? I had a few answers.. they seemed to answer themselves though. The first thing that came to my mind was pets, but you can buy pets online, so what about houses, but online real estate websites are thriving. Then I realize you can buy a lot of things online, even products that required you to touch and feel them... Well the thing, businesses understand the drivers of growth of e-commerce and have since expanded their retail channels to the web. E-commerce is often complementary to brick and mortar stores.

It was also asked in class if we could ever get to that stage where we would buy everything online? Well, I sure hope not. But it could happen and I'm just saying.. a LOT of people would need to find a new hobby. I don't recall seeing no shops in futuristic movies though.

But, I digress, with the advent of augmented reality technology, this could be a real future, albeit a far future? I still see a lot of sense in brick and mortar shops. I believe e-commerce should be complementary to brick and mortar shops. I think the group answered this part pretty well with the few future innovations they suggested, like T-commerce where people can expand the advertisements shown and purchase the product they like. I think this is a wonderful example of how technology can complement commerce.

Food for the future

This is my group's project on Food For the Future. Our research attempts to evaluate current food production methods and examine what could we could expect in future food technologies.

OK we know all about food security issues, my group aims to investigate how we have been meeting people's needs and how we could do so responsibly. A few innovations were suggested, like the bubble gum meal, inspired by my favourite book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When I was a child and reading this book, I honestly thought somewhere in America was a shop selling Willy Wonka's gum with a 100 flavours. The future of food seems to be concentrated on smart farming, smart foods and smart packaging. These 'smarts' help to ensure that food production is maximised responsibly.

I enjoyed doing this project. Research was fun and although it was extremely vexing to put the website together with a unreliable laptop (mine)... I am proud of it and am glad we could share our work with the class!

I would rate this session 8/10. I felt like we could have discussed a bit more on the various projects.. I look forward to the next session!

WEEK 11 - Technology Assesment and Forecasting

This week's session on assesment of technology signals an end to our TWC course. It is very appropriate that today's topic marks the end of our learning journey. After going through 9 TWC sessions, understanding the different forces shaping technological change and such, we were introduced to methods of assessing (new and current) technology.

We discussed the importance of doing a technology assessment, whether it meant  analyzing the impact of a current or emerging technology.  A lot of this week's topic is on preparation and creating a desirable future with strategic decisions...

It is obvious that we need to assess the impacts of technology. The exponential growth of technologies has created a need to udnerstand changes caused by technologies in order to reduce negative implications and react to surprises. For example, we were all happy to have discovered burning fossil fuels as an 'efficient' way of producing energy yet if we did a thorough technology assessment, we may have been more aware of the externalities caused. This is an simple example but it brings the point across. Technology assessment is important.

Organizations rely on technology assessment to understand when, what, and how much to invest in new technologies/current technologies/upcoming technologies in order to make strategic decisions.

It was also discussed in class how one can plan for the future. There are 2 ways, we can either look at existing realities or forecast a desired future and move in that direction. Personally, I don't think there's a better way, these two broad methods are catered to different problems and should be used together.

We were also introduced to the different methods of foresight and common uses of foresight output. One of the discussed methods was stakeholders mapping which involved getting views from the people involved. Understanding impacts of upcoming technology on stakeholders can help to improve on current technology or future technology decisions. Stakeholder analysis will provide insights from different perspectives so better or a more adjusted and well rounded decision can be made. A common foresight output would be used in policy recommendations to help in directing us to the desired future.

Reading 2, Perspectives of Futurology summarizes the entire topic for this session. The article highlights the importance of understanding the present to predict the future. As Voltaire said 'The present is pregnant with the future'. The present will shape the future. What we lack now will be created in the future. The key lies in anticipating emerging trends. This is very relevant for businssess as anticipating emerging trends helps them to make informed business decisions and avoid pitfall. Futurologists try to predict the future (not in a hocus pocus manner!) or what's best for the future and try to pave the way towards that!

Like Rongxuan mentioned, foresight does not aim to predict the futurew with certainty, it only seeks to reduce uncertainties.

This is the end of the TWC class and for the next two sessions, we will be shown the projects that our class groups have been working on and I'm looking forward to knowing what my class groups have been up to and their take on their chosen topic.

Reflection

My initial impression of TWC is that it involved something technical, probably the study  of computer technologies and its impact on the world. In a way, this is right, but we touched on more than the computer. Technology isn't just technical stuff , technology is knowledge, and the sessions on how different technologies have changed the world, what caused the change, how to mange the change has been really interesting...Writing a review paper on a specific innovation, from its beginning to its future direction really helped me to seriously consider how we have evolved (in my topic of discussion) and most importantly, the implications of this specific innovation. The individual assignment, although  daunting at times, allowed me to reflect on what are real changes caused by my innovation of choice.  I can't believe I'm saying this but I do like TWC, I just wish I read ALL the readings, so just a note to whoever who will be reading this when you're a freshie in TWC class, attempt to read all the readings as it helps you understand the topic better! You will hate reading because you it's really long and you see that there are 16 pages in the pdf file, just remember that 2 to 3 pages are basically cover pages, content page and a end page so do not be afraid.

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WEEK 10 - EMERGING AND FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

This week's session discussed emerging and future technologies and all the individual oral presentations introduced a new kind of technology... it would be very interesting to see how these new technologies become common in the future.

Well, the session started off the usual introductory remarks on drivers of emerging and future technologies, it is important to understand what 'drove' the need to develop new technologies. Some of the examples given unmet market opportunities, supply creating demand (example:iPod), increasing knowledge of technological know-how which creates more possibilities for humans. I felt that this week's session simply brought us to the 'realm' of possibility... possibilities that were deemed impossible in the past. Some of the interesting examples of emerging technology that the class discussed were, 3D printing, augmented reality and brain computer interface.

The session also included a short discussion on robiotics and the age old debate on will robots ever take over the world and disobey us humans. We had this discussion in one of the earlier sessions but some new points were brought up in this week's class.

1. One of our classmates felt that robots wouldn't outsmart us as we are the one who program the robot! I completely agree with her... We could always program the robot to do what we want, for example, robots in the assembly line and etc.

2. Yet, it seems as thought people would abuse the 'rules' of robots for personal gains - for example, ordering a robot to 'harm' some one and such.

This discussion also led to how Japan is driving the development for robiotics in order to tackle the aging population problem. It was brought that robots can easily take over menial tasks that border on demeaning - such as factory assembly line work. Some may argue that the manufacturing industry is labour intensive and we wouldn't want many people to lose their jobs to robots, yet it forces people to upgrade and improve their skills instead having a 'safe' menial job in the factory.

Personally, I felt that this session was wonderfully interesting. To be honest, I couldn't really 'grasp' the concept of 3D printing until I did some extra reading. It was inconceivable to me that it was possible to PRINT a hammer or a hot dog or something... yet it is possible.

Another future technology that got me really interested is augmened reality. It also gave me an idea to research augmented reality for my individual review paper on technology and courtship. Imagine seeing the world with a layer of HELPFUL information. It'll be similar to your personal tour guide. This would be one technology I would welcome with open arms and a red carpet. Augmented reality would be a really great addition to education and retail. It would be nice to walk into a shop and use my smartphone and point to a piece of clothing and let the digital information flow in... I would be able to see photo reviews, ways to wear it , price comparison and similar options in other stores. I think that would be super wonderful. For now, I would just need to wait for the technology to be adopted on a broad scale.

I would rate this session 8/10. I had a great time listening to all the presentations and discussions on our future and emerging technologies..

INDIVIDUAL REPORT DRAFT - TECHNOLOGY & COURTSHIP

Hi everyone,

Here is the link to my draft report TECHNOLOGY AND COURTSHIP

I am still working on:
1. Future  considerations
2. Research/background information on arranged marriages
3. Stats on infidelity as a result of internet dating

Just post any feedback and whatnot, thanks! :)

WEEK 9 - ENERGY AND WORLD CHANGE

The debate on environmental concerns VS economic rational continues in this week's session on energy and world change. Firstly, we were introduced to the drivers of changes in global energy sources. The most obvious being increased consumption. Developed nations need more energy to sustain their growth and emerging economies need energy to grow. A key point in our discussion is the obvious, yet seemingly overlooked by giant corporations is the need to get our energy through sustainable means. Well, the good thing is new technologies has given us the opportunities to approach the use of consumption differently, but are we adopting and embracing these opportunities? How do we adopt or encourage the adoption of responsible energy consumption mindset at an individual and organizational level? One of the ways mentioned is through education, however, apparently education changes aren't especially helpful unless it is used in conjunction with other policies. In my opinion, education is definitely step one as it engages future generations and creates awareness of environmental crisis and instill values that stays with you for life.

The switch to renewable energy sources is not easy to implement. For example, communities stop the building of industrial wind turbines as it upsets property prices. The class agreed that society decides whether renewable energy sources will be actively pursued!

I suppose most agree that buring coal has a harmful impact however I think most do not really consider the true cost. We will always use whatever that's convenient or have always been using. We often need to find ourselves on top of a burning platform or creeping deadlines before we are forced into actions.

It was also mentioned in our discussion that we focus too much on the cost renewable energy!! The cost of non-renewable energy sources are often neglected in the economic equation. The current economic rationale seems to point to the fact that is 'cheaper' to invest in coal/gas etc, the true consequences are often not taken into consideration.

In addition, even if incentives were in place, as demonstrated in the example of  Germany, the success of these initiatives will still be dependent on how actively people adopt the technology to earn the incentives. Not everyone will see the final 'output'. Moreover, we mustn't neglect the fact that incentrives come from a government budget. More would need to be done to achieve the goal of relying at least 50% of our energy consumption from renewable sources. Our debate on topic led to the question of how reliable and cosnistent renewable energy sources are. I believe methods of harnessing renewable energy will evolve to accommodate our energy needs safely. Necessity being the strongest driver of innovation. Although history has shown that humans often tend to exploit others or rather Earth for our needs, the great thing about these sources is that they are renewable which brings us back to the concept of achieving sustainability.

I would rate this session 9/10. I found it really informative and loved the inputs Prof's guest gave in our discussion.

WEEK 7 - BIOBUSINESS REVOLUTION - AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

This week's class is on the BioBusiness Revolution - Agriculture and The Environment. Prof started the class with this trends in urbanization chart which shows that more and more people are moving from rural to urban areas which meant that peoples' ways of lives have changed. For example, people no longer grow their own food which means they're more dependent - which probably resulted in a 'revolution' of old agriculture way - this resulted in an impact on the environment. As people move to urban areas, they are becoming increasingly dependent on others for food, standard of living has also changed as urban areas have better infrastructure and more opportunities for employment. With increasing population growth, there is an increasing need to address food security issues. I think urbanization has impacted the way we eat and obviously, the environment has to 'pay' in some sense as people milk the environment for resources in order to urbanize.

One of the key issues that we talked about was on GM food. Our discussion led to if we should label GM foods. Well, I think it has its pros and cons and is highly debatable. I understand why some may think we shouldn't label GM food because labelling means you're just basically saying this food is different from the others however, Prof said labelling could be a good thing as we could somehow track the effects of GM food. A good thing may come out of it, should people who eat GM food become immune to some disease and such. Well, I think... you should label it, Prof's guest from Japan mentioned how people are labelling their food as non-GM as a marketing tactic. I think labelling it allows consumers to choose but I don't think there would be a need to print in it bold Genetically Modified as it sounds awful. Labelling GM foods means that consumers would know what they're getting and it's only their right to know. Personally, I think not labelling has created some sort of negative connotations to GM food, people may start to think you're not labelling because it's 'bad' and you're hiding or something.

The food security issue was also brought up and presented by Lenard from our class. As mentioned by Lenard's chosen article, there are around 1 billion hungry people around the globe. In addition to ensuring that there is sufficient food production, we mustn't neglect the fact that hunger is often related to poverty...

In any case, I really like this lesson (7/10) as I learned more about GM foods and the ethics behind it! I wish there was more discussion on the industrial biobusiness..

WEEK 6 - Biobusiness Revolution - Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences

 Our class started with this interesting video which depicts Microsoft's vision on healthcare in the future. (Every thing is very high-tech!) This video led to the discussion whether such provision of healthcare will increase its costs? Well, when you first think about it, it's easy to think, yes, this will all be very expensive because it is so fancy. However, the discussion in class made me realize that implementation of these services and the integration of the different technology system may be costly, just like how the iPhone/iPad was deemed as costly at first, but now every body has one.. so it could be the same logic, where once everything becomes automated and ready, all you really need is that one card to access your healthcare. This will mean that efficiency is increased - less waiting time and cost is reduced. This is a nice healthcare future to look forward to.

We also touched on the different opportunities presented in the biobusiness revolution. I think one interesting point is opportunities presented in prevention of illnesses and diseases. The business of 'wellness' is huge right now as more and more people are afraid of falling sick yet obesity continues to take over the world... however, there are more options available to help curb obesity.

As our session today was on the Biobusiness 'REVOLUTION', I found it sad to read about how the healthcare industry in USA aren't keen on disruptive technology that will make healthcare more accessible. But of course, big companies are worried about their profits should such 'disruptive technology' be made available at lower cost.

The class had several interesting presentations. I like the one on counterfeit drugs and organ trading. We had a nice debate on whether organ trading should be legal. Personally, organ trading is very much like surrogacy. Similar to most transactions, mutual consent is needed. Our debate lead to the interchangeable use of 'donation' and 'organ trading', I think there are completely different things. It is okay to donate your organs, it happens all the time, but with organ trading, it is often done in some shady and dangerous way now. I believe organ trading should be regulated to rid it of its 'shady nature'.

Class is good, I would rate it 7/10 and am looking forward to the next class!

WEEK 5 - ICT AND WORLD CHANGE

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.

The fifth TWC session focuses on Information and Communication Technology and World Change. To be honest, I hadn't really grasp the concept of ICT before I went to class. All I knew was that ICT could be a system to manage communication and information and I did have a vague idea that the internet is a big part of ICT so the class was going to be rather exciting.

Our discussion of ICT and world change touched on the areas where information and communication technologies have made an impact. For example, advancing information and communication technologies have changed mass media. Mass media is no longer in a one way communication format where audience are unable to respond or interact to what is being fed to them. In fact, audiences' responses have become key. This is also evident in the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and  now, we have Web 3.0 and according to our Prof, the Web 3.0 is a super all knowing brain.

The important point to note that ICT is part of our daily existence whether we know it or not. Apparently, most of us didn't know we were using Cloud Computing until Prof pointed it out to us. ICT has shaped and changed the way we communicate and disseminate information. In fact, today, content is very often being generated by users and peer reviewed. Our discussion also led to the question whether we have truly captured the potential of ICT? However, millions are still unable to benefit from ICT due to lack of funds and infrastructure and opportunities.

I felt that the oral presentations given by my classmates really helped to bring points of ICT and world change home. I particularly enjoy the presentation on advertising. There is an evident shift in advertising patterns as a result of internet and more so with semantic web. Yuhong reminded us that we must not focus only focus on what's in now, but also, what's in later!

I liked Ivan's presentation on new agencies and how we shouldn't accept news at face value. Although I think news are generally facts but how the news is presented can create biasness in our minds, just like what the Prof said about the different opinions of the same thing presented by 'opposing' newspapers - New York Times and Washington Post.

I would rate the session 7.5/10. I think I still need to do more reading on ICT in application to fully appreciate how ICT can help to achieve millennium goals. I look forward to the next class!

INDIVIDUAL TOPICAL REVIEW PAPER - OUTLINE

I'm doing a paper on mobile technology and its impact on social interactions, it has always been a topic I'm quite keen on. This is before I started the TWC class as I'm constantly amused by people who use their iPads/iPhones every where, I've seen some one start to use his iPad while taking an escalator ride and playing with Cut The Rope. Is that game so exciting that it justifies a possible accident? However, this topic has already been explored numerous times, well, I hope I can bring something new to it.

Topic: Mobile Technology and its impact on social interactions

TOPIC INTRODUCTION
- This reports examines the impact of mobile technnology on social interactions
[Technology being defined as the practical application of knowledge and mobile technology as portable cellular communication devices and social interactions being relationship between two or more individuals]

Specific Innovation of Interest
- Smart phones

Rationale for choosing this innovation
- The number of smart phone users in developed cities is increasing rapidly
- Research company TNS reports that 72% of mobile phones users in Singapore are smart phones (taken from Straits Time Article)
- Smart phones allows users to do practically everything. Phones no longer perform the simple acts of telephoning and text messaging.
- Smart phones can be considered a disruptive change as it changes the way we communicate and lead our lives in a irreversible manner.
- Researching on the impact of smart phones on social interactions can create better understanding on the influences of mobile technology on human development as technology advances have changed our understanding of the community.

INTRODUCTION
1. Short description of the 'evolution' of mobile technology (example - introduction of phone, internet, email, social media)

2. New forms of social interactions as a result of technology (text messaging, instant messaging, facebook messages, skype, etc)

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

- Social interactions are typically face to face conversations

- With advances in technology - social interactions have evolved to include technology such as smart phones whereby people engage each other through the use of social networking websites that are easily accessible should they possess a smart phone

- Typically, mobile technology has been used to 'decrease' the social distance amongst family and friends. As strength of relationship often increases with increased reciprocal activities (sharing, giving, communicating, etc), distance that exists amongst people can be reduced with mobile technology that allows people to stay connected with one another.

- In order to stay connected, phone calls were made but were frequently expensive, in addition, mobile phone users were unable to stay connected 24/7 without the 3G function.

CURRENT SITUATION

- Smart phone users increase rapidly (key figures of smart phone users will be discussed)

- Smart phones allow users to remain connected via mobile internet and this is done in an efficient and fairly inexpensive method.

- Users are also engaged in multi-tasking activities such as using their smart phones while having their meals, driving, shopping for groceries, in school, during their commute, etc.

- The increasing number of applications and services serve to create an over-reliance on the device

- Users are seeing smart phones as their companion

- Prediction that there will be more smart phones connected to the Internet than PCs indicates that more and more people will increase their usage of smart phones to engage in social and recreational activities.

- The use of smart phones have revolutionised social interactions.

- Investment bank Credit Suisse forecasts the number of Asian smart phone users will reach 347 million by 2015. (Asians being a group that places emphasis on collective behaviour - will smart phones erode their collective tendency and help develop a sense of individuality and empowerment?)

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

- Smart phone as a remote control of your life?

- More people will share personal information and remain connected to each other 'online'

- New technologies continue to evolve the use of smart phones

ISSUES:

n  How has technology changed tradition forms of social interactions?
n An increasing form of dis-connectivity 'offline'?

n  People are becoming increasingly addicted to their phones

n  ‘Everywhere’ Technology - constant connectivity?

n  Impacts of mobile technology (negative)

1. Social isolation?
2. Increased online interactions eroding etiquette?
3. Negative impacts on psychological well-being?
4. Difficulty for slow adopters of new mobile technology to integrate themselves in the digital culture?
5. Dangers of over reliance

CHALLENGES / OPPORTUNITIES

n  Managing the negative impacts

n  Opportunities presented by technology advances in social interactions

n  Opportunities presented in business, education and networking as a result of connectivity and convenience

KEY OBSERVATIONS

n  Statistics of smart phone users – rapid increase worldwide

n  Smart phone as a status symbol

n  Observations of current social interactions trends  compared to past trends

DISCUSSION

Preliminary issues for discussion:-

a.        How has the use of smart phones affected adolescents social interactions?

b.       Is there an increasing over reliance on the device?

c.        What are the dangers presented in such a situation?

d.       How has smart phone improved social interactions amongst peers and family?

WEEK 4 - DRIVERS OF CHANGE & CHANGE MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Drivers of Change

The first topic of the session was on drivers of change. In regards to the (Charles Darwin) quote shared by the Prof, it is not the strongest who will survive but those were most responsive to change. This is very true (or the quote wouldn't be so widely used or reach 1 million likes on FaceBook) and I suppose everyone have probably experienced a who moved my cheese moment. Change is a constant and entirely unavoidable. For an example, you have to join FaceBook some time now or later or risk becoming a do-do bird amongst friends. What this entire session highlighted is how one addresses and manages the changes brought about through the major drivers of change (globalization, competition, innovation, etc) in today's world.

We began the class with an introduction of the different drivers of change. Having read the reading 2 and having my BGS class the day before on globalisation, which we defined as the 'death of distance', I could really relate to how globalization is truly a major driver of change. With increased cross border activities (regardless of if it is an economic transaction, communication or immigration), it has also increased the speed or rather the need to change. From an economic perspective, globalization has intensified competition as domestic industries face new competitors vying for market share. This is where domestic companies need to decide if they can continue being dominant players or become falling stars should they risk not being to adapt to new 'events' in their situations.

We were also introduced to two types of change - revolutionary and evolutionary. Revolutionary change being one that is sudden. There is another type of change - Disruptive Change which may not (or may!) sound as icky as it does. Well, sometimes I do think disruptive should be a synonym for change. But then again, I could keep watching Who Moved My Cheese so I would feel less that way.

Is a disruptive change the same as a revolutionary change? Maybe. But in revolutionary changes, you can always go back to where or who or what you were. In a disruptive change, which is defined as an irreversible change in your expected future, I don't think it is possible to go back. (Prof used the example of letter writing and email.) The important point to note is whatever the changes are - you got to capitalize on the opportunities presented.

Change Management & Change Leadership

What happens when there is a change and how do we effectively manage change? In addition, who 'create' changes in organizations? Leaders or managers? What is the difference between leadership and management? I thought these were some of the questions brought up during our discussion. Anyway, in my HRM module in poly, leaders were loosely defined as those with a vision and the ability to lead (convince) people into accepting and embracing his or her vision whereas managers simply do the right thing. Richard Branson is a beloved example of visionary leadership in my class.

We were introduced to the session via a short video 'Leadership Lesson From a Dancing Guy'. I think this video adequately explained the dynamics of leadership. I'm glad this video highlighted the importance of followers.You can't be a leader if you don't have followers. You'll just be a little lone nut. In addition, followers are often neglected and left out of a grand story but a leader may not necessary be great at managing the changes he sees fit.

Our discussion finally led to the topic on responding to change which relates to the Shahi model of falling and rising stars in my week 2 post. There are 3 general ways of responding to change, you either welcome it with open arms (and maybe even facilitated the change) or you take a backseat and avoid it as long as possible or you hide somewhere & pretend there is no change. I find myself guilty of taking the last option from time to time. The result is cruel - you become a laggard and find it hard to embrace the change and the next thing you know you become a do-do bird and your picture goes into the encyclopedia. The bottom line is - with technology rapidly advancing, we all need to take option 1 all the time.

Key Messages

What I liked about this session the most is how I could relate it to the some of the modules I took in Poly (HRM and Service Operations & Quality Management in which TQM was emphasized as the new way to go in organizations). It was also interesting to get to know the different drivers of change as I do think it is important to understand them in order to effectively manage change. Personally, I think that's what education is about. New information is being generated everyday, we are taught what is going wrong out there so young and impressionable students are able to go out and be drivers of change.

Anyway, taking our little debate in class on what started global warming - humans or natural causes. Could this be an example of responding to change in an ineffective manner where we engage in pointless pseudo environmentalist debate over who caused what? I never really thought of it this way.

Lastly, although it is obvious that one must take on the modern approach (continuous monitoring and renewal) in order to respond to change or improve. It is not easy to implement this approach. Anticipating and accepting change and taking the TQM (modern) approach in organizations was certainly indoctrinated in to us in Poly HRM and Service Operations modules... but we were always reminded how difficult it was to engineer change in an organization. Karen's presentation on Managing Change in Recession discussion question for the class was if it was important to win over the hearts and minds of employees in order to faciliate change. I do think change will not happen successfully if people do not have embrace it completely. Convincing others will always remain the trickiest part as demonstrated in the pessimism-time curve and explained to us in a very easy to understand manner. Hint: Think of the graph as a relationship model.  

I would rate the session 8/10. I think most of the topics required were adequately discussed in this session. I enjoyed all the presentations and the presentation on Microsoft vs Apple helped to further cement the point that change leadership requires change management in order to ensure that change happens in a manageable (happy) way. I look forward to the next TWC class!

WEEK 3 - TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY & INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

What does sustainability means?

Prof defined sustainability as ensuring that the options available now will still be available for our future generations. We were showed a video clip 'The Story of Stuff' but due to time constraint, we were unable to view the entire video but I suppose most of us got the gist of the video and its point - it appears that we consume too much and too quickly and with reckless abandon in regards to the natural resources we have left. We seem to be existing in a society where we operate without thought for the future and in addition of using up precious natural resources, we add to environmental issues with our excessive consumerism. The passage of time and technology advances have created wants which has resulted in the over taxation of Earth. This brings us to the need of ensuring sustainable development and cue the raised eyebrows from big corporations. Do economic profits and environmental control go hand in hand or do they have an inverse relationship? I suppose with the current investments in green technology, being green and conscious may not be a (large) economic expense. However, corporations may be reluctant to engage in clean up activities or invest in ensuring its production of goods and services are green and clean right now as we tend to do what hurts our pockets least. In any case, sustainable development is definitely not a fad and it would be sad if it was.

Innovation Management

How do we translate creativity into ideas that are practical and applicable? As a result of the discussion, we can see that innovation isn't complete until it has been applied in the real world and as Prof's friend (another professor from Japan) said - the stage from research to application is a nightmare! Another question posed to the class was if innovation should be technology or market driven? Maybe people think technology driven innovations are true innovations but that's debatable. In any case, innovation should be market driven as there is a need to translate ideas into applicable forms. Companies need to achieve profitability through market driven innovations before setting their sights on cloud opportunities.

Key Messages

The session on sustainability helped to highlight and ring warning bells in our heads on the reality of business and consumerism. Although Annie Leonard from the Story of Stuff may appear extreme but through the discussion of our class, no one can ignore the fact that sustainable development is a high priority. Moreover, economic growth and environment control needs to go hand in hand in order to ensure sustainability. Another take away message drawn from our discussion is the issue on what's stopping innovation in organizations. Prof briefly touched on this topic and he has shared that hierarchy and structure within the organization plays important role in facilitating creativity and innovation. This is pretty much true and besides, from what I recalled in my human resource management module in Poly, we understand that employees need an open and flat structure in order to be motivated enough to offer what's more than required. 

I would rate the session 7/10. Once again I really enjoyed all the presentations and the one on 3M, the company seemed like such a 'wallflower' player compared to Apple when it comes to innovation but 3M products are more than just scotch tape. 

WEEK 2 - TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY & GLOBAL DOMINANCE & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

SOCIETY & GLOBAL DOMINANCE

We started the class with technology and global dominance. First, we tried to understand what does it mean to dominate? Could global dominance equate to a country with economic & military power? And how does one increases its economic power? As the discussion progressed, one could see the interdependent relationships of power and technology and what a huge role technology plays, as demonstrated in Guns, Steel and Germs. We see societies advance and grow through technological advances ( example: improved farming methods/manufacturing knowledge- more goods - more transactions - increased standards of living - increased power) and some lagging behind (China when they closed their doors - I studied this in History class and at that point in time, I couldn't really relate to the impact of closing their doors). The discussion of the Shahi organizational behaviour model further supported this view and was really quite telling. Taking bubble tea for an example, old players of bubble tea have simply become irrelevant and stagnant as new players of bubble tea come in and tried to 'recreate' bubble tea and dominate the market. The dominant players of bubble tea (Each-A-Cup) in Singapore needed to need up their game by having an open perspective and increasing R&D(new flavours and such) when other popular bubble tea chains came in from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

 

Using the chart, we can identify potential rising stars and falling stars and avoid similar mistakes or learn from them.

Technology has always been apparent in our lives even in the beginning of time as people began to scour materials and create tools - this is the most primitive technology. To start off our second session (technology & human development), we were asked to think about whether change or development came first since human development is all about maximising opportunities and harnessing your potential. I suppose it goes hand in hand. One drives the other - without changes in the World, one is unable to develop and find new and better ways of doing things.

I loved the Hans Rosling video 'The Joy of Statistics' 200 countries 200 years in 4 minutes. It was fascinating to see how different societies have flourished (or not). Most societies started off at the same stage 'Poor & Unhealthy' and some managed to climb to the desired region of 'Rich & Healthy'. It would be interesting to study in depth the reasons behind this.

One startling statement made by the Prof in class was how criminal it was that poverty still exists in these advanced times. Given the vast improvement in technologies today and the amount of wealth developed countries have, it seems criminal that societies where children starve and are uneducated exist. They have no opportunity to escape the vicious cycle that is poverty. I suppose a lot of it has to do with government and the policies in place (corruption?), without the right policies, children are still going to starve and their only job opportunities without a proper education is probably a minimum wage job at a sweatshop. Even with all the advanced technologies available in the world, human nature is still in control.

I would rate the session 7/10. It felt a little rushed towards the end but was still really thought provoking. I enjoyed every oral presentation (especially the one on using drones in warfare) and learned something new from my classmates. Casslyn talked about the decline of America and the rise of China. China is the next big thing but I think another classmate brought up a valid point - China has a lot of problems to address, yes, it will be the next super power but what about the huge disparity in income distribution, some rural areas remain severely backwards and pollution is a key issue in China. I guess, what remains is only a matter of time for China to be the new boss.

WEEK 1 - WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY & WORLD CHANGE?

Technology And World Change

What is technology and world change?

Every one in class had to share a little bit of what they thought Technology & World Change is and it was interesting to hear everyone's opinion about change as a result of technology - which is probably basically what this course is about. One thing that many seem to agree on is change is inevitable and technology advances brings about changes that can be negative and positive. One guy mentioned how people are so connected that they are disconnected. Well, everyone is connected via the growing number of social media platforms, it used to be just Friendster and  if people were confined to only using a single website for online interactions now, I think they would all be 'lost'. Another classmate mentioned how much he liked technology changes because it allows him to be lazy - which brings us to this picture: -

Well, I think technology has certainly made life easier. I will be utterly lost without Google.

Shift Happens

We were shown 'Shift Happens' on YouTube, it was interesting as there is a scary possibility that in 2049, a $1000 computer may outsmart the whole human race. So what will happen to us? As I read that line, I kept thinking of I,Robots although I never completed the movie and do not know the end. It occurs to me that I have not come across a movie about technology and us manipulating computers to have a happy co-existence. It always appears that we are unable to manage technology advances. Perhaps, nobody wants a movie where there aren't any major showdowns yet it is rather thought provoking, at least to me, espically after watching Shift Happens and 'Did You Know....'. The advances of technology has the ability to make the rest of us look bad! Technology is replacing us, so what will happen to people with no unique talents, it is makes it so much easier  for machines to replace them.

So I realize the importance of this course, it brings us through the timeline of technology and we need to learn the background of technology, its powers and the management of technology. The video we were shown reflects how the world is changing and rapidly. Are we allowing technology to lead us?

Perhaps we often forget the presence of technology and how much it has integrated itself into our daily lives, technology has changed the way we eat (genetically modified foods), communicate (facebook, less face to face interactions),  behave (technology has allowed us to be lazy? ;)), learn and react to our surroundings. I would rate the session 8/10. It was thought provoking and highlighted the fact that there is no way I could 'be' in our present society without a FaceBook account, right?