Block 2 term 3 class details

Day 1

Applied Innovation – August Immersion Intro

This was an intro session with Sara Beckmann (In Person), Rachel Dzombak and Vivek Rao on zoom.  Lee Helms (EZMBA 24) is the GSI.  We reviewed the outline of the course and covered the basics of systems mapping that we had all practiced in our pre-session assignments.  We have an opportunity to re-submit our maps for potential extra credit up to the immersion start date. 

We need to be thinking about our systems project over the summer (it cannot be done last minute).  Use Design 101 book as a reference guide and enjoy the “Thinking in Systems” book as more of a novel to read. 

After brainstorming ideas and arriving at a guiding star we need to do a systems map and an ethnographic interview.  Feel free to use AI tools to generate good interview questions.  Project due before the start of the immersion on August 12th. 

Creating Effective Organizations

Block 2 is focused on Teamwork and Collaboration.  Reminders of how organizations are moving to ecosystems rather than hierarchy’s, used Spotify org as an example. 

Key Takeaway - The in demand skillset for the upcoming years will be the ability to be versatile – work strategically but also focus on execution when needed.

Key Takeaway – Another in demand skill will be bringing together different information and putting it together to make sense for others. 

Key Takeaway – Encouraging debate on teams – positive disagreement, how to deal with it and make it part of the culture. 

Homa will provide an example of a good charter we can use when working in a team. 

Angus, Pete and Mai all shared their best and worst team experiences as prepared in their assignment (chosen by the wheel of fortune). 

Finally we discussed toxicity on teams and how to address, how to create phycological safety and how to lead Hi-Impact teams.

Strategy

The Cola Wars – Krissy, Vincent and Debbie stepped up to the podium for the ultimate taste test showdown. 

We then walked through the cola case, understanding the value chain and differences between the concentrate producers and bottlers initially.  We analyzed concentrate producers in terms of the five forces framework.  In summary Coke and Pepsi don’t compete on price, but compete on everything else. 

Greg made it clear that a Value Chain Analysis in our final projects will be highly recommended.  This helps organizations understand their value add in the process. 

We then discussed the Intel case and the value of being better at just one thing (for Intel this was R&D).  Understand that standards can create value. 

Day 2

Creating Effective Organizations

PART 1 - Guest speakers Jeff Rosenthal and Molley Rosen – spoke on lateral agility and the ability to influence across functions.  Shared research on Open vs Closed networks.  We each completed a stakeholder analysis map for our own areas.  It is useful to think about how much time we are spending on each stakeholder and adjust if needed. 

PART 2 – Guest Speaker Chaitali Narla – Engineering Director at Google and past EMBA student who completed Independent study with Homa on Cross Functional teams. 

Overall focus on how to be successful in a cross functional team.  Organizations need to think about how to reward people for working collaboratively to match expectations, in recognition of the time that it can take. 

Lunch VC Speaker – Thomas Kluz, Managing Partner at Niterra Ventures

Operations

Covered Newsvendor model which is focused on Short Life Cycle Products.

Cases – Club du Vin and Sports Obermeyer

Supply chain decisions must manage trade off between Efficiency vs Responsiveness.

Strategy

If your replaceable you will be replaced!!

Standards examples – Left/Right side of road driving.  Typeface standard was created due to a technical limitation in typewriter but has prevailed even without the limitation because large scale change is hard. 

This block will cover 5 Game Theory games as follows;

Prisoners Dilemma (1 equilibrium)

Hawk and Dove (Frequency dependent strategies – not everyone can be southwest)

Stag and Hare (2 equilibriums)

Battle of the Sexes (Make an irreversible commitment – movie example)

Chicken (Think Footloose movie)

Covered Cereal case.

Day 3

Strategy

Covered Holland Sweetener case and continued game theory discussion per Day 2. 

Creating Effective Organizations

Part 1 – Guest Speaker UC Davis Girls Soccer Team Head Coach – Tracy Hamm – Facilitated session on teamwork, different players within the team and their strengths and weaknesses.  Were you a lion, fox or dolphin….?

“How you do anything is how you do everything”

“The wheels can fall off, but you still can have a really nice car”

Part 2 – UCSF Case Study discussion.  A new donor fund created incentives for collaboration. 

Part 3 – Peer Coaching – Chris, Brian and Bala.  We can still think about our feedback for Bala on his problem and share with him. 

Operations

Covered models for long product lifecycles – Q-ROP and Order up to models. 

Cases – HP Deskjet and Timbuk 2.

Variability of demand and long lead times creates forecasting issues as seen in the HP case. 

Tradeoff decisions on Outsourcing in the Timbul 2 case. 

Lokesh will have 2 office hours between blocks.

The team assignment 1 page proposal is due Monday June 10th.  Examples of 1 pagers and final projects will be provided.