Blog Entry #6

 Lesson Overview

Today, we focused on Technology and the Biobusiness revolution. Prof showed us the various areas of biobusiness and further narrowed our focus to healthcare and biomedical sciences. We looked into the different parts of biomedical biobusiness including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, herbal and traditional medicine.  We differentiated between healthcare revolution, which focused more on services and biomedical science revolution, which focused on treatments.

Key Ideas / Observations

“The biobusiness revolution has the potential to / WILL transform our lives (Health, food, clothes, energy sources, others) of our economies.

It is indeed impressive what the bioscience and healthcare arena has achieved till today. For example, IVF has become a norm to overcome female infertility. Indeed the future looks bright for this arena. With our knowledge of DNA advancing, and the completion of the human genome project, personalized treatments has become possible to dealing with diseases. Personalized medical care in oncology is currently a reality for a select group of cancers. With improved knowledge of tumor biology and the advent of novel technologies allowing identification of molecular targets, it has become possible to develop therapies against different subsets of cancers.

Even Netrogena has come up with a personalized treatment approach to solving teenager Acne problems as shown in the link below: http://www.skinid.com/econsumer/clearskin/index.view

Teenagers can purchase netrogena products according to their skin type, their type of acne and even their stress levels. And all this can be done online!

NOTES – the new method of surgery to remove kidney stones boasts less pain and less risks of infection as compared to other forms of surgery. I personally would prefer such a method as compared to open surgery as less ‘cutting’ is involved. However the claim that NOTES is the least invasive method that can ever be attained is probably untrue. Prof already mentioned about an advanced treatment using wave energy to rupture the kidney stones. I found this extremely interesting and went to read up on it. Extracorporal shock wave Lithotripsy is a non-surgical treatment in which shock wave energy is use to break the stone into smaller fragments which then can pass more easily through the urinary system. The success rate is 70-90%, however there are several limitations of this procedure such as large, hard or impacted stones and treatment in overweight patients.

In the reading on disruptive innovation, the paper talks about the need for disruptive innovation in the healthcare industry. Innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect are required. One of the ways suggested is by enabling a larger population of less-skilled people to do in a more convenient, less expensive setting things that historically could be performed only by expensive specialists in centralized, inconvenient locations. Rather than asking expensive professionals to move down-market, we need to focus on enabling less expensive professionals to do progressively more sophisticated things in less expensive settings. For example, equipping nurses to treat more advanced diseases without the need for a physician. In a way, I feel that Netrogena is doing just that with its personalized acne medication. There is no longer a need for dermatologists to recommend these products to teenagers based on their skin condition as they can order their own personalized products online.

I found Nicholas’ presentation on policies that would cause a positive impact on the healthcare scene in 3^rd world countries very interesting. I feel that in the short term, the pricing of the drugs is most imperative. In the short term, making drugs more accessible to the poor needs to be the government’s main priority. In the long term, governments need to focus on R&D. I feel that most pharmaceutical industries may not be interested in researching in better ways to due with 3^rd world diseases like Malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis because the poor people there cannot afford to purchase their treatments. On the other hand, they are keener to research on western diseases like cancer and heart diseases because the people who have these diseases are rich and can thus afford their treatments. Of course, I do realize that this may depend on level of CSR in the pharmaceutical industry. I feel that governments can play a vital role here by putting in money for R&D into specifically, third world diseases. They can do R&D jointly with pharmaceutical companies to cover their costs and risks. Governments can also invite foreign pharmaceutical companies to set up plants in 3^rd world countries so they can understand 3^rd world diseases better and can provide first-hand help to people living there. Hence R&D is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, we need to focus R&D on specific diseases that would benefit the 3^rd world.

Key takeaways

There is much potential in the biobusiness arena. As Clayton Christensen mentioned in his report, we do need to focus on ‘disruptive innovations’. We need to enable a larger population of less-skilled people to do in a more convenient, less expensive setting things that historically could be performed only by expensive specialists in centralized, inconvenient locations.

R&D is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. In terms of diseases, developing countries and developed countries may have different needs. Hence, to benefit developing countries, we need to focus R&D on their diseases.

Issues for further discussion

I feel that the topic on genetic engineering and cloning could have been discussed deeper. In predicting whether cloning will become a norm in the future, Prof showed us the example of IVF (test-tube babies),which was also widely rejected when it was first discovered, but now is accepted as a norm to dealing with female infertility. Will cloning, in the future, also become a norm?

Ratings

7/10. There were a lot of readings but I found most of them rather interesting and though-provoking. The number of presentations was also less than usual and hence gave us more room for discussions.

Blog Entry #5

Overview / Summary

Today’s topic was Information Communications Technology (ICT) and World Change – past, present and future.  We talked about the types of ICT’s present in the world today – Mass media, Internet, gaming, wireless technologies, interactive telecommunications, info systems, cloud computing and knowledge management. We went in greater detail on cloud computing and knowledge management. For cloud computing, shared information, resources and software are provided to computers upon demand. We recognized the fact that cloud computing is a better way to run businesses. The shared data centre takes shorter to set up, has a lower cost and is easier to maintain and use. However we did take note of the issue of security of data, when companies store data on a shared database, the fear that other companies can access their data is always there. For knowledge management, we learnt the characteristics of data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Data is just symbols. When data is processed to be true, we gain information. Knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such that it’s intent is to be useful, and when we have evaluated and understood knowledge, we have gained wisdom. We also talked about whether we are harnessing the full potential of ICT’s and if we are not, what will it take to capture ICT’s full potential.

Key Observations / Ideas

Lets talk about Milo, the interactive virtual boy. He can recognize and interact with humans. He can detect emotions and display his own emotions! Microsoft should be applying this technology into their gaming industry soon enough, but lets look at the big picture of the future prospects of the application of such a technology:

-       Prof suggested this technology could provide lonely elderly with companionship

-       I personally like the idea of a virtual secretary (like in IRON MAN) minding my timetable, deadlines as I deal with the hustle and bustle of life. Such an application of technology would definitely improve work productivity.

I feel that the invention of this technology has opened so many new doors. Imagine if our future security guards, bank tellers, cashiers, taxi drivers are all Milos! Of course, over reliance on this technology is a key concern.  A system being a system always has a chance of failing / crashing, hence while being open to using these technologies, we should remain adept in functioning if we were to one day lose these technologies.

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

I agree with this quote by John Naisbitt. Essentially, with the invention of ICT’s, we have become more globally connected. As mentioned during our discussion, our perception and interaction has been expanded. We are now capable of interacting with people halfway across the globe. For example, thanks to live news coverage on the Internet and media, we were kept well informed about the hostage situation that took place a half a month ago in the Philippine capital. We shared the experience even though we are geographically separated, such is the impact of ICT on human perception. As for interaction, ‘Skype’ should be a good enough example. The ability to have a videoconference on the Internet with another person anywhere in the world really shows how ICT has expanded human interaction.

“Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between the powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated.”

With the rapid improvement in ICTs, geographical borders between countries are surpassed. But the inequality in other aspects has not been solved. For example, the divide between the rich and the poor has not gotten smaller.

Have we captured the full potential of ICT?

Definitely not. From the executive summary reading on GITR (Global Information Technology Report 2001-2002), experts came up with several reasons why we are not maximizing the benefit of ICT.

-       Computers themselves will not improve the learning process if we do not change our skills and learn new skills to maximize the benefit.

ICT’s are merely tools to manage OUR knowledge. Youtube, facebook and wikipedia would not be able to function, for example, without our knowledge inputs. As prof mentioned, ‘Garbage-in-garbage-out’.

-       Companies especially in the developing world, have to adapt to reap the benefits of ICT.

-       Most developing countries lack the appropriate managerial and organizational infrastructure.

-       Firms are not convinced that ICT could help their business.

-       Rural markets still have no contact with ICT.

What will it take to capture ICT’s full potential?

Some of the measures proposed in the reading above are to develop infrastructure in developing countries, constantly educate and impart ICT knowhow, and reach out to rural markets. The next chapter, “How ICT could really change the world” proposed a method which I think is quite interesting. The article stated that for technology to be used effectively to revolutionize economic development, we must match technology with need, and ICT’s can be used as a platform for doing this. One idea that one of the experts suggested is using ICT to create direct person-to-person financial links (linking poor people to a sponsor in a rich country). I feel that in this way, ICT can benefit society greatly. In terms of the MDG goals, ICT can help us succeed in eliminating world poverty and hunger, and also help us develop global partnerships for development.

We also discussed how ICT could be better used in certain industries, such as education, healthcare and agriculture. I feel that, to a large extent, ICT can continue to improve education in a country.  In SMU, most of our traditional textbooks and readings have already been digitized. Are we moving towards a future where all lessons will be carried out online through Skype or online courses? While it is definitely possible, I fear that such a system may be detrimental to students. A personal touch (a teacher that really understands his student’s needs) is required in this industry for optimal learning. A computer system cannot replace this. If a student wants to know more about a certain topic or has doubts to clarify, he cannot ask the computer. On the other hand, a human teacher should be well equipped to answer these questions. For agriculture and healthcare, we can use ICT to complement development. For example, we can use GPS to detect epidemic outbreaks or monitor climate conditions that are optimal for growing certain crops. However, I feel that, for the full potential of ICT to be harnessed, people need to keep abreast of the latest ICT developments and brought up to speed on new technology. In this way, especially for the IT illiterate or elderly folks, the implementation of workshops may aid their integration into the ICT era.

For the Individual Oral Presentation’s segment, I especially enjoyed the presentation on Interpersonal Communication and Intelligent User Interfaces.

Interpersonal Communication

 So, 1 in 8 couples last year met each other over the Internet. 70% of our interaction with friends is through the usage of ICT. Has ICT, after becoming the major platform for areas such as education and healthcare, also become the platform of our social interaction with friends and loved ones? From the above statements, we can gather that this is already partially true. We definitely SMS, MMS, MSN our friends more than we talk face-to-face. However I feel that using ICT in such a personal area has its disadvantages. Most importantly, as we interact with a person through an ICT, we are not exposed to the true spontaneous character of that person. That person can also hide behind the ICT and pretend to be someone he’s not.  I feel that this has the same concept behind why most schools and jobs require a ‘face-to-face’ interview for potential employees. To really get to know a person, we must interact with ‘face-to-face’ and not through the aid of an ICT. However, the use of ICT in this area is not completely redundant. ICT can help long distance friends or loved ones keep in touch. You also have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and expand your network. In conclusion, we should not depend completely on ICT’s for social interaction, but rather use it as a tool to complement and facilitate genuine, face-to-face interaction.

IUIs

As for IUI’s, I feel that this technology could spell a bright future for our society.  Having such an efficient ‘secretary’ like the one in the movie ‘Iron Man’ would definitely make our work more convenient and productive. But I feel that we need to be concerned about the trust and controllability issue here. Normal computers and programs function according to a code designed by their programmers. This makes their actions predictable and controllable by humans. Giving computers the ability to adapt and learn makes it more difficult to predict their actions. Will people trust IUI’s with their personal information given that there is a level of unpredictability in the actions of IUI’s? I am sure that everyone who has watched the intepretation of Judgement Day in ‘Terminator’ will be concerned about this issue.

Key takeaways

Harnessing the full potential of ICT still boils down to the level of human contribution.

a)    The knower – is the knower willing to share his knowledge on ICT. Wikipedia without information posted by people will not be very useful.

b)   People need to keep abreast of the latest ICT developments and possess the IT knowhow and skills to utilize ICT’s.

We also need to reach out to rural markets who have had no contact with ICT’s.

Although the development of ICT’s has spelled a bright future for us, we need to beware of over-reliance on it and furthermore, of the dangers that it brings. (Security, espionage, invasion of privacy, exposure to corrupting influences and identity theft)

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” – Albert Einstein

We should always be aware of the impact that technology has on society and always use our moral and ethical judgment as to deciding whether a certain technology should be implemented. Certain technologies, like the Atomic Bomb that Einstein is talking about here, has brought more harm than good.

Issues for further discussion

ICT’s impact on the medical field – How can ICT further impact this field? I recently read an article in The Economist titled An Online Medic. It talks about a device known as the Tempus tele-medicine monitor used in planes, ships and at remote locations like oil wells. Basically, the device can transmit data for vital signs including ECG, blood-sugar and blood-oxygen levels, along with voice and video feed. Crews of aircraft or ships can connect to remote medical centres to help make a diagnosis or obtain treatment advice. Now, the company RDT has come up with an even tougher version which is waterproof and soundproof, and has new functions like a video laryngoscope that can be used to view and open a patient’s airway by inserting a tube. This new technology is to be implemented in the military. What new technologies could ICT offer medicine in the near future?

Humans and technology: too close for comfort? What is the limit for technology?

Especially when by technology we mean the RFID chip implants in humans. Would we be willing to implant a chip in our arm to experience the convenience of technology? Would we be willing to sacrifice our privacy for convenience?

Personal Rating

8/10. The videos that Prof showed us about ICT, particularly the one about Milo, the virtual boy, were really intriguing and thought provoking.  

Blog Entry #4

Overview / Summary

Drivers of World Change – During this session, we defined the role and function of a driver of world change, which was simply something that forces the world to change. We went on to explore some examples of drivers and categorize them. For example, under environmental drivers, we talked about the impact of germs and environmental change on society. Other types of drivers of change included competition, globalization and business innovation.

Change Management / Leadership – We defined the difference between managing change and leading change.  How one is reactive and the other is proactive.  We discussed possible reasons for resistance to change and some possible solutions for these. We also discussed the two models of change – The first being the freeze-unfreeze-refreeze model and the second being the modern model with continuous monitoring and constant renewal.

Interesting Ideas & Observations

Charles Robert Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change.” In the reading ‘Directing and Managing Change’, a simple analogy is given which I feel is quite relevant here. A man is walking in a jungle and sees a tiger. He climbs a tree and survives. A change happens, the man assesses it and acts accordingly. How does the man survive? He adapts to the jungle. When SARS hit us, we were able to assess the situation and adapt. For example, we quarantined the sick and developed a treatment for the disease. We survived the SARS outbreak because we adapted. Thus adapting is vital to our survival.

George Bernard Shaw goes a step further and states that it is not enough to adapt, we need to cause the change. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – Is it, therefore, good to be unreasonable? I agree that when we have a vision, we should not let it be destroyed by the constraints and limitations of the world. And definitely this persistence has led to progress in many areas of our society. But is this not the attitude that has led to our environment’s current dire state? Our persistence to adapt the world to our needs, by replacing Earth’s forests with lumber mills and by setting up factories which pollute her air, has led to environmental issues such as global warming. Hence I feel that leaders of change have the responsibility of being aware of the negative effects of their ideas / inventions. If the costs outweigh the benefits, maybe we should reconsider if our idea is really for the good of mankind.

This brings me to one of the readings, ‘Zambia-The Construction Industry’. Zambia is suffering from stagflation (high inflation, low GDP). The article proposes a few approaches that the construction industry can adopt to alleviate this problem, such as building core competencies and flexibility, using knowledge for competitive advantage, training and development of staff, customer satisfaction and innovation. My opinion is that improving knowledge and training of staff are the two key areas that need to be done. Zambia needs to gain knowledge in the construction industry to be competitive. But to do this, they first need to learn from other countries (either send people abroad for training or hire experts from abroad to come and train their workers). Following this, they can then innovate and come up with their own technologies. I feel that they also need to adopt a less rigid mindset, as mentioned in the article, and be open to change.

The 12 pillars of competitiveness – I feel that the system is quite an effective method of comparison as most of the factors of competitiveness of a country have been included and I do feel that introducing such an index for countries would encourage countries to be competitive in all aspects and this should breed efficiency and greater productivity. However, I still feel that such an index might have a negative effect on poorer countries low on the index, as companies may be reluctant to invest in them, hence affecting their future economic and social prospects.

MNCs VS NGOs? or MNCs + NGOs – This different perspective brought up during one of the individual oral presentations was rather though-provoking. I personally feel that it is possible for MNCs and NGOs to work hand-in-hand. NGOs need to show the MNCs that their cause need not be at the expense of the MNCs’ profit maximization objective. For example, most NGOs are pressuring MNCs to go green. Instead of being destructive by holding protests and riots, they should try and convince the non-green companies that if they go green, their pool of customers will be higher, since more customers are inclined to buy their green products.

Traditional Model for change VS Modern Model – As mentioned in my overview, two models were discussed during the second half of the session. The freeze-unfreeze-refreeze would be effective if change is a discrete event. But in reality, change is constant. We have to be flexible and hence the modern model, which adopts a continuous approach, is definitely more effective. I agree with Prof that when adopting this approach, there needs to be a good form of change management, otherwise the whole process would be chaotic. The reading, ‘Directing and Managing Change’, introduces a rather systematic approach for managing change. It is divided into the deciding policy and the implementing policy. Under the deciding policy, the management states the aims and its present position, evaluates opportunities, reviews strengths and weaknesses and then derive alternative strategies. Following this, the best strategy is decided upon. The management then prepares a quantified and precisely timed forward plan to implement the change.

Herding Cats – I found this reading extremely interesting. The crux of the article suggests that an effective way to implement change programs is to make employees feel involved in the process. This will provide them with the motivation, skills and knowledge required to adopt the new systems and procedures. I strongly agree with the article. Humans only resist change when it makes them feel out of control. They will definitely be more open if they felt involved, understanding and accepting the reasons for change and most importantly having a say in the process. Managers need to understand that, as mentioned in the article, ‘the human element is the most critical ingredient to technological success.’

Moderation of information in WEB 2.0 – We had a debate about this. I personally feel that some form of moderation is required for the verification of information on WEB 2.0.  Otherwise extreme and contentious comments made on the internet, especially on sensitive race and religion issues, could lead to the occurrence of riots. But Prof raised an interesting counter-point, who would be responsible for moderating? So I guess it falls on the users to post comments responsibly and I do agree that eliminating anonymity would reduce misinformation and such extreme comments, as people are held accountable for what they post. Readers can also check the reliability of the sources of information.

Key Takeaways

There are essentially 3 ways to cope with change

-       Make it happen

-       Respond when it happens

-       Be surprised when it happens

I feel that this probably sums up what the whole session is about. There are 3 ways in which we can interact with change. Take the leadership role and make change happen, take the manager role and adapt when it happens, or take the follower’s role and be surprised when it happens. From the video clip that Prof showed us, we could see that it takes a lot of courage to be a leader, to do something different from the crowd. But I feel that to lead the change is essentially the best way to deal with change. Hence we should always strive to be leaders of change and not merely managers. We should definitely not be ‘laggards’ whom are caught unaware and unprepared when change happens. The reading, ‘Directing and Managing Change’, also suggests that an effective way of overcoming problems set by change is to forecast what is likely to happen, plan ahead and act accordingly. For example, we observe that the population of the planet is increasing steadily. Most likely, this will cause the shortage of food to increase in the future. Hence we need to act accordingly to deal with this potential problem.

Humans resist change when they feel ‘out of control.’ As a manager, we should make them feel more involved in the change process.

Can small companies with great leaders and management still succeed? – The question of insufficient resource and funding hampering ideas was brought up during one of the individual oral presentations. Prof quoted Leon Kaiser, “I choose to live outside my budget.” If we have a vision, we should not let the lack of funds or resources limit that vision. Instead, we should persist and look for ways to solve these problems.

Areas for further discussion

Will MDG goals succeed if they adopt Ghosn’s cross- functional approach? – I feel that it is definitely possible but may be difficult. It is on a much larger scale as compared to ‘Nissan’ that Ghosn successfully revived. Anyway this issue could have been discussed further.

Ratings

9/10 – Although there were many readings in preparation for this class, I felt that the discussions were thought provoking and some of the contributions given by Prof and other students were indeed enlightening.