INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT UDAIPUR

Elective Course for MBA Term-VI (2021-22)

Advanced Competitive Strategy: Technology-Intensive Businesses

Course Outline and Session Plan (Credits: 4; Class-Hours: 30)

Instructor: Prarthan B. Desai

Course Overview
Technology-intensive businesses are the businesses that compete on developing and
commercializing new technologies. For such businesses their competitive strategies are closely
interwoven with their technology strategies. In recent times, many such businesses have disrupted
conventional businesses through technology enabled new products, new services, and new business
models. This has allowed these businesses to achieve enviable growth and capture enormous market
power. By continuing investment in technology development, they promise to create new waves of
disruption and extend their market power in future. A significant part of current public policy debates
are focused on how to contain and regulate their powers and make them more accountable to the
societal needs.
This course will allow students to learn how to analyse and formulate competitive strategies
for technology-intensive businesses. The course will focus on understanding the following: (i) how to
blend technology strategy decisions with competitive strategies, (ii) how to create, sustain, and extend
competitive advantage for technology-intensive businesses, and (iii) how to manage competitive
dynamics among technology players. Learnings from this course may be applicable to technology-
intensive large enterprises as well as technology-intensive new ventures.
Apart from the above-mentioned conceptual learning opportunities, the course intends to
provide valuable contextual learning opportunities to the students. All the cases selected for teaching
this course are situated in rapidly co-evolving digital technology ecosystems. The course will allow the
students an opportunity to understand these inter-connected technology domains from the view
point of the technology players. Hence this course may be considered as an independent yet
complementary course to my other course titled Digital Strategy and Digital Transformation (DSDT).
The key contrast between the two courses is: ACS focuses on strategy making for technology
disrupters, while DSDT focuses on strategy making for technologically disrupted.
The course is divided into three modules. The first module will focus on how to create and
sustain competitive advantage for technology-intensive businesses. The second module will discuss
how technology-intensive businesses explore new market opportunities and bring new technologies
to the market. The third module will discuss various types of cooperative and competitive dynamics
in technology-intensive businesses.

Learning Objectives
 Conceptual learning: To learn how to analyse and formulate competitive strategies for technology-
intensive businesses.
o How to blend technology strategy decisions with competitive strategies
o How to create, sustain, and extend competitive advantage for technology-intensive
businesses
o How to manage competitive dynamics among technology players
 Contextual learning: To develop a deep understanding of rapidly co-evolving digital technology
ecosystems from the view point of the technology players.

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Pedagogy
Learning will primarily be facilitated through discussion of cases, as the concepts and techniques of
digital strategy and digital transformation are best understood through practice. The effectiveness of
case teaching method depends on both the instructor and the participants. The students, as
participants to the case discussion, have the responsibility to prepare for the case prior to the session,
and actively participate in the case discussion.

Evaluation
 Class Participation: 10%
 Group Assignment: 40%
 End-term Examination: 50%

Class Participation
Effective class participation requires the students to:
 Prepare well for the class (summarized points of view, based on case analysis and readings)
 Participate meaningfully in the class discussion (clear and concise articulation of one’s point of
view, without repeating / paraphrasing what someone else has already said)
 Understand differing points of view
 Synthesize learning from the discussion

Class participation gives participants the opportunity to practice and develop their ability to add value
to a discussion. So prepare well, and do not hesitate to participate in the class discussion.

Course Material
There is no textbook for the course. Session readings and cases are listed in the session plan on the
next page.

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Session Plan

MODULE-1: CREATING AND SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN TECHNOLOGY-INTENSIVE

BUSINESSES
Sessions-1&2
Domain: Autonomous Vehicles
 Readings:
o Steen, E.V.D., Creating and sustaining competitive advantage (9-717-479)
o Steen, E.V.D., Drivers of value capture (9-714-488)
 Case: Mobileye: The Future of Driverless Cars (9-715-421)
Sessions-3&4
Domain: Telecom/5G
 Readings:
o Note on technology-intensive businesses (To be provided by the instructor)
o Coughlan, P.J., The Leader’s (Dis)advantage (9-701-084)
 Case: NTT DOCOMO’s Race to 5G (9-720-413)

MODULE-2: EXPLORING AND LAUNCHING TECHNOLOGY-BASED OFFERINGS AND BUSINESS MODELS

Sessions-5&6
Domain: Autonomous Vehicles
 Reading:
o Schilling, M., What’s your best innovation bet? Harvard Business Review, July-Aug 2017
(R1704F)
o Kavadias, S. et al., The transformative business model, Harvard Business Review, Oct 2016
(R1610H)
 Case: Mobileye 2021: Robotaxi and/or Consumer AV? (9-721-481)
Sessions-7&8
Domain: Robotics
 Reading: Dhebar, A. Bringing new high-technology products to market: Six perils awaiting
marketers, Business Horizons, 59: 713-722 (2016) (BH777)
 Case: Osaro: Picking the best path (9- 820-012)
Sessions-9&10
Domain: Artificial Intelligence
 Readings:
o Intellectual Property and Strategy (9-704-493)
o Module note: Intellectual Property Strategy (9-721-436)
 Case: Numenta in 2020: The future of AI (9-720-463)

MODULE-3: COLLABORATIVE AND COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS IN TECHNOLOGY-INTENSIVE

BUSINESSES
Sessions-11&12
Domain: Microprocessors
 Readings:
o Hagel, J. III, Brown J.S., and Davison, L. Shaping strategy in a world of constant disruption,
Harvard Business Review, October 2008 (R0810E)
o Reaching beyond your organization: Empowering Innovation (9-817-044)
 Case: Williamson, P.J. and Meyer, A.D. Ecosystem advantage: How to successfully harness the
power of partners, California Management Review, Fall 2012 (CMR521)

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Sessions-13&14
Domain: Microprocessors and Operating Systems for PCs
 Reading: Yoffie, D.B. and Kwak, M., With friends like these: The art of managing complementors,
Harvard Business Review, Sept 2006 (R0609E)
 Cases:
o Wintel (A): Cooperation or Conflict? (9-704-419)
o Wintel (B): From NSP to MMX (9-704-420)
o Wintel (C): From MMX to the Internet (9-704-421)
Sessions-15&16
Domain: Video Games
 Readings:
o Video games: Clouds on the horizon? (9-713-424)
o Hagiu, A., Multi-sided platforms: Foundations and strategy (9-714-436)
 Case: Epic Games (9-720-380)
Sessions-17&18
Domain: Cloud Services
 Reading:
o Cloud wars go global: How Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Alibaba compete Web services
(IN1658)
o Note on product complementarities and strategy in technology-intensive businesses (To be
provided by the instructor)
 Case: Microsoft Azure and the Cloud Wars (9-720-409)
Sessions-19&20
Domain: Intelligent Voice Assistants
 Readings:
o Gawer, A. and Cusumano M.A. How companies become platform leaders, MIT Sloan
Management Review, Winter 2008 (SMR268)
 Cases: Voice war: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri (9-718-519)