Transforming the Way Business is Conducted Technology Leaders Meet at Wharton Mack Center Conference
How can businesses compete with today’s technologies? Will the next generation of business leaders be driven by Facebook? How can organizations manage the fundamental technology changes?
Eighty senior managers from industries including Citigroup, Harvard Business School, Dupont Technologies, Microsoft and IBM came together to discuss these and other questions about how emerging communication technologies are redefining business operations at the Wharton Impact Conference, sponsored by Wharton’s Mack Center for Technology Innovation, on November 2, 2007.
Wharton professors Harbir Singh (right) and George Day, co-directors of the Mack Center for Technology Innovation, talk with participants at the center's recent conference.
“When you stop and think about it, it’s fascinating to see Facebook literally changing the way the next wave of business leaders think and process real-time information.” said John Udell, a technical evangelist with Microsoft and one of the conference speakers.
In his comments at the conference, Udell talked about how blogs and social networking sites are making unlikely connections likely and creating a “manufactured serendipity” for both users and industry.
Working with and for Emerging Technologies
“The conference creates opportunities for the center’s partners to discuss what’s happening with technology today,” said Harbir Singh, Wharton management professor and co-director of the Mack Center with Wharton marketing professor George S. Day. “How can business adapt and change with the times to stay on the cutting-edge of their specific industry?”
In addition to Udell, guest speakers included Wharton professors Peter Fader, Ravi Aron and James D. Thompson, Harvard Business School professor Thomas Eisenmann, and Peter Naq of Citigroup, who spoke on a wide variety of topics:
Digital Transformation and the new Corporate Strategy
How IBM is transforming itself from an IT company to a company focused on global business value
Outsourcing frameworks and development of business networks in India and other markets
What is the role of platform-mediated networks in technology-enabled business transformation?
Ten Years of Lessons learned from the first social networking platform: Napster
Addressing the Need for New Best Practices and Strategies
In 1995, the Wharton School established the Emerging Technologies Management Research Program. In 2001, the program was brought under the newly created Mack Center for Technological Innovation with a broad mandate to continue and expand research, communicate insights to and partner with firms around the world and prepare tomorrow’s future business and technology leaders being educated at Wharton. Today, the center functions as a corporate learning network for senior business leaders and academic researchers who share common interests and concerns in the field of technological innovation.
To learn more about the Mack Center, upcoming events and conferences, or partnering opportunities, visit the center website.
