Baradello/Campbell/Klopp DGB – The Silicon Valley Perspettive V1.1

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Summer II 2021 HULT

International Business School Undergraduate Program

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REG 375 -- Doing Global Business: The Silicon Valley Perspective Summer II - 2021

Grade weight: 40% of the total class grade Due Date: 10’ before of the final exam starts

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Group Final Exam (individually graded): Written Report + in-class Presentation

Identification of Winners in Upcoming Disruptions in Specific Sectors of Economic Activity

This EXAM TOPIC requires student teams (of 3 students) to continue working in the economic sector (disruption pending) you have identified during the midterm assignment (A one-page Project Overview). For this Final Exam, each team will develop the full project based in the overview proposed at the end of week 2 of the Summer II session. The question is how to take a peek into the future, where do you look? Consistent with the themes of this class and gaining fluency with big ideas, one place to look in where “the future is cooking”. In my youth (Carlos) I asked for help to this seemingly intractable question to a wise executive. His answer so disarmingly simple, when in doubt “…follow the money…” This wise advice is translated to this assignment as where smart money is investing today to develop the great business of tomorrow. Amazingly, this is rather simple if you know how to follow the money… If you would like to know where large public corporations are investing in R&D for the medium/long term, or their future strategic investments; this information is rather opaque and likely would require sifting through all months/years of press releases and other public activities1: M&A’s, strategic relationships, JV’s, technical papers published, public speeches of executives at financial gatherings or technical conferences, etc. This is a rather insurmountable task, and large Fortune 500 have analysts (like yourself after graduation) gathering all this intelligence as well-

1 There are a number of paid services that provide this type of business intelligence

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paid services to translate them into actionable statements. Therefore, this does not seem that simple and straightforward way “to look” or to follow the money trail. Aligned with the themes of the class, a plausible alternative, would be to look where the Silicon Valley VC’s are investing. Of course, we are not limited just to VC’s from SV but anywhere in the world. A small per-cent of these early investments (definitively single digit) of today will result in the great companies of tomorrow, furthermore those who have a revolutionary exponential technology or a disruptive business model, may very well unseat the incumbents disrupting the entire industry. There are several publications that encapsulate these investment trends, spot the future unicorns, and track university technologies funded at the seed level Startups. This final exam requires your team to identify: specific products and services that will thrive as result the disruption in the industry or economic sector you have identified for the midterm. Typically, either young startups lead the charge, however, we need to leave open the (rare) possibility that an incumbent (an established firm) was able to re-invent or reposition itself to capture the upside of the disruption. Please include in your analysis the following elements (or what are we asking you to do):

i. Identify the forces that cause the disruption. Provide a historical perspective of the sector and the incumbents. Identify the disruptive forces

ii. Is the technology the only game changer or there are market or global forces “adding fuel to the fire”?

iii. Identify the change makers either by identifying the Startups, the innovators, the universities, etc., where everything started. Unlikely, you will be able to point to a single source, but the conjunctions of forces which came together in space and time. Could you talk to them? Can you interview any of the leaders?

iv. How could you benefit personally in your professional journey from this

disruption?

v. Identify local or global players which will likely be the major winners as your identified disruption takes place. Could you predict the outcome? Identify at least 3 potential winners.

vi. Perform a broad stakeholder analysis and evaluate if society will better off post-disruption. Envision the role of government through its multiple arms from the municipal level to national, and the global levels, and the type of coordinated enlightened public policies required.

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Developing your written executive report and board-level presentation, you need to include a detailed overview of the transformative change. Some ideas you may want to consider while developing your analysis of the winners in the disrupted economic sector to include (or how are we asking you to do):

§ Identify the leading VC’s investments in a target sector, research the portfolio companies in the sector, investigate their performance, to identify potential winners.

§ Scope the impact across geographical regions, socio-economic classes, beneficial stakeholders, etc.

§ Perform a traditional “SWOT” analysis of this transformative change. § Identify potential positive side-effects and auxiliary businesses and

other stakeholders benefitting from this disruption. § Identify the positive and negative impacts post-disruption on society, § The disruptors leading the global change are likely to be rewarded

with quasi monopolistic market dominance. For example, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, etc., have all been under investigation by antitrust agencies due to monopolistic behavior in some key countries (USA, EU, etc.). You need to state your position: a) Winners take all and “take no prisoners”, b) Develop an ecosystem of supporters who benefit in the post-disruption reality, c) Plan to exit way before the problems arise, etc.

§ Consider the role of government (regulators), and potential enlightened public policies that could be enacted facilitating or anticipating the changes and managing its introduction to maximize the benefits for the largest possible cross section of society,

§ Explore the various ways in which this transformative change is likely to impact your career. Explain positive and negative aspects. What steps can/will you take to mitigate the negative aspects. (Integrate the group answer, from the individual answers)

After you introduce a description of the specific transformative change, please ensure that you spend an equal amount of space on the paper and presentation describing a multidimensional analysis of the impact of the disruptive forces on the economic sector selected. In case you still have difficulties identifying an economic sector to be disrupted, a list of few are found below, exclusively for illustrative purposes:

§ The world post COVID-19: a privileged sector § The Future of Work § The Future of Education, in particular Higher Education § The Future of Healthcare § The Future of Venture Capital and Corporate Venture Capital, § A world where all vehicles are electric, shared, and autonomous

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§ The Future of “Synthetic World”: gems, wines, organs, food, biology, etc.

§ Proposed your own topic,

Part I, 5% of the class grade – Graded as a Group : it is earned depending on the quality of the selection of the economic sector “ready for disruption”, the overall framing of the arguments, the integration of the individual reports and presentations, and the quality and aesthetics of the report and the presentation, including the handovers and the management of the Q/A.

Part II, 20% of the class grade – Graded individually: Findings presented in-class as a group, delivered in 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes for Q/A, during the day of the final exam. All team members should present, and each presentation will be graded individually:

The oral presentation will be evaluated using the following criteria: § Clarity: The presentation should be easy to follow and understand. § Skilled delivery: Use good voice projection and eye contact. Be comfortable,

confident, engaging, and provocative. Use your own style! § Value-added content: State your goals clearly; be insightful. § Visual aids: Tables, graphs, etc. must be readable, understandable, and in clear

support of the arguments articulated. § Conclusions: Your conclusions must be defensible; provide your rationale. § Q&A: Answer questions directly and effectively. § Team effort: Since all team members will be presenting, carefully plan the transitions

from one speaker to the next. § Audience management: Anticipate questions and be ready to answer or provoke

discussion.

Part II, 15% of the class grade – Graded individually: A white paper identifying a future disruption affecting an important sector of the economy. The minimum length is 5 pages (not including any annexes, appendices, references, tables of contents, cover page, etc.) and the maximum length is 10 pages (including any annexes, appendices, references, tables of contents, cover page, etc.). In other words, there must be at least 5 pages of true written content. Each section needs to identify the main author to enable individual grading. If you have a secondary, yet important role in other section(s) your name should appear as a second author. Your paper must be written in Calibri 11-point font, with single spacing and 1-inch borders on 8.5x11 inch paper. Outside the required 5 pages of true content, other pages such as references, appendixes, cover page, table of content, etc.; could use any font or point size as required by your aesthetic preferences.

Grading Criteria (What constitutes a good assignment?): The professors will evaluate assignments based on the quality of students’ analyses and syntheses of ideas. Analysis is fine, but synthesis is what we are really looking! Assignment responses should reflect thoughtfulness, understanding, and effort. It requires framing the issue, presenting its historical perspective, and

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reflecting on the current state and potential ideal states. Do not be afraid to take a position vis-à- vis the issue at hand, outside the box.

Grading Rubric: Please see the REG 375 Grading Rubric for Final for the exact standard that will be applied to the Assignment.

Special Note About Plagiarism: In-class discussions and debates will be designed to help you develop your own unique perspective on the varied issues covered in the course. This same spirit of developing original ideas should carry over into your written work. Please cite your work and provide quotations where applicable. Plagiarism is generally defined as the use of someone else’s words and/or ideas without providing proper credit. Neither this course nor Hult International Business School will tolerate instances of plagiarism.