Healthcare and Biotechnology

Healthcare and Biotechnology

Readings for this session were, as usual eye- opening ! I’m not sucking up but TWC class is really useful from the business sense, that it opens us our mind’s to a wide array ideas and concepts which present in the world.  What’s the importance of such knowledge in the business sense ?  It gives us the knowledge of what are likely to be the sectors in the world which are possibly going to be future growth drives of the economy, presenting us with some foresight into business opportunities in the investment prospects in the future.

 One of the first  things that stuck me from this chapter was the chart that Proff  displayed, showing the exponential revenue growth of the top 5 biotechnological companies in the US. Being someone who is interested in long term investing, my first reaction to that was : “ oh my goodness! I have to check out that industry when get back home, I see a lot of long run potential for investing in this sector!”  Apart from that I was surprised to find out that bio business accounted for  32.8% of US GDP ! this was indeed  another stunner for me ( although it was mainly due to healthcare )mainly because I tend to focus investing on the leading technological sector in the US . It never did occur that healthcare spending would amount to such a large figure in the USA. Coupled with the changing demographic structure of the USA which is likely to require more health care services in the future, it is my believe that the healthcare and biotech sectors are likely to experience further growth in the future.

Apart from this lessons interesting direct relations with my future fields of interest, the readings in from this chapter also provided an interesting perspective on the concept of Intellectual property rights for farmers. What struck me the most was the argument on why traditional farmers do not get IPR for special species of  crop which the grow on their land, even though they may have been cultivated by  inherited knowledge (of farmers )or communal connection to the land or special crops/ varieties that grow on the land. In sharp Contrast, larger firms, take the same crops ,tweak them under the name and under the name of “innovation” claim patents for their crops!

Lastly an the concept of disruptive innovation was introduced to us in reading four. The concept is indeed very relevant in explaining the process of competition and the need for companies to stay relevant  to the markets they serve. Essentially, the concept of disruptive innovation shows that initially, leaders in a particular industry/ sector will create cutting edge goods that the mass market can enjoy, however, over time the rate of technological advances  for these goods out run the consumers requirements, meanwhile due to technological advances , smaller business set are able to provide the same the services which the consumer actually requires. This ends up disrupting the business of the market leaders  and in cases may end up ending their dominance. This is very useful in illustrating that all business should must not just focus on creating the most technologically  superior products in their field, they have to keep and eye on ensuring that they remain relevant to what is actually being demanded by the markets and provided a cost effective solution to that.

Furthermore, it was argued that the US  healthcare industry needs to under precisely such a shift in order to stay efficient and affordable to it’s citizens. As discussed , Disruptive innovation such as matching the problem of the patient to an appropriate clinicians may indeed yield cost savings, instead of the current “overkill” approach being used now.

Lastly, As a side track from the issues raised during class presentations, a topic that I wished we could have dwelled on would be : When is the line drawn between  providing products for the sake of corporate profit against for the greater wellbeing of society. Should people be denied the right to healthcare just because they are unable to afford it?

Overall the ratings for this class would be: 9/10

Information and Communication Technology

ICT's and it's current flagship, the internet, has revolutionized the world we live in. This week's class on ICT and the associated readings did provide me with and intriguing insight into some aspects of ICT's which I have overlooked in the past.

Cloud Computing was a topic in the lesson that really captivated me. The reading on cloud computing has indeed provided a valuable insight into this new form of technology and it's possible implication to business. As I see it, cloud computing looks like it may very well be a " game changer " in the business sense . Firstly, the benefits it potentially provides to companies such as the reduction in hardware and software cost will indeed go a long way to helping all companies and their bottom line ( be it SME in starting up cost or the big banks and their huge information systems ). Futhermore, shuch systems provide firms with and option to scale up or scale down their data storage or IT system requirements on the go. This is in my opinion an extremely useful benefit. Take banks and their IT services for example.( during working  when consumers are swiping credit cards or people are transferring cash, their IT services usually undergo extreme pressure to cope with such data flow. However, during of peak hours, their servers usually lie idle. Cloud Computing offers a remedy to such situations, instead of banks having to fork out huge sums of money for vast mainframes, cloud computing may indeed allow banks to just pay for the processing power on the go , with demand very much like how they would do so with electricity. It is my belief that it will help banks and big institutions drive down cost since it would no longer need to employ a whole IT team along with costly hardware. Which is sitting idle most of the day, instead by paying on demand for cloud computing, it will greatly help to improve business efficiency and operating cost down.  Cloud Computing indeed offers a whole range of new oppourtunities. The very fact that Google's Chrome operating, system( which is slated to challenge windows)  is based on cloud computing principles also bring to light an interesting question , how will cloud computing impact the masses in the future ?

 Another interesting topic that was brought up in class was the transformation of web 2.0 to 3.0 .The internet at it's current state does already seem so advanced  that it at times can get difficult to imagine it getting better. yet as discussed in class, it seems that web 3.0 will further increase the efficiency in the flow of knowledge and information around the world. With people spending more and more time online , it does seem possible that one people spend more time in the virtual world then interacting in the physical one. This makes the argument as seen in the videos in class of the internet becoming the  primary source of revenue for business a likely one. Perhaps another aspect of the future internet that could be considered is the increase in business efficiency brought about by the network itself. What do i mean by this ? Just take a look at g-mail or Google search for example. Advertisements are suited to your personal interest and searches engines can even predict what you are going to search for. The internet is becoming less of a place where unstructured information floats about , but instead , it is becoming more organised, able to cater to the needs of individuals, able to match products to consumers and increase the efficiency of economic transactions.

Lastly, Project Natal, introduced to us by Proff, was a real eye opener. What stunned me was how natural the interaction between the human and the system was. I do have and equally interesting idea to bring up .It is a Defence advance research project agency ( DARPA / the people who created the internet !!  ) project :  mind's eye which aims " to add the perceptual and cognitive underpinnings for recognizing and reasoningabout the verbs in those scenes, enabling a more complete narrative of action in the visual experience." essentially it will allow computers and artificial intelligence to understand their surrounding and not just process it as information. Just imagine the possibilities that could be open to human machine interaction if both these technologies are merged. It Just may be possible that computers may one day to mimic, human to human interactions indistinguishably form the real thing. This would be in fact what I wished could have been discussed more in class : will it actually be possible for artificial intelligence to actually gain "sentience" such that if talking to it , we would be unable to distinguish it from a real human ?

overall I would give this lesson a 9/10

The only constant is Change ( lesson 4)

This Session was particularly interesting, with the primary focus of the first part of the lesson being on the drivers of Global Change. The reading Material for the first session was also though provoking. two articles that really captured my attention were the first and third readings, which were the 1)drivers of global change to 2060 and the 2) 2025 global trends. Both articles highlighted the Shift of cultural and economic power towards the from the west to east. 3 future powerhouses are singles out in these articles : China, India and Russia. These are apparently the rising stars of this century. The West fears this, these countries do not hold share the common values as them, ( with the exclusion of India, which the US sees as an ally). It in fact seems that in this next half a century we will see the conventional western model of democracy being challenged as China and Russia become dormant player in the world. What will be real interesting is how the US will cope with a China that is stronger then them in terms of both economic and military strength and how the turning point in the world's history when China starts to assert it's political, economic  and military power throughout the world. Indeed an interesting issue for discussion is how the wold will be at the point of time (somewhere near the middle of the century? ) where China, India, US and Russia will have almost the same level of economic, military and political dominance.How will the world simultaneously support 4 different dormant players ? Is Conflict between them likely to occur ? What will be the cultural shifts likely to take place ? Will US popular culture still dominate the airwaves ? If not, Who would it be ?

Another Issue brought up in the both these articles is the fact that Climate change and a scarcity of global resources is likely to cause problems throughout the globe as we head into the future . Both reports have mentioned this as cause for concern. What I find worrying however, is that too little is being done to tackle this problem ! In light of the current economic recession, Some countries have actually cut rebates for green energy technologies. The Solar industry was particularly affected by such moves, especially in europe, with Germany, Spain and Italy all reducing their subsidies for solar power. Sadly it does seem that we may be encountering a problem here, as governments choose to cut back on such policies in the name of fiscal austerity.
now to the interesting issues brought up in the class:
During the first half of the class, we were introduced to an interesting diagram on adapting to change. It gave real model of how technology gets disseminated and also introduced us to the concept of the Chasm, the need to cross it so as to produce products that can be used by the mainstream. This is indeed very true, but taken for granted, hence it was a very good learning point for me, that technology need not just be cutting edge but more importantly, getting it across the Chasm is vital for any product to achieve success in the marketplace.
The Secondpart of the class focused on Change management,
Here, the discussion was on change management and the shift for  old model of development( freeze, unfreeze , freeze ) to the new, more dynamic one.articles for reading included one on the different between leadership and management.which i have to disagree with certain point , namely the difference in the relationships that mangers and leaders have with others.It statedthat leaders created human relations that may be turbulent, intense and even disorganized. I have to disagree that on the turbulent part as, i believe that leaders must have a very strong relationship with their followers,a turbulent relationship and even disorganized would be no means help a leader lead !
overall the rating for this class would be 8/10

TWC lesson 3

Our 3rd TWC session started off with a an interesting video about the global imbalance in consumption trends and the need for sustainable development. A key point raised in the start of the video which caught my attention is  the scene in which the government is seen trying to serve the Corporation. I really have to disagree with this view, especially in light of the past financial crisis. On the Contrary, governments have found themselves having to intervene and bail out large corporations (such as Citibank, AIG, General motors ) this has resulted in the rise of "Big government " in the recent decade as government finds itself getting more involved in the private sector and the also in the rebirth of industrial policies Interestingly, I do feel that this is better, government intervention is for example, necessary to correct externalities such as climate change. hence the increasing involvement of government in business in the recent years may actually allow the government to steer the development of countries in the correct path, instead of the market driven path which may not be correct way forward as it usually sacrifices environmental well being for economic development. This leads to what we were talking about in class : that the old industrial model of economic development vs environmental well being transition to the sustainable industrial model of economic development and environmental well being. The presentations and discussions that followed encompassed technologies that can help meet the drive to achieving this goals.

        In the second part of the class ,we covered the topic : Technology and Innovation Management

In this part of the class, we were introduced firstly to Shai landscape model of technology : conceptual framework which introduced us to valley, summit and cloud opportunities. Another interesting idea presented to us was the research, development and application ( R D A ) process. A key takeaway about this session of class was this  RDA process which shows that while research may yield good ideas and technology, The key challenge lies in developing these technologies and applying. What also noteworthy is the different skillsets involved along the process. With the Research end being more scientific and the application asepcts focusing more on management and business development

      An issue that I wished could have been covered in more detail would have been discussed in further detail would be the viability of government policies in promoting sustainable development. It is my personal belief that governments play an even more vital role in promoting sustainable development then technology or the free market itself as the only a the government has the power in terms of legislative measures and economic incentives or deterrents to force  the free market to adopt the proper technologies and practices to head down the path of sustainable development.

Class rating : 7 /10