An increasing blur between private and public spheres is the future of technology in business, according to an analysis performed by M. Eric Johnson, the director of the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business. The Center, founded in 2001, "infuses technology into the Tuck curriculum" to provide business students with skills necessary given the growing importance of technology and the Internet.
The "intellectual mission" of the Center is to understand the enabling role of information technology in corporations today, according to Hans Brechbuhl, the Center's executive director. To achieve this goal, the Center performs research and establishes contacts with large corporations, then makes the research and contacts available to the Tuck community, he said. These three functions speak to "a desire to make sure that MBA students graduate with some understanding of the role of technology and the importance of technology today in these companies," Brechbuhl said.
Johnson predicted that the boundary between personal and corporate technology will become less clear, as employers now allow employees to use their personal technology at work, which he called the "consumerization" of information technology.
The increasing capabilities of smart phones, including the ability of corporations to create smart phone applications for their employees, are a second trend, Johnson said. These applications will allow employees to be more efficient and mobile, according to Johnson.
Johnson also predicted the increasing pervasiveness of social media, further bridging the gap between personal and the professional worlds. He pointed to Tuck's use of the social networking website Chatter, which he described as an "internal Facebook," as an example of a corporation's use of social media.
Cloud technology, which frees startups from high costs such as servers and the associated technology infrastructure, has grown in popularity according to Johnson.
"Cloud technology lowers the cost of starting a business dramatically and allows small businesses to scale very quickly," he said.
The use of personal technology at work melds private and work life, he said.
"It's a people issue, but it's also a big corporate issue," he said
A fifth trend Johnson highlighted is the enormous amount of data available to corporations.
"We're beginning to be really able to harness all of this data," Johnson said, predicting better consumer service when corporations can efficiently use all of the data available.
Johnson's said his predictions of technology's impact on business were key to the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center's future.
"There is no part of business not touched by information technology," he said.
The Center, which focuses on this widespread use of information technology, provides students with a variety of opportunities to become involved, exemplified by the MBA Fellows program, according to Tim Paradis, program manager at the Center.
MBA Fellows work with the Center to plan events, perform research and interact with visiting executives, among other opportunities, according to MBA Fellow Geoff Mattei Tu '12. Through the Center, Mattei researches cloud computing and its effects on software corporation business models, he said.
Mattei highlighted the networking opportunities that being a fellow provided him, as fellows are encouraged to host technology-related executives who come through Tuck, he said.
MBA Fellow Marco Castillo Tu '12 said that his research studies the implications of "objects and things connected to the Internet," as opposed to people. An example of an object connected to the Internet is an umbrella that changes color when the Internet predicts rain, he said. The number of objects connected to the Internet is greater than the number of people who are, and this skew toward objects will continue to grow, he said.
The Center also hosts a Britt Technology Impact Series each year, open to both Tuck students and undergraduates, with a different technological theme, according to Brechbuhl. The purpose of the series is to highlight an aspect of technology that the Center believes will be important for Tuck students to understand, he said. This year's theme of cloud computing is discussed through panels and lectures, Brechbuhl said.
As technology becomes increasingly important in business, the imperative becomes greater for the Center to coordinate with other parts of business, Brechbuhl said.
"The scale that we can reach probably has some limitations simply because we're a part of Tuck," he said.
