Intro to Commercial Environments

Course Expectations

• There will be challenges that will overcome
• Overcoming these can be achieved during the course.
• A foundation can be gained from what you do in the future.

First Steps

• Get the textbook for the course
• View the following YouTube video: Pierce College District WA, “Study Less, Study Smart”. Published on July 22, 2011, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0
• Chapters 1, and 4 are required reading
• Verify access to a computer that can operate software from the Microsoft Office suite, including Excel and Access.

Course Guiding Questions:

• Commercial environment and its definition
• Personnel of a commercial environment
• Definition of information technology
• General role in a commercial environment
• Users of information technology
• Who is in charge of Information Technology
• Improving information technology

Learning objective Section 1.1

• Technology has produced radical changes across industries and throughout societies
• The increasing rate of technical advancement creates promise but also peril for workers, firms, industries, and societies.
• While tremendous wealth has been created by tech giants, global regulators are trying to curtail their power.
• Careers are subject to constant change because of technology shifts and its continuous impact

Learning objective Section 1.3

• Appreciate the degree to which technology has permeated every management discipline including Tech Careers
• Tech careers are varied, richly rewarding, and poised for continued growth

Learning objective Section 4.1

• Understand the reasons behind failed earlier online grocery efforts vs. FreshDirect's relative success.
• Recognize key resources for competitive advantage through technology and a tech-enabled business model offer FreshDirect.
• Understand product-market fit.
• Understand the role of time in strengthening these resources.
• Recognize why FreshDirect can use technology products that others can buy and still realize tech-created advantage

Learning objective Section 4.2

• Understand why FreshDirect struggled when switching from its Queens to the new, larger Bronx facility.
• Recognize how the firm used technology and nontechnology solutions to address initial systems failure
• Steps a firm might take to avoid a similar fate in rolling out a complex system.
• Understand Covid-19 related challenges and opportunities for FreshDirect plus how it leveraged its unique business to provide community benefits as a partner/vendor
• Threats from nontraditional entrants in the online grocery market, and the reasons why Stop & Shop's parent firm acquired FreshDirect are important to understand

Evolving Technology + Business Models

• Uber is the largest “taxi service” which owns no vehicles for hire
• Airbnb is the largest accommodations provider who owns no properties.
• Google is the world's most profitable advertiser that produces no television shows and/or owns no networks, newspapers, or magazines Facebook is the most visited media destination even though it doesn't create its own content
• Alibaba, Shopify, and Temu are the most disruptive retailers who own no inventory
• Apple is known as the most valuable and profitable firm in the United States does not own any fruit

High Value Companies

• Seven firms have surpassed $1 Trillion in value, and all but 1 of them are in tech.
• High Value companies include Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp) is actually 7th behind Saudi Aramco
• Major tech firms are under investigation for competitive practices: Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta in the U.S. and Europe; China is investigating Alibaba.
• Some countries that are collectively investigating include; Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
• Firms have reached $1 trillion market capitalizations by dominating separate markets and are increasingly competing with each other in new markets.
• All are investing largest portions of their Research and Development in Artificial Intelligence

Hype Cycle

• Gartner, a tech-advisory firm, created the Hype Cycle concept
• The Hype Cycle is widely used in presentations, textbooks, and press articles
• It Discusses specific technologies, technology categories, and broader concepts
• Timing is key

AI

• Nvidia is the most important firm in providing microprocessors that are used in artificial intelligence.
• Market dominance in high-end Al chips
• Share is estimated between 80 and 95 percent of the market
• AI has fueled server farms and the expensive chips inside them, representing just one area of AI-fueled spending, but additional spending occurs.
• Microsoft spent $13 billion for a 49 percent stake in OpenAI
• Amazon pledged $5 billion to the startup Anthropic Al
• Facebook and Apple are paying high salaries to attract Al talent for their own efforts

AI Promise

• AI is a pattern detector and analyzer which is very similar to how a human would use it
• If used properly, AI can: fight crime, advance cleantech, diagnose diseases, and fuel life-science breakthroughs.
• Alexa, Siri, and Google Home are all getting increasingly GenAI smart, and the tech is baked into all sorts of mainstream software

AI Delivery

• AI can return search results in a timely fashion
• AI can recommend items based on interests, and filter out spam email if used properly.

AI Risks

• Discrimination
• Mischief regarding copywriting for scammers and security risks for information leaks.
• Hallucinations

How NOT to Use AI in Law

• Learn how to use use ChatGPT to ruin legal career on YouTube. June 10, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSYIjRYDEM
• Ruining a Legal Career is possible on with ChatGPT via Nebula. June 10, 2023. Check it out here: https://nebula.tv/videos/legaleagle-how-to-ruin-your-legal-career-with-chatgpt
• There is a vicious spiral in which AIs are learning from other AIs.

How to NOT Use AI in Finance(?)

• Patrick Boyle shared "When Al is Just Badly Paid Humans!". YouTube. Aug 25, 2024, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huu_9rAEiQU

AI Successes

• AI will point to places learn techniques and skills and demonstrate them
• When trained on the proper documents, AI can retrieve valuable information

AI Ethics

• AI may violate copyright and intellectual property rights and Attempts to replace workers in the pursuit of rent-seeking behavior
• There is also massive resource use: Cindy Gordon, “AI Is Accelerating the Loss of Our Scarcest Natural Resource: Water", Forbes.com. Feb 25, 2024 (updated Mar 7, 2024)

Predicting The Future

• Web 3.0 was poised as the new big thing, it did not pan out and Meta lost over $46B
• NFT speculators bought wasted $5B on “monkey JPEGs.”
• TikTok, which is now a generation's media addiction. appeared during a media battle between Instagram and Snapchat

The Future of Tech

• While tech creates new giants, know half of the Fortune 500 companies on the list in 2000 have fallen off since then from mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies
• Digital-fueled growth was compressed into the COVID years
• Inflation pushed interest rates higher and many firms over-hired, and had record-breaking layoffs
• Firms use Social media use it for new product ideas, vet and build trust, and for millions in sales
• With promise comes peril through cameras capture ethical lapses by ethical lapses and customer service flaws
• Social media has emerged by a catalyst for global change by broadcasting and disseminating ideas
• A tool for democratization (Zeynep Tufekci’s Twitter and Teargas) and spreads misinformation

Impact Of Future Tech

• Fast/cheap technology is allowing new products/ use cases, not only embedding the Internet with everything, but also to empower millions in emerging markets.
• Cheap tech is becoming economic lubricant in sub-Saharan Africa with 70% of the regions population having a mobile phone
• Many nations now rank among the world's fastest growing economies Google, IBM, Microsoft run R&D centers in sub-Saharan African nations.
• Cheap processors and software smarts are also powering the robotics and drone revolution with great impact to fields.
• There is use in agricultural drone agriculture, Drone-to-doorstep delivery, and delivery of medical supplies/blood to remote regions of the world along with medical nanometer detectors.
• Open source software is powering the websites, and firms are collectively paying programmers to write open source code.
• This requires new revenue models, however, can greatly Lower costs for many
• Cloud computing and software as a service are turning sophisticated, high-powered into a utility available to even the smallest businesses/nonprofits

Data and Security

• Organizations are discovering new innovations with Data analytics, business intelligence, and machine learning
• There is Redefining of modern marketing
• Shifting knife-edge of privacy concerns has risen and reputations are at corporate risk if mishandled
• The pervasiveness of computing has created a set of security and espionage threats unimaginable to the prior generation.
• Past tech shifts have accelerated productivity, not eliminated workers
• Software developer is top job in next decade according to Business Insider
• Jobs in data and Al growth is expected to grow by 37%, with engineering and cloud computing jobs growing 34%.

Information System

• Information system technologies have become a key differentiator for job searchers
• Managerial and modern disciplines have been affected
• Computing is now affordable and faster, and has become more pervasive in pockets and vacuums
• Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags track luggage at the airport.

Finance

• The following are important concepts from the finance section:
• IPO
• Elevator pitch
• Pivoting
• Term sheet
• Merger & acquisition
• Automated trading
• Market capitalization

Accounting

• Audit
• GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
• Paper trail vs. paperless trail

Marketing

• Data collection & analysis
• Content generation:
  • Copy, images, sound, video
• CRM or Customer Relationship Management
• Churn
• Search Engine Marketing/ Search Engine Optimization (SEM/SEO)
• Social media
• Early mover/first mover

Operational and Human resources

• R&D is Research and development
• Quality management
• Process automation and redesign
• Logistics management: RFID
• Human Resources is considering Knowledge management and training
• Training and Screening
• Social networks and the new resume and Evaluations.

Law

• IP, or Intellectual Property
• Document storage & analysis

IS Careers Across Areas

• Programmers
• Experts in User-interface, process, design, and strategy
• IT Consulting and field engineering
• Project Management and Data analytics experts
• All C level IT roles in the IT sector

Improving IS Practice

• Critical-thinking skills specific to technology must be developed
• When assessing emerging technology proper evaluation is key
• Making proper decisions can avoid irrelevance, marginalization, and failure.