Fall/Winter 2010 - Technological Leadership Institute - University of ...

1990-2010Management of Technolog yCore strengthsThe MOT program continued to matureand grow, in large part by building onits core strengths, continuing to investin high-quality faculty, and listeningcarefully to students and industry.With the goal of continued involvementfrom industry, CDTL formed an advisoryboard in 1996. Lockwood Carlson, who wasthen heading 3M’s Corporate EnterpriseDevelopment division, was asked to serveas chair.Carlson first discovered the MOTprogram while at 3M, when he supportedstudents in the program. “I hadn’t heardof anything like it that was a master’sprogram, and I thought it was ideal,” hesays.In 2002, he taught his first course inthe program, and throughout the yearssaw the growth—both in terms of thediversity of students, who now came froma broader range of companies, and in thestudents themselves.MOT Class of 1998with Professor vanWyk (second row,right).“The MOT discipline and degree has aunique role, and yet it is incredibly criticalfor sustainable growth of organizationsthat are what I call technology intensive,”says Carlson, Honeywell/James J. RenierVisiting Land Grant Chair in TechnologicalLeadership. “That could be a corporationor educational institution or non-profit,and we have students from all those kindsof organizations.”In particular, the number of studentswith information technology backgroundsbegan to increase. “They wanted to usewhat they learned in the program toimprove their ability to contribute to theirorganizations,” he says.The resulting achievements of the firstgroups of MOT students helped sparkongoing interest in the program.“The early students in the MOT programhave been successful so they have madeit known to other people,” says AlfredMarcus, Edson W. Spencer Chair inStrategic Management and professor ofstrategic management and organization.“There is a reputation for quality.”As more students completed the MOTprogram, a community began to form.In 1995, the first MOT alumni officerswere elected for the purpose of planningalumni events and to support the bondsthat developed during the program amongclassmates.“Students know each other extremelywell as a result of this lock-step program,”says Marcus. “The interaction amongstudents is very, very high and themotivation is very high.”New directions: MOT DNAIn March 2003, Massoud Amin joinedCDTL as its director and began a strategicplan and road-mapping process for thecenter that gathered insights from faculty,alumni, and industry representatives.The resulting action plan includednew activities that leveraged what Amincalls the ‘DNA’ of the MOT, which includesthe key areas of strategic managementof technology, technology analysisand foresight, innovation, leadershipdevelopment, intellectual property andtechnology asset valuation, and newproduct and business development“We wanted to build on the corestrength of the management of technologyas a field and increase its impactand visibility locally, nationally, andinternationally,” says Amin, who leda revamping of the MOT curriculum bymodifying seven courses, adding two newcourses, and updating content.As a result, 24 percent of courses in thecurrent 36-credit MOT curriculum focus ona core business foundation, 62 percent onstrategic technology management, and 14percent on leadership.In addition, faculty also integratedthe curriculum, linking its first-yearcore business foundation with contentin subsequent strategic technologymanagement courses.“Management of technology is no longera collection of separate courses,” saysDennis Polla, Honeywell/William R. Sweatt8 Technological Leadership