Running head: TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS

Technology in Business (SFU)

Reflection Paper

Sharmori Richardson
International College of the Cayman Islands (ICCI)

BE 422
Instructor: Dr. David Marshall
Due date: December 15th, 2016

TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS

The third day of the Technology and Society Seminar was spent at the University of San
Francisco. While walking towards the campus, I felt like a student from this institution. It was
something about University that felt like we were about to learn something important that day.
As we arrived at the Campus, we strolled to the cafeteria where we waited for our first lecture,
which was taught by Professor Muhammad Al-Abdullah.
To be brief, Professor Abdullah spoke on Technology on business. He touched on various
topics such as the evolution of technology, and the technological companies and devices, that
exist today. With regards to the development of technology, Mr. Abdullah gave us a brief history
lesson on the well-known camera company, Kodak. In 1998 Kodak had 170,000 employees and
sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide (M. Al-Abdullah, personal communication, November
11, 2016). Within just a few years their business model disappeared, and they went bankrupt
(M. Al-Abdullah, personal communication, November 11, 2016). The occurrence of these events
formed by the digital evolution for cameras. Mr. Al-Abdullah said that this brief history lesson
can be summed up into one word, which is the Exponential Age (M. Al-Abdullah, personal
communication, November 11, 2016).
Mr. Abdullah touched on other technological advances businesses use today. For
example, the technology that countries like Dubai use to build a house. Mr. Al-Abdullah said that
this technology permits Dubai to build a house within fourteen days (M. Al-Abdullah, personal
communication, November 11, 2016). Although this topic was very intriguing, the topics that
opened my eyes were real estate companies and the Self-driving vehicles. Mr. Al-Abdullah
stressed that San Franciscos real estate agencies are very different from others around the
United States because they use virtual reality (M. Al-Abdullah, personal communication,
November 11, 2016). Real estate agencies try to give their customer full experiences when

TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS

choosing a home. Also, Mr. Al-Abdullah said that in 2020, self-driving cars will have enough
data to learn the driving habits of a person, thus making UBER and insurance companies
obsolete (M. Al-Abdullah, personal communication, November 11, 2016). When Mr. Abdullah
mentioned this statement, it reminded me of the presentation at the Google Headquarters, and it
reminded me of a particular quote in the Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Science, Technology,
and Society textbook. According to (Easton, 2015), As technology and artificial intelligence
evolve, you will see a decrease in jobs (p.235). Mr. Al-Abdullah stressed this point as he stated
that UBER would become obsolete after the arrival of self- driving cars.
In regards to Cayman, I feel that technology such as bitcoin, FinTech and blockchain, will
greatly benefit the markets by making the accounting and finance procedures easier. This will
result in an increase in productivity in a firm. Seeing that Cayman will be using these
technological advances in the future, it is important for students like us to familiarize ourselves
with the technology that we will need to learn in order to not become obsolete like UBER, when
self-driven cars are officially on the market.
In conclusion, I certainly enjoyed Mr. Abdullahs lecture. He demonstrated his
understanding and love through this lecture. For me, he cleared up all the concerned questions I
had about future technology. His presentation expanded my knowledge on the technological
advances that will be available in the near future. As a result of learning more of the
technological advances, this presentation was one of my favorite presentations for the
Technology and Society Seminar.

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REFERENCES

Easton, T. A. (2015). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Science, Technology, and Society (12th
Edition ed.). United States of America: McGraw-Hill Education.
Oxford Dictionary. (n.d). Virtual Reality Definition . Retrieved from Oxford Dictionaries :
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/virtual_reality