INFS2030: Digital

Business
Management

Week 1 – Introduction to
the unit

Uri Gal
uri.gal@sydney.edu.au

Consultation: By appointment

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 What is this UoS about?

– What does it take to successfully develop a digital business?

– Theoretical and practical business knowledge

– Understanding the main managerial issues, concepts, models and processes relevant
to doing business digitally
– Taking a business perspective to technology management

– Applied component
– Putting knowledge to use to develop your own digital business

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Why is this unit relevant? Digital business models are
reshaping industries!

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 About me

Uri Gal - Professor of business information systems

› Email: uri.gal@sydney.edu.au
› Consultation: By appointment

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Learning Environment

– Lectures

– Tutorials

– Group Project and Presentation

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 Learning Resources

– We will not use a textbook!

– All readings and additional materials will be provided to you

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List of topics
Week Lecture Date INFS 2030 Topic Assessment
1 1 20-Feb Introduction and unit overview
2 2 27-Feb Digital economy
3 3 6-Mar Digital business models
4 4 13-Mar Digital strategy
5 5 20-Mar Digital marketing
6 6 27-Mar Business model canvas Project proposal
7 7 3-Apr Design thinking and journey navigation Mid term exam
8 10-Apr Mid semester break
9 8 17-Apr Platforms
10 9 24-Apr Design of digital systems
11 10 1-May Change management
12 11 8-May Open source and large-scale collaboration
Report submitted /
13 12 15-May Group assignment presentation Presentation
14 13 22-May Group assignment presentations Presentation
29-May Study Break
5-Jun Exam period Final exam

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 Weekly Structure – Lecture and all tutorials are on Monday

– Lecture – 10:30am-12pm - Zoom

– Tutorials - H70.03.3190
– 12:30pm - 2pm
– 2pm - 3:30pm
– 4pm - 5:30pm
– 6pm – 7:30pm

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Assessment Scheme

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What do you need to do to get through this unit?

– Mid Term Exam (week 7, Exact date/time TBC)

– Multiple choice exam. Covers all lectures and reading material from weeks 1-6

– Group project report (15 May, 10:00am)

– An applied assignment that involves the development of an business plan for a
new digital product or service of your choice.
– Report & class presentation

– Final exam (exam period, Exact date/time TBC)

– Covers all lecture and reading material from weeks 1-13

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 Group Project – What you need to do

› Organise groups of 5-6 students & appoint a group leader

- Email names, SIDs, and emails of members and leader (Due Thursday March 2, 12pm).
- Use the group template form in the learning resources section in Canvas.
- All group members must be in the same tutorial.

Deliverables
1. Project Proposal – 7 to 10 Slides (Due Week 6, Tue 27th March 10am)
- Think of an idea for a digital business
- What are the products/services that you are offering?
- Why is there a need for the digital business that you are proposing?
- Preliminary market analysis and assessment of competitive environment
- Proposed marketing strategy

2. Final Project Report (Mon 15th May 2022 , 10am (25% of final mark)
- See Group Project Handout, to be posted on Canvas

3. Presentation (Academic Weeks 12 & 13) - 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A (5% of final mark)

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 Occupational Health & Safety
The University is committed to providing a safe and healthy
workplace.
We all need to comply with the University’s OH&S instructions.

As a student of this University you must:

▪ know who to contact and how to act in an emergency (Quick Links –
Emergency Help)
▪ not put yourself or the health, safety and well-being of others at risk
▪ be aware of and identify hazards and report them
▪ familiarise yourself with emergency and evacuation procedures
▪ cooperate with and follow the directions given by your lecturer/tutor/staff
member during emergencies and trial building evacuations
▪ report accidents, near misses, injuries – if you are a witness to an accident
etc, you must also tell your lecturer/tutor/a staff member

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 Occupational HealthHealth
Occupational & Safety
& Safety

How to act in an emergency

▪ Be aware of emergency exits, follow the directions given by staff
and gather at the designated assembly point

How to report hazards

▪ Tell your lecturer, tutor or other staff member so action can be taken to avoid,
eliminate or minimise hazards

How to Report accidents, near misses, injuries

▪ Tell a staff member and also complete an Incident Report Form within 24 hours
of the incident happening. Forms can be obtained from the Discipline Office
(Room 415, Faculty of Economics & Business – H69)

For Further Information: www.usyd.edu.au/ohs

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Overview of digital business management

Week 1

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Week 1: Learning Objectives

At the end of this session, you should be able to:

– Understand the impact of digital technologies on traditional businesses

– Define the meaning and scope of digital business

– Explain the main reasons for the growth of digital business

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We are entering the third wave of digital innovation with large
industry opportunities yet to emerge

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New technologies continuously emerge. Most go through
cycles before they eventually become productive

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Average company lifespan on S&P 500 Index (rolling-7-year average)

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 Quick Question…

– What is the largest business in the world today?

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 Google Circa 1998

Source: Wayback machine archive: http://web.archive.org/web/19981111183552/google.stanford.edu

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 Google today (Alphabet)

› ~$282b revenue in 2022

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 Google today (Alphabet)

› Main revenues from advertising (~80%) and a host of other products and
services:
- Search engine
- Social media (YouTube)
- Operating systems and browsers (Android, Chrome)
- Cloud computing (Google apps)
- Web analytics (Google trends, Google analytics)
- Maps & navigation (Google maps, Google earth)
- Mail client
- Artificial Intelligence
- Etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet

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 A Quick Exercise…

– Come up with at least one example of a digital business in each of these

categories:
– Books
– Music
– Online Auctions
– Social Media
– Finance

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 The Impact of Digital Technologies on Traditional Businesses

– What was there before…

– Amazon?
– Netflix?
– Google?
– Facebook?
– Uber?
– Tesla?
– Paypal?

– Why have changes in the business landscape happened so quickly?

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 Exponential advancements in technology enable digital
businesses

– The commercialisation of the Internet - mid 1990s (based on HTTP and TCP/IP)
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv0XCaUkfNk

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 Exponential advancements in technology enable digital
businesses

– Processing power – Moore's law

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 Exponential advancements in technology enable digital
businesses

– Data transmission and broadband networks

– 1990s - dial-up, 56kbps; a single, low-quality song around 10 minutes to download
a song
– 2000s - broadband (ADSL), wifi hotspots, copper cables, 20-100mbps
– 2010s - Fibre-optic cables, can get to 1gbps (1,048,576 Kbps)

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 Exponential advancements in technology enable digital
businesses

– Data storage

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 Exponential advancements in technology enable digital
businesses

– Artificial Intelligence
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeNghZXtMo

– And… potential for massive business disruption!

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 Characteristics of Digital Business

1. Ubiquity
- The internet is available everywhere, at all times, from multiple platforms and devices

2. Global Reach
- Over 5.3 billion users – https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-
internet-users-worldwide
- Over 15 billion connected devices (IoT) -
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1183457/iot-connected-devices-worldwide
- Connect to billions of products, services, and people across national and cultural
boundaries

3. Information Richness
- Close to 1.9 billion websites
- Text, video, and sound

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 Characteristics of Digital Business

4. Interactivity
- A continuous two-way transfer of information between a user and a
system. Enhances online experience.
- Computer games, web browsers
- Websites and applications (search, user-generated content – reviews &
recommendations)

5. Customization / personalization
- Online content tailored to preferences of each individual user
- Data provided by users: forms (demographics), stated preferences
- Data gathered about users: behavior patterns (YouTube, Amazon)

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 But we need to be aware of the risks!

– Technological issues
– Google Bard
– Not released yet
– - Wiped $100bn off shares

– Business issues
– Google+
– 2011-2019

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 Main categories of Digital Business

– B2C - business to consumer

– Online businesses attempt to reach individual consumers (Netflix).
– B2B - business to business
– Online transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and
a distributer, or between a distributer and a retailer (Slack).
– C2C – consumer to consumer
– Online transactions and exchange between individual consumers (Etsy).
– G2C– government to citizen
– Online communication between a government and its citizens (MyGov)

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 Next week…

– Readings for week 2, "The Information Economy", Chapter 1 – link provided in

Canvas

– Follow Canvas daily for ongoing updates!

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