MEng Course Preview: Technology Strategy for Engineering Leaders - March 22, 2023
Channel: Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership
Date: 23/03/2023

Meet one of our Leadership Faculty, Matthew Rappaport, and get a sneak peek into what we cover in our leadership curriculum.

Recorded on Wednesday, March 22

Course Description: 
Why have many of the world’s most valuable firms been founded since 2000? How did the founders of these firms get so rich so quickly? How did they scale so fast and with so little investment? Will their dominance survive? How can you start a platform firm?

Technology Strategy explores the road to riches for Google, Amazon, Facebook, AirBnB, and other platform firms. We begin by looking at Tesla, a modern platform firm – or not? We identify the types of network effects that lead to insurmountable barriers to entry and strategic dominance, and look at how Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others initiated and scaled their platforms and built such barriers. We go (virtually) overseas and consider Tencent, and discuss a Fung written and multi-media case on Uber in the city of Austin, Texas. We will break into teams that will each choose and present explanations of newer platforms and their strategies. We finish up by looking at the implications of the data that these platforms collect – the new business models they enable – and how new data regulations like the GDPR will impact those models.