15.386 Managing in Adversity (H2)
Fall 2009
Instructors: Howard Anderson, Peter S Kurzina
TA: Christopher Mitchell
Lecture: TTh 10:00-11:30 (BEGINS OCT 26) (E51-345)
Information:
Announcements
Forward from Howard: New Enterprises Class for the Spring (15.390)
The Quest for MIT's Next Billion Dollar
Idea
You are
Harrison Ford or Matt Damon and you've been dropped into an
alien world. Your mission: Find the Golden Key which will save the
comely damsel and/or unlock the next Billion Dollar Idea from the
MIT Fortress. You know its hidden behind one of the 1000
doors, each of which is virtually identical. Your time is
limited... and evil others are racing you for that exact Golden
Key!
What would you
do first? Second? That is exactly what we are exploring in an
upcoming class at MIT's Sloan School that Bill Aulet and I are
teaching. Need help? We've recruited Ric Fulop (A123 Systems),
if only because he has actually done it. The Alien World? MIT, and
not much is more alien than that. 1000 doors? -That's the 1000
University Professors and their labs. Evil Others? Clearly the
venture capitalists (redundant) and the snarly mega
corporations.
First?
Eliminate as many doors as possible - maybe bypassing the English
and Latin Departments. Math? Music? Better not. Remember Akamaii
and Guiter Hero.
Second? Pay
attention to a huirsite gaggle outside each of these doors. They
are the starving, caffein hypped acolytes, sometimes called
Graduate Students. (motto"Will Kill for Skittles"). They
speak in semi intelligent tongues, if only you can decipher
them.
As you
frantically sprint down this Infinite Corridor, you are tempted to
hire guides, but they speak in riddles. They can't answer
direct questions ("which one?") but can tell you about
patent applications. When you open a door, you can query the
recalcitrants inside, asking which of their neighboring doors are
potent. Beware!
They often send
you on goose chases - its called
"tenure".
Behind each
door comes encrypted noise, sometimes called Research Papers, most
of which give boredom a whole new meaning. They are read only by
the Chosen and their mothers - and only give you a hint about
Billion Dollar ideas, they talk about arcane
processes
You are tempted
to stop and build the ultimate expert system... a supercharged ATM
machine which you could feed these formula heavy scientific papers,
and, if you got exactly the right one, Billions of dollars would
spit out from the bottom ("We have a Winner!). But don't.
Its an endless sidetrack and that damsel is starting to worry!
Should she have put her faith in the HBS guy who keeps telling her
how good its going to be...some day?
Should you go
to the exact same door that spilled Billion Dollar ideas before?
No! Its too crowded. The VC's are too busy stuffing last
year's solution! Build a data base? No again! Maybe look
for solutions to The Big Problem.. like curing world hunger or
finding a parking space on that MIT lot when there are 10X the
number of permits to available spaces.
Aha! Why not
build a team of junior Harrison Fords - and send some only to those
colored doors where they speak the Tongue... and reassemble at
midnight and trade insights. Can you trust your team? Are you sure?
Are there spies? Does someone have a solution/key that was
built for one door... but opens another?
Sound like a
fun class? Ok, alert the Hasbro boys that we have their next Boffo
new game and queue Matt Damon that we have the sequal to Good Will
Hunting and his next blockbuster!
Announced on 13 December 2009 1:01 p.m. by Christopher Mitchell
Homeworks
You can pick up your remaining homeworks from my folder in
E52: "Christopher Mitchell"
Have a great IAP.
Chris
Have a great IAP.
Chris
Announced on 13 December 2009 1:00 p.m. by Christopher Mitchell
Survey - Jeff Taylor
https://stellar.mit.edu:443/S/course/15/fa09/15.386/surveys/s?s=2055
Please fill out this FINAL survey. Many thanks for all of your help in filling these out this semester.
Please fill out this FINAL survey. Many thanks for all of your help in filling these out this semester.
Announced on 10 December 2009 10:39 a.m. by Christopher Mitchell
Survey - Richard Reese
https://stellar.mit.edu:443/S/course/15/fa09/15.386/surveys/s?s=2053
Please fill out the survey in the next 24 hours. Thank you.
Please fill out the survey in the next 24 hours. Thank you.
Announced on 08 December 2009 11:18 a.m. by Christopher Mitchell
Jeff Taylor's Case Has Been Posted to the Materials Section
Please find the case for Thursday's class posted on
Stellar.
Announced on 07 December 2009 5:24 p.m. by Christopher Mitchell
