Mission
The Howe School Alliance for Technology Management (HSATM) is a collaboration between business and academia that helps its partner organizations to better manage technology for strategic advantage. It does this by transferring best practices through seminars, conferences, roundtable meetings, and publications. Corporate partners have the opportunity to exchange ideas in a collegial environment with faculty and with a network of people in other organizations dealing with similar issues.
[Click here for more details about HSATM member benefits]
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HSATM Roundtable and Advisory Board Meeting
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:30 AM-4:45 PM
Babbio Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
The next Howe School Alliance Roundtable meeting will be held on November 18 at 1:30 PM and will be dedicated to Selected Faculty Research Presentations. Highlights of four research projects will be presented and the potential business implications discussed. Abstracts of the presentations are below. This meeting with faculty has become a tradition at the November meetings and always makes for very stimulating sessions.
The Roundtable will be preceded by the annual HSATM Advisory Board meeting, from 12:30-1:30 PM, devoted to a brief review of HSATM activities for 2009 and a discussion of plans for 2010. A buffet luncheon will be served from 11:30-12:30. Roundtable meeting attendees are encouraged to attend both the luncheon and the Advisory Board meeting.
The meeting will take place in the Babbio Center in Hoboken, River Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, fourth floor, room 430. Driving directions are at http://www.stevens.edu/sit/maps/driving_directions.cfm Dress code is business casual. If you wish to attend and haven’t already notified Sharen Glennon, please contact her at sharen.glennon@stevens.edu or 201-216-5381. Please indicate whether you intend to have lunch. Thank you.
Abstracts of Faculty Presentations
Social Networking as a Tool in Education and Organizational Development
Drs. Donald Lombardi and Tal Ben Zvi
Ben Zvi and Lombardi have centered their research on how social networking can act as a primary education tool and catalyst in progressive organizational development. With an array of technology-based communication devices being embraced in the daily lives of adolescents, their focus is on teaching this emergent work force population the ways in which organizations -- specifically community-driven organizations in healthcare and human services -- conduct their business. In addressing both the manner in which this focus population learns about potential career paths, as well as why a formidable deficit of knowledge about healthcare and human services careers exists, the objective of their efforts is to provide a new system, using current and emergent technologies, for meeting the gaping needs of work force shortages in these critical areas.
While focusing on healthcare and human services, this project clearly has relevance to other industries as well, since it relates broadly to organizational development, human capital, and technology. A framework for the research and some preliminary results will be presented, along with the strategy for moving forward.
Key Determinants of Effectiveness in Project Portfolio Management
Dr. Peerasit Patanakul
Project portfolio management (PPM) has been practiced for decades and has been widely implemented in different business contexts. Not much research has been conducted, however, on PPM effectiveness. The lack of such research may have practitioners continuing with a PPM approach that has not been measured as to its effectiveness and that may not have the desired impact on business results.
The objective of this research is to investigate PPM practices of organizations in different business contexts in order to discover the key determinants of PPM effectiveness and the measurement of effectiveness. This research goes beyond traditional PPM research by investigating the potential impact of the executives’ strategic decision-making process and organizational factors (e.g. organizational culture, degree of portfolio centralization, and PPM learning and education) on PPM effectiveness. The research results should help practitioners implement PPM practices appropriate for their business contexts, cultivate PPM effectiveness, and measure such effectiveness. During the presentation, the researcher will share preliminary results from the investigation of PPM practices of a major telecommunications company.
Keys to Creating “Blockbuster” New Products
Dr. Gary S. Lynn
Gary Lynn will summarize the major findings from a decade of research conducted with his colleague Dick Reilly on the critical practices for creating blockbuster new products. The term “blockbuster”, as used by Lynn and Reilly, refers to those rare new products and services that alter the future of a company, lead to entirely new families of products, or possibly even usher in a whole new industry. When last reported on to HSATM Partners in 2003, the research embraced some 700 new product launches. The data base has since been expanded to over 1,000 new product/service teams and includes some of the most successful products ever launched, including the Nintendo Wii, IBM PC, Black & Decker Dustbuster, Polycom Soundstation and many others.
The initial research was reported in Lynn and Reilly’s book “Blockbusters: The Five Keys to Developing Great New Products”. This presentation will summarize the five critical practices that were found to determine success in coming up with blockbuster new products, and comment on their relevance today.
Workforce Trends in Information Technology
Dr. Christine Bullen
Chris Bullen has been a member of the Information Technology Workforce Research Team, an ongoing research project sponsored by the Society for Information Management, for the past three years. The research seeks to define the IT skills and capabilities that organizations desire to retain in-house, source externally, and acquire in entry and mid-level hires. This research has involved over 230 organizations from around the globe and focuses on IT workforce trends and how they are affected by a number of forces, including global sourcing, pending baby-boomer retirements and low enrollments in IT-related university programs. The first phase of research focused on clients (those buying services) and the second focused on providers (those selling services).
The presentation will discuss the research findings, which offer the ability to analyze a number of issues that are sometimes conflicting and often controversial:
- The increasing trend toward global sourcing of IT work
- Distinct differences in the capabilities retained internally and sourced externally by firms
- Mismatches between client needs and provider resources
- A consistent desire for non-technical, as well as technical capabilities in new hires
- Disappointment that graduates are often missing skills desired most in the marketplace
- A lag in university responsiveness to the needs of the marketplace
While this research was conducted around the IT function, some thoughts will be offered about its potential broader applicability to other functions.
Eighteenth Annual HSATM Conference
Leading in a Changing Environment
Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 8:45-4:45
Babbio Center, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
Click here for the Conference Website
HSATM Partner wins 2007 Malcolm Balridge Award
ARDEC, one of the HSATM partner companies, has won the Malcolm Balridge award 2007. Congratulations to one of the Howe School's Alliance for Technologh Managment's partner companies. In a letter from 2003 Joe Lehman credits the Alliance for the many ideas it gave ARDEC for improving its management processes, and for being a factor in ARDEC's winning of previous awards based upon Baldrige criteria.
What is the Howe School Alliance for Technology Management?
The Alliance has its roots in the Stevens Alliance for Technology Management (SATM), founded in 1991. SATM played a critical role in the establishment of the Howe School of Technology Management and, through its educational programs, its research, and its effective transfer of management practices, has helped numerous organizations and has contributed to the professional development of many hundreds of technology professionals and executives.
Current Alliance Partners are:
- Alcatel-Lucent
- AT&T
- Infineum Ltd
- ISO
- Johnson Technology Systems
- Navmar Applied Sciences
- Teknor Apex
- US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Center
- US Navy Strategic Systems Program
How does the Alliance carry out its mission?
The Alliance fulfills its mission by conducting conferences, roundtable forums, and seminars, and by sponsoring research, on all aspects of the management of technology.
The Executive Master's in Technology Management Program at Stevens, developed through the HSATM education initiative, has educated 800 graduates to date, and was the first graduate program in the nation to be awarded the Academic Leadership Award of the American Society of Engineering Management.
The topics dealt with by the Alliance in its conferences and forums over the past fifteen years embrace many of the major issues confronting technology-intensive organizations, since they are all selected by the HSATM Partner organizations based on relevancy to current needs. The issues are, clearly, broad and complex, and have been subjects of numerous books and countless studies over the years. Still, progress continues to be made, and the Alliance has brought new tools and uncovered fresh approaches to the more effective management and utilization of technology. Most importantly, it has facilitated the sharing of learnings and best practices among its Sponsors.
Over 75 Roundtable Meetings have been conducted to date. Among the subjects discussed have been metrics for measuring R&D effectiveness, achieving effective multidisciplinary teaming, using nontraditional reward systems, technology strategic planning, R&D portfolio balancing, business process re-engineering, motivating innovation, the "fuzzy front end" of the innovation process, how to "kill" a project, maintaining critical competencies, knowledge management, achieving breakthrough products, and many others. These meetings have proven to be very effective vehicles for the informal sharing of information among Sponsors on timely issues relating to the more effective management and utilization of technology.
Seventeen annual Conferences have been held, on such issues as R&D metrics, project selection, the new paradigm in R&D, new product team performance, processes for product conception, project management, achieving radical innovation, intellectual property management, portfolio management, and business process re-design. Conference keynote speakers have included such prominent authorities as Mary Good, former Undersecretary of Commerce for Science and Technology, John Mayo, former president of Bell Laboratories, Laurence Prusak, Executive Director of the Institute for Knowledge Management, Robert Cooper of "Stage-Gate" process fame, and Martin Stankard, President of the Productivity Development Group.
The Alliance has conducted an acclaimed research study on innovation that identifies behaviors and management practices for improving the process of idea generation and use.
Over a dozen research projects undertaken by the faculty of the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management have benefited from grants contributed by the Alliance, as well as from data inputs by Alliance Sponsors.
The Alliance Newsletter, Current Issues in Technology Management, keeps our growing constituency better informed about issues that impact upon the management and utilization of technology. Past issues can be accessed from this site. Download Articles from HSATM Newsletters
For over fifteen years, the Alliance has shown itself to be a uniquely effective mechanism by which companies can leverage their technology development and utilization processes. Through its educational programs, its research, and its transfer of management practices among organizations, the Alliance has contributed to the development and transfer of a large body of intellectual property, and has benefited many people and their organizations. We welcome inquiries about participation from any organization interested in improving its technology management practices to achieve competitive advantage.
Contact Us
Dr. Lawrence Gastwirt
(212) 794-3637 or lawrence.gastwirt@stevens.edu
HSATM Alliance Office
Sharen Glennon Sharen.Glennon@stevens.edu
Howe School Alliance for Technology Management (HSATM)
Stevens Institute of Technology
Castle Point on Hudson Hoboken, New Jersey 07030
Phone: (201) 216-5381
FAX:(201) 216-5385
