Corporate strategy

MBT Learning Guide Supplement

An Introduction
to
Business and Technology
By Craig Tapper

The aim of this supplement is to provide a conceptual entry point for
new MBT students into the key theories, models and management
thinkers in contemporary business.

It explains why ‘business’ and ‘technology’ are given equal
prominence in the MBT; introduces the basics in relation to strategy:
what it is and why organisations need to operate strategically; and
briefly outlines how the rapid rate of technological change and
development impacts on contemporary business.

It is hoped that you find this introductory document valuable. It
should provide you with a basic understanding of the key concepts
that underpin all MBT learning, and thereby assist you in grasping
the higher level material in the courses themselves.

Craig is the Course Coordinator for the MBT capstone course
GBAT9113 Strategic Management of Business and Technology.
He has consulted to major companies and government departments
and has lectured in a range of postgraduate programs in the areas
of strategy, business planning, marketing and management.

1-Dec-05

Table of Contents

Why does the MBT integrate business and technology? ................ 3

What do we mean by ‘business’? .................................................. 3

Do non-commercial organisations engage in ‘business’? .............................. 4

Why do we need to study technology? .......................................... 5

Why the ‘T’ in the MBT?.......................................................................... 6
How is the ‘T’ integrated in the MBT? ....................................................... 6

What do we understand ‘technology’ to mean?............................. 7

What are the key principles of corporate strategy?....................... 8

Who is Michael Porter? ........................................................................... 8
What are the different levels of strategy?.................................................. 9
What is a strategic plan? ........................................................................ 9
What sorts of issues do we need to analyse? ............................................10
What about analysing the micro environment?..........................................11
What is Porter’s Five Forces Model?.........................................................11
What is Porter’s value chain? .................................................................13

A quick summary of corporate strategy ...................................... 14

What is corporate governance, and why is it important? ............ 14

What do we mean by ‘corporate governance’? ..........................................15
What does corporate governance involve?................................................15
What significant business concepts relate to corporate governance? ............16

Conclusion .................................................................................. 16

References ..........................................................................................16

LG Supplement Page 2 of 16 An Introduction to Business and Technology

Why does the MBT integrate business and technology?

With so many graduate business programs in the marketplace, why does UNSW offer
postgraduate level education in ‘business and technology’? Why are so many people
enrolling in the MBT Program? Why is it important to recognise the role of both
business and technology in management education?

The answers lie not in what is ‘wrong’ with alternative business courses, but in what
they typically don’t adequately address – how the rapidly changing technological
environment so significantly influences the management of business today, and will do
so into the future.

Let’s start by being clear about what we mean by these two terms – ‘business’ and
‘technology’.

What do we mean by ‘business’?

Many people confuse the study of business with the study of commerce. ‘Commerce’ is
the term applied to organising and managing transactions that involve the exchange of
goods and services in return for money, where the goal or intent of the organisations
that establish themselves in the market is to attract and engage in enough of these
exchanges to make ‘profits’ that will help them achieve financial success. In a
commercial organisation, the profits are then used to repay investors and shareholders,
pay creditors, and invest in further developing the organisation to achieve its goals and
purpose into the future.

So if business does not equate to commerce, then what is it? At this point we might turn
to some renowned management thinkers to help us.

Peter F Drucker (1910- 2005), considered to be one of the world’s leading
management gurus, believed that the purpose of business is to create and then retain
satisfied customers. Although firms have to make money, Drucker argued that making
money is a necessity, not a purpose: rather, it is the end result, a desirable outcome, of
creating a satisfied customer.

A similar sentiment is expressed by Theodore Levitt (1925-), a Harvard Business
School professor, who explains this by an analogy with human beings: all human beings
have to eat to survive, but eating is not their purpose. Furthermore, making money does
not provide a legitimate reason for society to support the money-making enterprise. A
society supports business because business serves society’s members by catering to
their needs to leave them satisfied. Dissatisfy enough customers, and not only will these
specific customers stop buying from your organisation, but society at large will
condemn the organisation and may even penalise it – to the point of its extinction (Sheth
et al 1999, pp. 11-12).

So, perhaps we can summarise that the purpose of business is to create and retain
satisfied customers – and in order to do so, a ‘commercial organisation’ must make
enough money to keep doing so into the future, in the same way as a human must find
enough to eat to survive into the future.

An Introduction to Business and Technology LG Supplement Page 3 of 16

Do non-commercial organisations engage in ‘business’?

Some of you will no doubt work in the non-commercial world – in government, semi-
government and not-for-profit organisations. So why study business? Clearly, the
purposes of your organisations and the focus of their major activities are not commerce
(money-making transactions). So how do the Drucker and Levitt quotes relate?

If, instead of using the term ‘customers’ we use ‘stakeholders’, how would that sit? If
instead of saying that the purpose of business is to create and then retain satisfied
customers we were to say that the purpose of business is to create and then retain
satisfied stakeholders, then all organisations do in fact engage in ‘business’.

The study of business that we adopt in the MBT Program enables you to develop
knowledge and skills that will better equip you to help your organisation create and then
retain satisfied stakeholders (government ministers, clients, donors, voters, supporters,
users, employees, funding bodies, the wider community, etc.)

A number of the disciplines and courses that you will study may have commenced their
academic life focusing heavily on the money-making world of commerce. However, it
was quickly recognised that all courses need to be just as relevant to managing where
success is determined by measurements other than money – by client satisfaction,
environmental sustainability targets, improved outcomes for key stakeholders, limiting
or preventing harm, and many other outcomes.

In the same way that the commercial world post-Enron, One-Tel and Parmalat, etc.
increasingly recognises that there is much to learn from the values and practices of not-
for-profit and government agencies, so too managers and decision makers in not-for-
profit and government organisations (as well as large and small commercial ones) need
to understand the core management competencies, including:
• managing people
• managing the organisation
• developing and implementing strategy
• managing innovation and change
• managing projects
• managing quality
• managing finance
• managing information and knowledge
• managing information and communication technologies
• managing marketing
• managing risk & OHS
• managing resources
• managing sustainability
• managing legal responsibilities
• managing manufacturing
• promoting ethical and socially responsible business practices


Why do we need to study technology?

Few people today have had their working lives, or indeed their non-working lives,
untouched by the changes that technology has wrought. Technology brought us the
invention of the steam engine in the 18th century; the light bulb and internal combustion
engine at the end of the 19th century; the discovery of antibiotics in the 1930-1940s;
microwave cooking in the 1960s; rapid changes in material science (Teflon, carbon-
fibre, etc) in the 1970s and 1980s; and rapid changes in communication and information
technology in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Consider everyday activities such as how people do their banking, use public transport,
pay tolls on major roads, purchase consumer goods, prepare meals, check sports results
and stock market share prices, etc. Consider also the importance of drug therapies for
transplant patients, the effect of genetically modified crops on world food production,
the benefits of digitisation and miniaturisation for surgical implants, etc.

Technology has continued to play a profound and ever-increasing role in daily life
throughout the developed and developing world – as well as within organisations in the
way that work is performed.

Indeed, many business and social commentators of the last half of the 20th century were
keen to highlight that the speed with which technology was changing and impacting on
life and work was rapidly increasing: using the analogy that it was changing from a
slow moving river to a fast flowing river – and by the turn of the millennium may have
reached the ‘white water’!

Let’s take the introduction of the mobile phone as a simple example. Consider that in
the late 1980s these were seen as specialist devices likely to be owned and used only for
technical purposes. However, by 2005 in Australia there were as many mobile phones
as fixed line phones and, indeed, it appears increasingly likely that for many people and
many organisations the fixed line, wire network telephone is becoming redundant.

Consider also the impact of digitisation on the camera industry – such a fundamental
change that within a decade or two of the digital camera’s introduction and widespread
adoption, the giant Kodak Corporation that once dominated the world of photography is
struggling to survive!

And with the digitisation of music, Apple, formerly a computer company, now makes as
much from selling its ubiquitous iPods as it does from selling PCs, and is rapidly
moving to dominate sales of recorded music, threatening the dominance of companies
like Sony, EMI, HMV and so on.

Clearly the speed of innovation and technical change is revolutionising all sorts of
industries, and the contemporary manager who is not able to understand and apply
effective knowledge of how technology management and business management
interact is perhaps jeopardising the future of the organisation.


Why the ‘T’ in the MBT?

The following quote from Burgelman et al (2004, p. 4) may help us to define this:
Technology is a resource that, like financial and human resources, is pervasively
important in organisations. Managing technology is a basic business function. This
implies the need to develop a technology strategy, analogous to financial and human
resource strategies.

Technology is now considered to be as important as any of the traditional areas of
business learning. It is as significant to the success of the modern organisation –
commercial, government, not-for-profit, large and small – as finance, human resources,
strategy, etc. are.

Simply from your own observation, you should be in little doubt that most markets and
industries are increasingly dependent on the important role that technology plays as a
key driver or enabler of ‘the way things are done’. So much so, in fact, that for many
organisations today – perhaps even most – any lack of understanding of how to
integrate technology effectively into the organisation’s strategy and operations
potentially limits its ongoing success, or possibly even questions its long-term survival.

How is the ‘T’ integrated in the MBT?

In the MBT, we recognise explicitly that for many managers in many organisations
understanding how the business management practices interface and integrate with the
management of technology is vital. Recognising the powerful impact of these two areas
on an organisation’s success and survival requires they are given additional attention to
that offered in more traditional graduate business programs.

By studying MBT courses, you have the opportunity to develop a broader range of
essential management competencies. The MBT offers you a unique opportunity to
customise your program to focus on improving your business management AND
technology management competencies and knowledge.

In your final year we offer two alternative capstone courses uniquely designed to
ensure that you understand how the business management and technology management
focuses come together. You can either integrate these through the lens of corporate
strategy via the course Strategic Management of Business and Technology, or through
the lens of innovation in Management of Innovation and Technological Change. You
are, in fact, encouraged to take both capstone courses, wherever possible.


What do we understand ‘technology’ to mean?

Before we go on, let’s pause here and point out that many of the readings you will find
in your MBT courses may focus on information and communication (I&C) technologies
and, particularly those written in the last few years, on the Internet.

These technologies are relevant to all MBT participants, regardless of their industry or
profession. Whilst it is also possibly true that I&C technologies are essential elements
of the operational and strategic actions of most organisations, let’s be clear that
technology is not only I&C technology.
• In the health care, veterinary care, pharmaceutical, agricultural and food production
industries, for example, biological and gene technologies are already considered to
be having as great an impact as – and perhaps even greater than – I&C technology.
There are in fact some suggestions that gene technology may also revolutionise
energy, transport and a whole host of other non-medical industries.
• Composite materials technology has revolutionised the construction industry,
vehicle manufacturing, sporting goods such as skis, diving gear and golf clubs,
motor racing, boats and a myriad of other applications.

These are but two examples of the broader impact of technologies beyond the focus on
IT and telecommunications that has predominated in the popular media.

So, while some of the focus in your courses may be on I&C technology due to the
broader interest in this area of many MBT students, don’t fall into the trap of
equating ‘technology’ with I&C technology only.

Technology – in whatever form it may impact on or exist within your organisation – is
an essential element in your organisation’s success.

Now that we have acknowledged that technology is more than just I&C technology,
perhaps we could best employ the following definition, that technology:
… refers to the theoretical and practical knowledge, skills, and artefacts that can be
used to develop products and services as well as their production and delivery
systems.
(Burgelman et al 2004, p. 4)


What are the key principles of corporate strategy?

As you begin your MBT Program, it will be helpful if you have a basic understanding of
what corporate or organisational strategy is all about. First, let’s start by getting an
understanding of some key concepts.

What is strategy?
What does strategy mean?

The Macquarie Dictionary (1999, p. 793) defines strategy as “skilful management in
getting the better of an adversary or attaining an end”. A tactic, on the other hand (p.
820), is defined as “a plan or procedure for achieving a desired end”.

So, following on from these definitions:
• A corporate strategy is the set of management decisions – designed by
executives, the board, senior management team or whoever are the final decision
makers in the organisation – that are meant to get the better of adversaries or attain
the organisations ‘ends’.
• Tactics are the plans or procedures that they adopt to implement these strategic
decisions.

Who is Michael Porter?

Amongst the most significant authors on strategy of recent decades is the Harvard
academic, business guru, strategist and author, Michael Porter (1947-).

As well as developing a number of specific tools and frameworks for analysis, Porter
highlighted that the purpose of strategy was to gain and defend some form of
competitive advantage – which in our definition of strategy fits quite neatly with the
idea of “getting the better of an adversary”.

Porter said in his groundbreaking books in 1980 (Competitive Strategy) and 1985
(Competitive Advantage) that these are really only three forms of competitive
advantage:
1. Cost Leadership – having lower costs than any other competitor enables
either superior profits or a capacity to offer lower prices.
2. Differentiation – being able to offer customers something different to
anyone else in the market, as long as it is something that customers value
and will prefer.
3. Focus – being acknowledged as a specialist and having expertise and
knowledge of particular customers or activities and processes that are highly
prized.

So, from Porter’s perspective, the purpose of a corporate, business unit or functional
strategy would be to develop, refine, defend and exploit one of these three sources of
competitive advantage.


What are the different levels of strategy?

Strategy can be developed at many levels – in a multi-layered organisation there may
be:
• Corporate level strategy – decisions made for the whole corporation or
organisation to gain the better of adversaries or attain ends.
• Business unit or divisional strategy – decisions made for the business unit or
division to gain the better of adversaries or attain the business units end.
• Functional strategies – such as marketing/finance/human resources/IT/technology/
operational/production/etc. strategies. There would be marketing decisions (or
finance or HR decisions, etc) designed to get the better of an adversary or attain a
marketing/finance, etc, end.

So what do we mean by ends? Other terms that are frequently used here for the same
concept are goals or missions or visions.

Organisations typically have (or should have) a set of goals, desired outcomes or a view
of their purpose (mission), or their future achievements and positions (visions) in mind.
Ideally these are clearly articulated and understood by everyone in the organisation.
When these ends (goals, mission, vision) are clearly understood, then the board,
management, staff and partners of the organisation are able to ‘develop’ strategy to
achieve these.

What is a strategic plan?

A plan, whether strategic, tactical, operational, marketing, finance – or whatever – is
really just a set of decisions that have been captured in some form (document, web
page, PowerPoint presentation, video, etc) that set out the answer to three key questions:

1. Where are we now?

2. Where are we going?

3. How will we get there?

Accordingly, a plan is formed by:
• analysing the existing and expected future trends and factors affecting the
organisation/business unit, etc
• setting down clear statements of the outcomes that will help to achieve the ends that
the organisation has set itself (these statements of outcomes are commonly called
objectives)
• describing some tactics and actions that will lead to achieving the outcomes


What sorts of issues do we need to analyse?

Before developing strategy and tactics, the decision makers of any organisation need to
analyse and understand the forces and trends in a range of key environments that impact
on the strategic options or choices available to it. These are generally summed up as the:
• internal environment
• external macro environment
• external microenvironment

The macro environment is the nation, region, society and community within which the
organisation and its micro environment or industry ‘sit’. Some organisations such as
transnational and global corporations/bodies (eg, IBM, Qantas, World Bank, UN, Red
Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, etc) operate in many macro environments; others may
operate in only one or two (in Sydney, or Sydney and Melbourne, or Australia and
Hong Kong, etc).

During your MBT studies, you will be exposed to a wide range of tools and frameworks
designed to assess all three environments. We don’t want to pre-empt all the possible
techniques that you will be exposed to in the wide range of courses that you will study,
however, there are a number of particular tools that you will potentially cover that we
will touch on here.

PESTLE analysis a tool for examining the macro environment. Whether operating in
only one, a number or many such countries/markets/communities, etc, a set of key
factors or forces are said to impact on an organisation’s strategy.

These are summarised by the acronym PESTLE which stands for:
Political forces and issues
Economic trends and forces
Socio-cultural changes and trends
Technological changes and trends
Legal and regulatory issues and forces
Environmental changes and forces (ie, the natural environment)

Not all of these aspects are of equal importance or have an equal weight for every
organisation.

For instance, for an insurance company or agricultural products company, the natural
environmental (flood, fire, storm, drought, etc) may have great significance; whereas for
a telecommunications company it will have less significance. For an aged care provider
or health service, socio-cultural changes such as the ageing of the population, increased
rate of divorce and family breakdown, change in the ethnic and cultural mix of a
population would have greater significance than for an air conditioning manufacturer.

Consequently, while all these forces must be considered, it does not mean that for all
organisations they will be equally significant.


What about analysing the micro environment?

Michael Porter, whom we have mentioned earlier, developed a number of widely used
and highly regarded analysis tools for understanding the micro environment. You will
encounter two of these in particular in a number of your courses in the MBT:
• Five Forces model
• the Value Chain

What is Porter’s Five Forces Model?

Potential
Entrants Threat of new entrants

Bargaining Power Bargaining Power
of Suppliers of Buyers
Suppliers Industry Buyers
Competitors

Rivalry among
existing firms

Substitutes Threat of substitute products or services

(Porter 1980, p. 4)

What Porter illustrates is that the dynamics of how a competitive advantage is gained,
maintained and deployed depends on the balance or relative impact of five forces:
1. bargaining power of suppliers
2. bargaining power of customers (buyers)
3. threat of new entrants
4. threat of substitutes
5. competitive rivalry between existing firms

and, in particular:
• What is the nature of competitive rivalry?
• How many competitors are there?
• How large is each competitor?
• On what basis do they compete (lower costs, differentiation, or focus)?


Broadening these questions out:

How easy is it for a new competitor to enter the market? Is the potential threat of a
new competitor real enough for existing competitors in the industry to have to factor
this into their strategic decisions? Or are there so many, or such significant barriers to
entry of new competitors that the existing competitors can operate on the basis of only
needing to be concerned about who is competing in the industry now?

Are there substitutes or alternative products that act like competitors in the
market? For example, glass bottle manufacturers need also to consider the threat from
plastic bottles and containers, aluminium cans, tetra packs and casks, etc. Taxi operators
need to consider the threat not only from other taxis but also from hire
cars/limousines/public transport/parking stations (use of own cars) etc.

Are there any dominant suppliers whose products are so central and important to
the organisation’s operations that they affect the way competitive advantage is
created, maintained and applied? For example, to computer manufacturers such as
Toshiba, Compaq, Sony and Acer etc, the products available from Intel and Microsoft
greatly influence the nature of their competitive advantage. In the airline industry,
because fuel costs make up much of the total cost of running airlines, their competitive
advantage is greatly impacted by changes in oil prices. Because Internet-based strategies
have become so significant to banks and airlines, the broadband speed and capabilities
of ISPs greatly impact on their ability to create, maintain and defend their competitive
advantage in their markets.

Finally, there may be particular customers or buyers whose purchasing or preferences
are so significant that they are able to change what forms of competitive advantage
work. For example:
• In the period 2003-2005, the world price of iron ore, minerals, steel, other metals,
oil and gas rose substantially because of demand from China and India. Indeed at
various times demand has outpaced supply. The strategies of mining companies
have been greatly dependent on the pace and continuing needs of growth from both
these ‘customers’ – China in particular. And the strategies of other steel mills,
energy companies and manufacturers have had to adjust to the impact of the
increasingly demanding Chinese and Indian ‘customer’ bidding up the prices and
taking much of the raw material in the market.

In other examples:
• In military aircraft manufacturing, the strategic decisions of the US Department of
Defence, People’s Liberation Army/Navy/Air Force, Russian military and NATO
alliance are so significant that aircraft developments are effectively determined by
these four key ‘buyers’.
• In the pharmaceuticals and health industry in Australia, the Commonwealth
Government through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) acts as a key
‘buyer’ – the willingness of decision makers (buyers) in charge of the PBS to buy or
not buy a particular drug, and the price they are willing to pay, has a huge impact on
the industry.


What is Porter’s value chain?

The other key concept that Porter advanced was the notion that organisations compete
and gain competitive advantage through the differences that they offer in the way that
they create and deliver ‘value’ to customers. This is often known also as their ‘business’
model. Porter suggests that each organisation makes decisions about how it arranges
and manages the activities that produce the value it offers to its customers or clients.
Take the example shown here:

Strategy and Leadership

Corporate Services (eg, IT, Finance, HR)
Margin
Purchasing
raw Inbound Sales & Outbound
Production
materials Logistics marketing logistics
& supplies

What Porter is suggesting is that how one organisation arranges its purchasing of raw
materials and supplies, or its sales and marketing, or its strategy and leadership, may
give it a competitive advantage through (as mentioned earlier):
• Cost leadership (greater efficiency)
• Differentiation (creates a customer valued difference)
• Focus (gains a reputation for expertise or superior knowledge)

So, Porter proposed that by comparing and contrasting each competitor’s Value Chain,
a strategist could understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of each, and identify
ways to develop a competitive advantage through finding actions in the value chain that
could be the source of such an advantage.


A quick summary of corporate strategy

This has been a very quick introduction to a number of concepts and frameworks
around corporate strategy. Throughout your MBT career you will be exposed to a wide
range of perspectives and frameworks designed to help you answer the three key
questions related to strategy that we noted earlier:
1. Where are we now?
2. Where are we going?
3. How will we get there?

Remember though, that the purpose of all these tools and techniques is to equip you as a
manager to identify strategies that help you in “getting the better of an adversary or
attaining an end”.

What is corporate governance, and why is it important?

Having read to this point you will be aware of a number of key concepts, particularly
that:

Organisations exist for a purpose in addition to making money.

Managers are required to make decisions that affect a whole range of internal and
external stakeholders: employees, shareholders, customers, users, supporters, the
environment, donors, suppliers, the community at large, and many more.

What you also need to be aware of is that sometimes the interests of the managers and
those of some of these stakeholders come into conflict.

High profile organisational collapses and failures such as HIH in Australia, Enron and
WorldCom in the United States, Parmalat in Italy – and many, many more – highlight
the fact that in an effective business system there is a clear need for oversight of the
actions of the managers of the organisation.

Failures such as these do not just happen in the commercial sector however. Consider
the outcomes of recent government enquiries into the operations of the Commonwealth
Department of Immigration in relation Cornelia Rau (Australian citizen incarcerated in
a detention centre) and Vivian Alvarez (Australian citizen wrongfully deported to the
Philippines); NSW Railways in the wake of the Waterfall train crash, and many more.

Clearly, the issue of effective corporate governance is vital to the efficient and
successful long-term operation of any organisation – and indeed, any society or
economy.


What do we mean by ‘corporate governance’?

In this context, we will take corporate governance to mean oversight by people or
bodies charged with ensuring that the interests of key stakeholders are not
compromised. Who the stakeholders are in each case is typically set by legislation, and
by legal principles and precedents from the findings and interpretation of courts.

In a commercial organisation, the board of directors is typically charged with the key
responsibility for corporate governance – protecting the rights of shareholders and
creditors, ensuring contractual obligations and regulatory compliance.

In the public sector, the elected government is typically responsible for corporate
governance, and in semi-government and statutory bodies like State Rail, Sydney
Water, the Australian Broadcasting Authority, the University of NSW, etc – and in not-
for-profit organisations – governments will usually mandate a body similar to a board of
directors with the responsibility for corporate governance.

What does corporate governance involve?

In a recent article, Gomez & Korine (2005, pp. 739-752) propose that:
Corporate governance can be understood as a set of contracts that defines the
relationships among the three principal actors in the corporation.

To simplify what this actually means, corporate governance is the set of relationships
where:
• A key stakeholder whom they refer to as the sovereign (in the case of commercial
organisations this would be the shareholders; in the case of public sector agencies,
the elected government; for not-for-profit organisations this is often the ‘members’
or other key stakeholders as defined by legislation)
• sets in place a governing body (eg, board, council, senate, etc) with responsibility
for overseeing the actions of
• the governed (management, staff, employees, volunteers, players, etc)

Increasingly, societies and governments are reacting to a rapidly changing world
surrounding them, and modifying the regulations affecting ‘corporate governance’
accordingly. The numbers and interests of stakeholders who are affected by the actions
of organisations is expanding. Organisations are being seen to impact on:
• the economy
• the natural environment
• society through opportunities for work and employment
• conditions of work
• family life, etc

Consequently, there are increasingly complex expectations placed on organisations of
all sizes to consider and take responsibility for decisions and actions beyond simply
their ‘money making’ or other purposes and goals.


What significant business concepts relate to corporate governance?

In your MBT courses you will be exposed to the contemporary business concepts of:
• Triple Bottom Line – organisations being responsible for financial, environmental
and social ‘bottom lines’
• Balanced Scorecard – accountability for a range of outcomes including financial,
customer, organisation and employees
• and many others

You will also be exposed to the effect and requirements of various pieces of legislation
in the areas of workplace safety, intellectual property rights, contractual
obligations, consumer protection, and many others.

Perhaps most significant of all is the issue of organisational ethics – setting and
complying with values and principles that should guide and regulate the standards of
behaviour of everyone within the organisation.

All of these things impact on the environment of corporate governance. You should be
beginning to understand that this goes beyond simply complying with legislation and
satisfying shareholders!

Indeed, it is apparent that sustainable organisations are those that, among other things,
have the best and most effective corporate governance.

Conclusion

We hope that this introduction to business and technology will assist you in gaining a
general understanding of some of the key concepts and principles that underpin many of
the courses you will study in your MBT Program.

We wish you the very best of luck as you commence this most fascinating journey into
mastering the ‘white water’ rapids where business management and technology
converge!

References
Burgelman RA, Christensen CM & Wheelwright SC, 2004, Strategic Management of Technology and
Innovation, 4th edn, McGraw-Hill, Boston,
Gomez PY & Korine HK, 2005, ‘Democracy and the evolution of corporate governance’, Corporate
Governance, vol. 13, no. 6,
Macquarie Essential Dictionary, 1999, Macquarie Library Pty Ltd.

Porter ME, 1980, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Free Press,
New York.

Sheth JN, Mittal B & Newman BI, 1999, Customer Behavior: Consumer Behavior and Beyond, Dryden
Press, Orlando.


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