The purpose of this course is to help individuals and organizations survive when confronted with disruptive technologies that threaten their current way of life. We will look at a general model of survival and use it to analyze companies and industries that have failed or are close to failing. Examples of companies that have not survived include Kodak, a firm over 100 years old, Blockbuster and Borders. It is likely that each of us has done business with all of these firms, and today Kodak and Blockbuster are in bankruptcy and Borders has been liquidated. Disruptions are impacting industries like education; Coursera and others offering these massive open online courses are a challenge for Universities. In addition to firms that have failed, we will look at some that have survived and are doing well. What are their strategies for survival?
About this Course
Learner Career Outcomes
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Learner Career Outcomes
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Offered by

University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 47 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
1.1
A Model and framework to help understand disruptive technologies
1.2
Some examples of companies that were not able to survive disruptive technologies
2.1
A company that did not survive and its disruptor
2.2
Another story of disruption and a summary of our examples
3.1
Newspapers are an important component of a democratic society; the Internet threatens them in a number of ways
3.2
Social media has transformed the way people relate to each other, but it has a disruptive component that is worrying
4.1
Two companies in this module are private and are very successful; a quasi-public agency has a hard time competing with them and their technology
13
Conclusions about disruption
14
Suggestions for how to respond to a disruptive technology
15
Survival in the physical world
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM SURVIVING DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES (ON DEMAND)
Thank you for this course make me understand disruption technology and how to survive.
Very nicely constructed and informative course with apt examples
Thanks for offering this course as MOOC on Cursera.
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