BUSS1000: Future of Business

Lecture 1: Introduction

Presented by
Dr. Steven Hitchcock
Associate Lecturer
Office Hours: 3pm-4pm Monday-Thursday

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 What are we doing today?

First half of Lecture: Overview and introduction

– Course details
– Schedule
– Assessments
– Expectations

Second half of Lecture: Setting the scene

– Megatrends
– Wicked Problems

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 Who am I?

– Dr Steven Hitchcock
– Associate Lecturer
– Unit Coordinator for BUSS1000
– Grew up in Cambridge, New Zealand
– The University of Waikato
– Bachelor of Communication Studies (First Class Honors)
– Master of Management Studies (First Class Honors)
– Worked in advertising for a several years
– Arizona State University
– PhD in Organizational Studies

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Details of BUSS1000

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 What is BUSS1000?

– BUSS1000 serves to be the foundation for both your time at University and
your career.
– The course has been designed to help you start developing the key
graduate qualities demanded by employers.

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 What will we walk away with?

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Depth of disciplinary knowledge
2. Critical thinking and problem solving
3. Communication (oral and written)
4. Information literacy
5. Inventiveness
6. Cultural Competence
7. Interdisciplinary effectiveness (Not assessed in BUS1000)
8. An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity
9. Influence

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 How is the Unit set up?

Part 1: Theory and Fundamentals

Part 2: Trends, challenges, and

opportunities

Part 3: ‘Solution’ toolkit

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 Why is the class set up like this?

– The three parts serve as a scaffold for the unit, as well as for your learning.
– Start with that foundational, core understandings of ways of understanding
and looking at business.
– Next, we look at what is happening in the world.
– Finally, we present tools that you can use to take action in the business
world.
– Ultimately, the class is set up like this to best prepare you for your studies
here, as well as for your life in the business world.

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 Unit of Study Schedule
Week Topic Assessment Due

1 Introduction Writing Diagnostic – In tutorial

2 Role of Business in Society [Part 1: Theory & Fundamentals]

3 Internal Analysis [Part 1: Theory & Fundamentals]

4 External Analysis [Part 1: Theory & Fundamentals]

No Class – Common Week

5 Strategy [Part 1: Theory & Fundamentals]

Information, communication, and technology [Part 2: Trends, challenges, and

6 Case Study – Monday at 10am
opportunities]

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 Unit of Study Schedule
Week Topic Assessment Due

7 Sustainability [Part 2: Trends, challenges, and opportunities]

8 Evolving Workplace [Part 2: Trends, challenges, and opportunities]

9 Urbanisation [Part 2: Trends, challenges, and opportunities]

10 Emerging and Growing Markets [Part 2: Trends, challenges, and opportunities]

11 Design Thinking [Part 3: ‘Solution’ toolkit] Presentation - Monday at 10am

12 Entrepreneurship [Part 3: ‘Solution’ toolkit]

13 Conclusions and your future in business

Study Vacation

Exam Period

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 Course Materials

Resources and materials

– No textbook!
– Reading list on Canvas – access via eReserve.
– Short videos for each week

Additional Material
– Optional Weekly Quizzes

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Assessment table
Assessment Type Assessment Name PLO Individual or Compulsory Word Weight Due date
s Group Mandatory or Length or
Optional Duration

Assignment Case Study Individual Compulsory 2000 words 25% Monday Week 6 at 10am

Presentation Team Presentation Group Compulsory 10 minute 25% Monday Week 11 at 10am
presentation

Tutorial Workshop attendance Individual Compulsory N/A 15% Throughout

Participation and participation

Final Exam Final Exam Individual Compulsory N/A 35% Exam time

Attendance Attendance at Business Individual Mandatory NA 0% Throughout

Communication (Unless
Workshops Exempted)

Academic Honesty Online Individual Mandatory NA 0% Week 4

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 Case study

– Summary: For this assignment you will be undertaking a case study of a

provided organization. You will then be asked to undertake research, apply
theoretical frameworks, and undertake critical analysis of the context
and/or organisation. Please see the assignment instructions on Canvas, once
they are uploaded, for full instructions.

– Length: 2000 Words.

– Weight: 25%
– Due: 16 April 2018 @ 10am (Monday of Week 6)
– Submission: Canvas as a .docx

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 Team Presentation

– Summary: During the semester, you will be introduced to an industry partner

who will present their current thinking on an innovation they are considering
implementing in their business. Your task is to review the opportunity
presented and to identify a strategy to maximize the opportunity that this
innovation could create for both the business and for society. You will need
to work in teams to prepare a presentation to present your strategy. Please
see the assignment instructions on Canvas, once they are uploaded, for full
instructions.

– Length: 10 minutes maximum

– Weight: 25%
– Due: 21 May 2018 @ 10am (Monday of Week 11)
– Submission: Canvas as a .pptx
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 The presentation: an exciting addition

– This is a live case!

– Wil be working with an industry partner who will introduce the brief and
case in Week 7.
– We’ll be making resources available to you throughout the semester

– If your presentation is one of the best in the class, you may have the
opportunity to present to the industry partner at their head offices towards
the end of semester.
– We will go into how this process works in Week 7.
– In a few weeks, we will talk more about what this means in terms of
legalities around (a) licensing and (b) confidentiality.

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 Workshop participation

– Summary: You are required to demonstrate your ability to be engaged with

classmates and the Unit of Study material in tutorials throughout semester. As
every tutorial includes collaborative work, it is essential that you actively
engage with not only the class material, but with your classmates and tutors.
As such, students will be expected to have attended lecture and completed
all readings prior to attending tutorial. Tutors will be grading each student’s
level of participation between weeks 3-12.

– Length: NA
– Weight: 15%
– Due: Ongoing in workshops from Weeks 3-12.
– Submission: NA
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 Final exam

– Summary: The examination will test the knowledge of all areas of the Unit
from all 13 weeks via essay questions. The exam could draw from any and
all content delivered and discussed in lectures, tutorial and from assigned
readings and online videos. The exam will assess your ability to apply this
knowledge to the real world problems and situations presented in the exam
paper.

– Length: 120minutes + 10 minutes of reading time.

– Weight: 35%
– Due: In final exam period
– Submission: Exam

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 Business Communication and Academic Writing Workshops

– Summary: Students who are identified as benefiting from additional

academic support (a written diagnostic is administered during week 1 of the
BUSS1000 tutorials) will be required to attend 8 x 1.5 hour workshops,
commencing Week 3. Students will be notified by email by Week 3 as to
whether they will need to attend these classes or whether they have
received an exemption. Please note that this assessment is listed as
Mandatory Unless Exempted. Unless exempt, you must attend each and
every Business Communication and Academic Writing Workshop in order to
pass BUSS1000.
– Length: NA
– Weight: 0%
– Due: 8 x 1.5 hour workshops, commencing Week 3.
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 Academic Honesty

– Online
– Due Week 4
– Mandatory

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How to succeed in BUSS1000

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 How to succeed in BUSS1000

– Success in this unit is determined by

1. The ability to demonstrate business knowledge and problem solving skills,
2. Strong application of critical, strategic and cross-disciplinary thinking,
3. Effective written and oral communication.

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 How to succeed in BUSS1000

– This means there are three distinct things which you need to develop.
– Studying and remembering ‘the stuff’ is only the start…

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 But why?

(Bloom’s Taxonomy, 2017)

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 How to succeed in BUSS1000

– Start with studying notes and remembering material

– Practicing critical thinking
– What does this theory mean?
– Why does it exist?
– How do I use it?
– What are the issues with it?
– Practicing writing
– Writing is an iterative process
– Your first draft shouldn’t be your last draft.
– Sit down, get all your ideas on the page then finesse and sculpt later

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 What you can expect

– This class, and many of your University classes, will ask you to think in new
ways and in many ways learn to learn.
– At times, this can be confusing or even frustrating.
– This might be understanding a concept, how to reference, or even how to
read a rubric.

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 But remember!

– This is a first year University course

– We know how much of a shift this is for you
– We’ve designed it to make it something you can do
– We’ve designed it closely with students
– We don’t expect you to know it all
– Its OK to say “I don’t know”
– Remember that everyone is starting at the same place
– We want you to help you succeed.
– We want you to do well, and we want you to be happy.
– So if you are ever stuck, confused, or frustrated – come and see us.

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Megatrends

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 What are megatrends?

Megatrends, according to the terms founder, John Naisbitt, are large,

transformative processes with ‘global reach, broad scope, and a fundamental
and dramatic impact’ (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 What are megatrends?

– Six specific megatrends that we are discussing this year Impactful

technology
– Evolving Communities
– Rapid Urbanization
– Empowered Individuals
– Economic Power Shift
– Resource Security
– Impactful technologies

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 MEGATRENDS

sbi.sydney.edu.au

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 Sydney Business Insights

– www.sbi.sydney.edu.au

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 What are Megatrends?

– Australian and Global levels

– Direct linkages to the Wicked Problems (and some overlap)
– They cut both ways
– We will have weeks focussing on each of these.

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 Impactful technology

– Covered in Week 6

– 90% of the world’s data created in the last 4 years

– 75% of stock trades today create by algorithm
– 1 trillion objects connected by 2025
– Artificial intelligence 4:1 wins in GO in 2016
– (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 Resource Security

– Covered in Week 7

– WEF identifies water crisis as #1 risk

– Energy consumption to increase by 35% by 2035
– Clean energy materials at critical levels
– Life critical phosphorous will peak by 2050
– 50% increase required in global food production by 2050
– (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 Evolving Communities

– Covered in Week 8

– World population 7.5b in 2016, 10b in 2050

– 2015-2100 growth generation from Asia to Africa
– Millennials are the largest generation in history
– 8% of world’s population over 65 in 2015, 13% by 2030

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 Rapid Urbanization

– Covered in Week 9

– 2% of world population in cities in 1800,

– 54% in 2015,
– 61% by 2030
– 750 biggest cities (of 4,146) contribute 57% of global GDP
– 1.5m per week join cities
– (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 Economic Power Shift

– Covered in Week 10

– Emerging economies 33% of world total in 2015, 50% by 2025

– Emerging economies grow 75% faster than developed economies
– By 2030, 80% of world population in middle class.
– 2030 E7>G7 purchasing power.
– (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 Empowered individuals

– Covered in Weeks 11 and 12

– 400m connected in 2000, 3.2b in 2015

– Always on, anywhere, personalized nature of Social media
– Rise in experiential consumption
– $5.67tr in socially responsible investments in 2014
– (“Introduction,” 2017).

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 Why are we talking about Megatrends?

– For business, and in turn you, these represent

– Challenges
– Opportunities
– These megatrends will define the world
– We don’t know what the world will look like in 50 years
– However, we do know what Megatrends are shaping our world.
– So that’s where we are going to start…

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Wicked Problems

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 What are Wicked Problems?

– Complex social and policy problems (“Tackling wicked problems”, 2017)

– “The term ‘wicked’ in this context is used, not in the sense of evil, but rather
as an issue highly resistant to resolution.” (“Tackling wicked problems”,
2017)
– Wicked problems are different to Megatrends, but are in many ways
products of Megatrends

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 What are Wicked Problems? (examples)

– water and food shortages

– youth unemployment

– population growth

– poverty

– climate change

– inequality

– global security

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 But what are Wicked Problems?

– Fairly specific problems

– Many organisations ‘out there’ that look solve these wicked problems
– Climate Action Network of Australia
• ?
– Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• ?
– Tesla
• ?

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 The limitations of talking about Wicked Problems

– They are complex and big – but they are a fixed target
– People and organizations work to solve problems
– Typically, focussed on one
– We have to remember that these wicked problems are each one
manifestation of bigger social trends and shifts.
– So we need a way conceptualizing these bigger social trends and shifts…

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Key points from today

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 Tutorials Start This Week!

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 What should I do now?

– Remember that we are here to help you succeed.

– Familiarize yourself with Canvas
– Read through the Unit of Study Outline
– Reading list
– Enter due dates on calendars
– Questions?
– Tutor
– Discussion Board a.k.a “Ed”
– Steven.Hitchcock@Sydney.edu.au

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End Slide

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 References
– Bloom’s Taxonomy. (2018). Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2 March 2018, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
– Tackling wicked problems : A public policy perspective - APSC. (2017). Apsc.gov.au. Retrieved 4 March 2017, from http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications-and-media/archive/publications-
archive/tackling-wicked-problems
– Introduction | Sydney Business Insight. (2017). Sbi.sydney.edu.au. Retrieved 2 March 2018, from http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/megatrends/introduction/
– John Naisbitt (2017). S3.amazonaws.com. Retrieved 28 July 2017, from http://s3.amazonaws.com/dldwebsite-production/black_and_white_avatars/john-
naisbitt/pulse/naisbitt-profile.jpg

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