Syllabus

Title
2280 The Power of Experimentation in Multinationals
Instructors
Dr. Jelena Cerar, M.Sc.M.A.
Contact details
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
09/15/20 to 09/28/20
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Wednesday 10/07/20 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM Online-Einheit
Wednesday 12/09/20 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Online-Einheit
Wednesday 12/16/20 02:00 PM - 08:00 PM Online-Einheit
Procedure for the course when limited activity on campus

The course will be held entirely online in any case.

Contents

When it comes to trying out new business models, improving customer experience or developing new products in multinationals, even the most experienced managers get it wrong. They discover that intuition, experience and big data alone do not really work. What does? Running disciplined business experiments.

The course content will be organized as follows:

 

Session 1:

- Course intro

- Why experimentation works

- How to run a good business experiment

- How to experiment online

- Example 1: 3M Post-it Notes

- Example 2: Experimentation in sport - New Zealand’s team at the America’s Cup

- Case study: Superb Trucks LP: How to conduct a field experiment

 

Session 2:

- Which organizational cultures can handle large-scale experimentation?

- The operating model of a true experiment organizations

- Lessons from MNCs using experiments in their every-day business: Airbnb, Amazon, ams AG and Intuit

- Case study: Booking.com

 

Session 3:

- How to become an experimental organization

- Lessons from IMB, Toyota, Pinterest and State Farm

- Experimenting within MNC organization

- Experimental lab visit (if Covid-19 situation allows it) or video presentation of the WU LAB

- Arguments against experimentation

- The future of experimentation

- Preparation for the final assignments

 

Session 4:

- Final assignment’s presentations

 

Dates & Times: 

01.10.2020 All lecture presentations will be posted online

13.10.2020 23:59 Assignment 1 deadline

20.10.2020 23:59 Assignment 2 deadline

27.10.2020 23:59 Assignment 3 deadline

16.12.2020 14:00-20:00 (Final Presentation, Online presence required)

 

Q&A Dates & Times: 

07.10.2020 14:00-16:00 (Online presence required)

09.12.2020 10:00-12:00 (Online presence required)

Learning outcomes

This course will guide you through best practices in business experimentation and illustrate how these practices work in some of the leading companies, such as Amazon, Booking.com, Microsoft and others, which run thousands of different controlled experiments annually and engage millions of users.

 

It will answer some fundamental questions, such as:

- What makes a good experiment?

- How to run experimental tests in online and off-line business models?

- How to build a culture in companies that supports experimentation?

- How the future of experimentation in multinationals will look like and why we need to start preparing for it?

 

Upon successful completion of this course, you will:

1. Develop skills needed for running your own business experiments;

2. Be familiar with different business segments where experiments are suitable approach for testing and solving problems;

3. Understand different ways to develop an experimenting organization that puts experimentation in the center of its innovation process.

Attendance requirements

Regular attendance is a requirement to pass this course. Attendance of the last session (December 16th: 14:00-20:00) is mandatory, as well as two Q&A sessions. Since the lectures for the first 3 classes will be pre-recorded, there is no formal attendance requirement for them. Instead, a short report of each lecture will be required.

Teaching/learning method(s)

This course is comprised of lectures, in-class case analyses and a team research experimental project. This is a highly interactive course. Thus, students are expected to be fully engaged during Q&A sessions and give their critical assessment in written form. All course documents, assignments, lecture notes, etc. will be posted on the course website on Learn@WU.

Assessment

Assessment will be based on both individual and team performance.

Assignments with percent of total grade:
Class reports:                  15%

Case studies:                   40%

Group final assignment:   45%
 

Each assignment should be submitted as one file via MyLearn.

 

The final grade will be based on the following total points out of 100:

· 90 - 100:              A

· 80 - 89:                B

· 70 - 79:                C

· 50 - 69:                D

· Less than 50:      F (Failed)

Availability of lecturer(s)

I am available for online meetings. Please contact me via e-mail for an appointment, e-mail address: jelena.cerar@wu.ac.at

Last edited: 2020-09-11



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