Happy Halloween everybody... So far, my day today revolves not around ghosts and goblins but rather the wonderful world of telecommunication. Lately, I have grown really bored in the class Introduction to Technology and Policy. I really need a lecture that has value and will prop up interest for that class. Well, my prayers were answered with Sharon Gillett - a TPP 95 grad - as the guest speaker in today's Intro to Tech & Policy. She was extremely engaging and her talk was very interactive. As an Electrical Engineer and someone who has been involved in IT for many years, I thought I knew everything about the telecommunication industry. I was pleasantly surprised to learn something new today, particularly how regulated the telecommunication (and broadband) industry is and the implications of a few landmark legislations that were passed for this industry.
I am currently working on a case study on Iridium - a satellite-based telephony company that went bankrupt in 1999, a year after the launch of its service. Surprisingly, the more I read about the case and doing research on the company, the more I like this case study. It is a classical case of a company possessing great innovations but in the end made some really bad business decisions and failed spectacularly. Also, for those who are currently taking Prof. Richard de Neufville's class on Real Options (aka ESD.71), the Iridium case presents a real life example where management should have defined a set of objective goals (rather than one that is based on experience and observations) and evaluates the project or long-term investment opportunities as real options.
| 10/31/2005 11:28:47 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) |
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