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Education at the Intersection A few schools have begun offering courses and programs that specifically focus on what IT professionals need to know about business or how business managers can utilize IT. Here are two examples: ■ Henley Business School at the University of Reading in the U.K. has positioned itself to bring together business managers and IT professionals, says Sharm Manwani, executive professor of IT leadership and corporate program director at Henley. About five years ago, the school created a customized master's program in enterprise information management for high-potential IT executives from Deutsche-Telekom. Not only did the program cover topics like strategy, execution, and personal development, it also introduced participants to a concept Manwani describes as "smart pushback." He explains, "Too often, IT professionals are seen as order takers. Business leaders tell the CIO they need a solution, and the CIO creates one, but it might not be what the organization needs. If the CIO responds with smart pushback, he'll ask, 'What do you really need here? How does that fit in with our strategy and our other initiatives?'" Henley's Deutsche-Telekom program was designed to provide an "end-to-end view" of the organization to participants, who included systems analysts, program managers, enterprise archi- tects, and service managers. "We started by discussing what business strategy is and what it means in terms of enterprise architecture, capabilities, and sourcing," says Manwani. "Then we returned to areas they were more familiar with, such as systems require- ments and project management, but now they could consider these areas through a strategic lens." Henley will bring some of the elements of its Deutsche-Telekom program to the modules it will teach in the joint business/IT program spon- sored by EuroCIO. The 18-month master's equiva- lent, which launched in September, is aimed at business and enterprise architects, particularly in companies that are facing major restructuring and similar challenges. The program will be delivered in nine modules at four European business schools; Henley will deliver three of the nine. Henley's program will open with discussions of strategy, innovation, and new business models, and will continue with personal development sessions that explore different personal- ity types and communication styles. Manwani considers these personal development classes absolutely critical. "We want par- ticipants to develop the confidence to sit down with top man- agers and have challenging debates about how their proposals could transform the organization." Managers and professionals who understand the entire business are invaluable employees, Manwani believes. "What can hold IT people back is a narrow focus on the technology. People coming from the functional setting must be able to see the whole business if they're to become leaders." ■ At NCSU, modules on "data-driven decision making" are designed to help students use various high-tech data tools to understand the business environment in which they'll be operat- ing. But the real goal is to teach them how to use the technol- ogy to ask better questions, says Michael Kowolenko, principal research scholar at the Center for Innovation Management Studies at NCSU's Poole College of Management. The modules are presented in an action-based learning for- mat where students have to determine if there's a market for a specific product and then identify obstacles and opportunities. "It's a typical SWOT analysis, but the technology tools allow them to do more in-depth analysis in four domains: economic, social, regulatory, and technical," says Kowolenko. For instance, if students are researching new technology designed to aid victims of heat stroke, they can access the EDGAR Filings, a database of company information filed with the SEC. Students might first use the search tool to find every filing that includes the words "heat stroke," then narrow their searches down by asking more specific ques- tions. They can sort for other kinds of information on other databases—such as PubMed, a government database dedicated to research activities within the medical field. "They're able to go through mil- lions of documents very quickly to get a holistic view of that particular market," says Kowolenko. "The tools have the flexibility to allow them to ask all sorts of questions. But what's more important is that students learn to ask the right questions. If they don't understand what they're going to do with the information, then the ability to sift data on a large scale only produces more data of little value on a large scale. The idea is to take data and turn it into knowledge." While NCSU's data-driven decision making classes cur- rently exist as mandatory modules within the undergraduate entrepreneurship program and electives within the MBA pro- gram, the school will launch a full course on the topic in January. Kowolenko believes that data-driven analytical skills have broad application in a wide range of professions, including entrepre- neurship, business development, accounting, auditing, and fraud detection. Ultimately, says Kowolenko, "we want to turn out tech people who also have a good understanding of business." BizEd November/December 2012 21