!!!EE204:!Business!Management!for!Electrical!Engineers!and!Computer!Scientists!!Blair!Kaneshiro,!Micah!Siegel,!an d!F red !G ibb o ns !Stanford!University,!Stanford,!CA,!USA!January!3,!2012!!!!INDEX!ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................2!PART!I!–!COURS E !GOALS!AND!DE S IGN .............................................................................................................3!Course!Goals ..............................................................................................................................................................................3!Designing!a!Curriculum!to!Meet!Course!Goals ...........................................................................................................3!Course!Listing!and!Students...............................................................................................................................................4!PART!II!–!COURSE !C ONTEN T ............................................................................................................................... 5!Revisions!for!2012..................................................................................................................................................................5!Course!Materials!and!Assignments .................................................................................................................................7!Grading.........................................................................................................................................................................................8!PART!III!–!IMPLICATIONS.................................................................................................................................. 10!Providing!an!Effective!Fit!for!Business!Education!in!Engineering .................................................................10!Future!Initiatives.................................................................................................................................................................. 10!EXHIBITS ................................................................................................................................................................ 12!!!2!ABSTRACT'Business education has become increasingly valuable for engineers in today’s multidisciplinary environment. In response this belief, we sought to assess Stanford’s EE204 course as a means of providing engineering students with useful tools that they can carry into their professional careers. Taught by practitioners in business, the hands-on style of the course is intended to provide multiple levels of learning about high-tech companies, tools of successful businesses, and communication skills. In this paper, we examine the value of providing business education to students enrolled in graduate engineering programs at Stanford. We then discuss the ways in which EE204 has been restructured for 2012 to meet course goals, following the progression from product inception to launch and evaluation, using the case-method style of teaching. The new topics for 2012 are as follows: Seeing the Big Picture Creating New Markets with Customer-Centric Thinking Developing Successful Products Going to Market and Executing the Plan Measuring Results Leading and Managing Teams We acknowledge the growing role of multidisciplinary teams and international companies, which are reflected in the set of readings and cases selected for 2012. Students meet learning objectives for the course through readings, participation in in-class discussions, and written assignments. The content of the course is intended to be relevant both to students planning to work for large companies after graduation, and to those planning to start their own companies. We present the course goals and the development of the curriculum to meet these goals. We then examine the course structure, elaborating upon the main topic areas and describing activities and assignments, as well as the standards by which students are evaluated. Finally, we discuss the implications of EE204, and business education for engineers in general, including the possibility of a joint or dual degree between Electrical Engineering and the Graduate School of Business.!!3!PART'I'–'COURSE'GOALS'AND'DESIGN'Course'Goals'Engineering as a discipline is being repositioned in business as a multidisciplinary function requiring broad perspective and awareness. As an example, product development is no longer a sequential process in which the product is specified by the marketing department, then built by the engineering department (or vice versa). Rather, product teams today comprise people from marketing, sales, and engineering, who participate together in the design of a product and the discovery of new markets in an iterative process. This new framework is currently implemented in many large high-tech companies including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Google. In order for engineers to be prepared for this new multidisciplinary environment, they must understand the functional roles of other team members and how these roles are integrated to achieve business objectives. EE204 (formerly EE353) focuses on understanding the fundamental activities of businesses worldwide and how to manage them. Successfully performing these activities and producing innovative results requires leadership, teamwork, and integrating the many functional disciplines of business including R&D, Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, Accounting, and Human Resources. Based upon the belief that engineering students must acquire an understanding of the multidisciplinary team, we have restructured the course for 2012, building upon the traditional heritage of functional categories and transitioning to a more action- and team-oriented approach. We have identified three main learning objectives for the course. First, students should gain context for thinking critically about tech companies and the tech industry. Our hope is that this will additionally promote intellectual curiosity in business