Masters Programs Course Syllabus

2nd HALF/1st Semester 2016

2464 DIGITAL STRATEGY

INSTRUCTOR: David Bernardo

CONTACT: Davidbernardo@yahoo.com

SHORT BIO: Graduated in Business Management at the Catholic University in Lisbon and has an MBA

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from the University of Virginia. David worked as a strategy consultant at Roland Berger and Partners
and later was responsible for new digital business development at Sony Music in Miami covering Latin
American market. David launched and owns several online businesses. He is now the managing partner
of LITS ebusiness a consulting and services company for ebusiness and ecommerce and focuses on
the Latin American and European markets where he works with clients such as Amazon, Walmart,
Virgin and other multinational and startup firms. He writes about ebusiness for several publications like
Jornal de Negocios, Internet Retailer, Ebusinesshoy and CNN Expansion. David was recognized by
Entrepreneur magazine and Forbes as one of the biggest innovators in Mexico. During the past fifteen
years David has worked and lived in nine different countries. On his free time David is an enthusiast of
extreme sports and a travel journalist for several magazines.

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OFFICE HOURS: organize in class with professor

GRADER: [Grader name]

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CONTACT: davidbernardo@yahoo.com

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1. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND CONTENT

This course comes from the need I (David) identify working with several leading companies in the
world, of people and companies that understand what is going on with the world.
The world is going to change more dramatically the next 10 years than the previous 30. We are
starting a 4th industrial revolution based on data and technology. Still most companies and people
havent realized it. Its estimated that during the next 15 years 60% of the current jobs will disappear
and 50% of the current Fortune 500 companies will be replaced by other companies. What are you
going to do about it?
This course goes through what is happening with data and the new trends and technologies.
We aim to provide students with the awareness of what is going to happen (and already happening)
in the market, why it is happening, its implications and how to prepare their careers and their
companies for it. We will go over the biggest trends and technologies shaping our present and future.

Masters Programs Course Syllabus

Students will get familiar on the basics on how to transform a company into a more digital being
(digital transformation), what are the new business models that are showing up and the different
components of the digital world.
This context is supposed to give context to other courses about the digital (youll learn why the term
digital should be stopped to be used soon but we dont have another better yet).

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2. LEARNING GOALS
- Creating a strategy from the customer journey
- Understand the challenges of Digital transformation and develop a framework to
implement it
- learn about the key technologies that will impact the next decades
- create a design user experience for websites and app

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3. COURSE STRUCTURE

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Class 1 - The current status of digital

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The course is composed by 4 classes of 4 hour duration each:

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Class 2 - Creating a digital strategy and digital transformation. User experience and ecommerce
basics.
Class 3 and 4 - New trends coming up and the challenges:

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- Big data

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- Platforms

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- Blockchain

- Internet of things
- 3D scanning and printing
- Cyber security
- Artificial intelligence and Human assisted decision making
- Preparing the legal system for the future
- Health
- The future of mankind

Masters Programs Course Syllabus

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4. TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS

The class is about interaction: teacher to students, students to teacher and students to
students. This class is supposed to make you think and learn to think about what it is coming.
There is no secret formula, as there are no secret formulas in the real world.
Recent and current articles, videos and conferences will be discussed.
Classes are mandatory and the unjustified absence (major causes only) will reflect on the
evaluation. Missing two classes without a major force justification results in the failure of the
course. Punctuality to class will be enforced.
The experience can be sometimes less traditional and not for everyone.
Previous qualitative feedback goes all the way from The professor is passionate and
knowledgeable. One of the best or second best courses I took in my life to The professor is
not as cool as he thinks.

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35% class participation and homework

35% Final paper (group work)
30% Exam

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5. ASSESSMENT

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There will be homework assigned in some classes. Homework is due before the class the
morning after and aims at having students trying to address the issues before they get the
solution. Homework is graded as follows (20 Went above what was required; 15 Did what
was required; 10 Presented part of what was required; 5 minimum effort; 0 didnt
present the homework or what was required).
Students are evaluated according their contribution to the class development.
Selected final papers will be selected and published on online blog of the sector.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND OTHER RESOURCES

Several YouTube videos will be shown in class from conferences.
Articles by the professor, you can find some at:
http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/opiniao/colunistas/david_bernardo.html
Recommended biography:
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance
Platform revolution, Geoffrey Parker

Masters Programs Course Syllabus

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Lecture slides are supports to the teaching process and are not enough to study for an exam.
Students are supposed to attend, pay attention to classes and take the adequate notes. Being
PRESENT in class should be enough to prepare for the test.