Blockchain, mostly known as the backbone technology behind Bitcoin, is one of the most intriguing and potent technologies in the digital age. Similar to the Internet’s effect on the distribution and availability of information, blockchain technology has the potential to drive digital transformation that disrupts multiple industries by making transactions and processes more efficient, more secure, more transparent, and more democratic. If the blockchain lives up to its potential, it can provide a secured decentralized information infrastructure that is conducive to efficient value chains and massive horizontal integration across customary institutional boundaries. For example, Maersk and Walmart use blockchain to slash mounting administrative costs of supply chain management while increasing tracking accuracy; and central banks aspire to use blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies to provide more efficient digital currencies and secure global payment infrastructure.
Global organizations and governments, as well as startup companies and investors, have all identified blockchain as a revolutionary technology that can drive digital transformation. Building on this vision, we will explore the unique features and the consequent new business models of blockchain technology to figure out how it can drive innovation and generate business value.
The course is designed to prepare highly valued professionals for leveraging blockchain technology in digital transformation initiatives and ventures in a wide array of industries, such as the financial sector, logistics, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and public administration. In the context of today’s technology-intensive environment, business development is the vehicle of sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Overall, the course provides the tools for generating new blockchain-based business models that can be applied in legacy organizations as well as in new business ventures. The course provides not only a framework for understanding blockchain technology in the context of the digital age and organizational settings but also a language to communicate its dynamic characteristics and interdependencies.
- Foundations of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
- A strategic approach to blockchain-enabled digital transformation
- Blockchain mechanics and Proof of Concept
- The value chain of Blockchain
- Digital assets, NFTs, payment systems and cryptocurrencies
- Blockchain business models as a driver of digital transformation
- Identify and explain the theories, concepts and technologies that were presented in the course, including their key terminology, underlying assumptions, and how they relate to one another.
- Demonstrate how the theories, concepts and technologies that were presented in the course were applied in the process of developing the prescribed blockchain project.
- Exhibit the ability to apply blockchain technology through a written assignment that describes the blockchain innovation project and a tangible prototype that illustrates it.
- Evaluate the blockchain innovation project through theory-based critical assessment and discuss the results, including how to mitigate the prevailing challenges as well as how to move ahead with the development of the underlying project.
This course is designed for managers, business developers, digital officers, consultants, policymakers, and others who are involved in generating business value with digital technologies. Blockchain-driven digital transformation is applicable to the financial, logistics, pharmaceutical, healthcare, public administration, and any other business sector. No prerequisite knowledge is required. The course can be taken as a single course or as part of a full Master of Business Development.
