David Dilts leads an animated class discussion on technology management.

The new director of the Vanderbilt Management of Technology (MOT) Program is working to bridge and integrate the fields of technology and management, drawing from years of research into how the two areas interact with and augment each other. Holding a joint appointment with the School of Engineering and the Owen Graduate School of Management, Professor David Dilts is shaping the MOT Program to teach students how to meet the challenges of managing enterprises in technologically driven environments.
       The relationship between technology and management is not always a harmonious or productive one, Professor Dilts notes. Technology can simplify and streamline management processes, but it can also needlessly complicate them. Businesses may find lucrative opportunities through global electronic markets, but they may also experience spectacular failures. Technological inventions may be impressive, but the customers may be overwhelmed rather than delighted.
       "Many times people develop technological inventions that are highly innovative and useful but aren't successful because no one has taken into account the critical issues of management, human resources, government policy and marketing, which our research shows account for the great majority of the problems."
       Professor Dilts says that another reason technology innovations fail is that no one really thought through what consumers want or how much they are willing to invest in understanding how to use the new technology. "People say: 'That technology is a neat toy, but what does it mean for my bottom line?'"
       The challenges of technology in the business environment extend well beyond simply developing a technology strategy. Professor Dilts emphasizes that many, if not most, businesses fail to leverage technology to maximize opportunities and solve problems caused by increasingly complex technological innovations, shortened product life cycles, rapid rates of technology transfer and increasing globalization and digitization of markets.
       The MOT program brings an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary focus to the issues of management of technology. Designed to help students combine the best of both worlds, the program helps equip graduates with the abilities to bring high-technology products to market, to make best use the Internet revolution and to effectively apply technological solutions to business problems. Graduates may receive a Master of Science or Master of Engineering with a major of Management of Technology. An interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Management of Technology and a joint Masters of Engineering/M.B.A. are also offered. Undergraduates majoring in Engineering Science may elect to do a concentration in MOT or a 15-hour minor.
       Professor Dilts's own research focuses on business-to-business electronic commerce, telemedicine, next-generation manufacturing systems and the integration of internal and external enterprise information.