The
rapid pace of technological change has technology managers in all industries
concerned with how they can keep abreast of developments in related – and
unrelated – fields that may create new opportunities or pose threats to their
business. No longer can a manager simply
look to the firm’s internal R&D effort or its business partners to provide
access to all of the technologies and skills the company needs. For one thing, over the last 30 years, much
scientific research and radical innovation has been pushed upstream into
academia and government research centers as corporate R&D centers focus
their efforts on supporting current and next generation products. Furthermore, innovation is increasingly the
product of the fusion of two technologies – think bioinformatics, for example –
or the application of a known concept to a new field (such as laser printers
which were developed from existing copier technology). No internal effort could possibly hope to
master it all – not even in the largest of companies. So how do these businesses maintain an
awareness of emerging technologies and the opportunities (or threats) they may
portend?
One
approach is to maintain a high enough profile and hope that tech transfer
managers, entrepreneurs, and other developers of new technology come to you
with their developments. This may work
in some cases, but no business can afford to sit back and hope that important
components of its technology portfolio will just walk in the door. Maintaining an awareness of new technological
developments has traditionally been the purview of scientists and engineers in
the lab whom, it was believed, lived on the front line of S&T development
and thus would be familiar with new technologies. This is a bad assumption. The short comings of this approach are the
same as those noted above that afflict the business more generally – that is,
no one can know it all. Besides, that is
not their job. They have their own
projects to look after. Today, leading
technology companies resort to a systematic process of Technology Scouting to proactively search out and acquire new
technologies.
Technology
scouting doesn’t require a massive effort, but it does call for thoughtful organization.
And, it is not competitive intelligence per se though there is some overlap in research skills.
(Competitive intelligence seeks to maintain an early warning system of
competitors’ actions while scouting seeks out new technological developments
for incorporation into the firm’s technology portfolio.) Today, technology intensive firms from virtually
all industrial sectors including IT, pharmaceuticals, automotive, electronics,
chemicals, oil& gas, and more rely on a variety of sources to keep abreast
of new developments of interest to the firm.
Even businesses that we seldom think of as technology companies have
climbed on board. For example, low-tech products from
toys to food increasingly rely on a variety of technology intensive processes
to manufacture them and which impact their competitive position.
So
now you’ve decided that your firm needs to scout for new technologies – in self-defense
if nothing else. Where do you
start? The figure below shows the basic
elements of a technology scouting program.
First,
you must determine precisely what you want this scouting effort to
achieve. And, as we’ve said, this often
comes under the general heading of finding opportunities and identifying
threats. In this effort, do not fail to
consider the possible societal responses to new technology (Monsanto and
Unilever, to name just two, now wish that they had more carefully considered
the potential societal resistance in Europe to genetically modified
crops).
Next
comes the scouting plan which details the various roles and responsibilities of
those in the group. Who will be
responsible for which sets of technologies?
While the focus is clearly on emerging technologies, be careful to
ensure a proper alignment between scouting activities and corporate goals and
objectives. To what extent will you
manage this effort with in-house resources and will there be a need to go
outside the organization for additional expertise? And, as shown, it is often
just as important to be aware of what is not happening in the environment as
what is happening.
Third,
a complete listing of data sources – both secondary and primary – to support
the effort must then be developed.
Obviously it is less costly to comb through previously published
materials, but figure on obtaining the real nuggets from discussions with other
people – internal and external. There is a skill to doing this. And don’t
fall into the trap of assuming that patent searches will completely reveal the
technological landscape.
Fourth,
consider the methods of observation that you expect to employ. Although the three categories of surveillance
are often used interchangeably, I regard scanning
as a broad look at the technological landscape to identify areas for more
detailed study, monitoring as a
continuous look at a specific field or technology to identify new developments
of interest, and tracking as a
detailed look at advancements in a specific technology or technological
approach. Often, tracking provides the
time series data that you will use to conduct a trend analysis (such as Moore’s
Law, for example).
Finally,
not to be overlooked are the mechanisms that you will use to convey the results
of your scouting activities to senior management and other decision
makers. There are roles for both reports
and alerts that the group may issue as well as monitoring databases that may be
accessed by employees when they need information on a topic. But then, the really hard work begins – due diligence
on the target technologies of interest and assessing the strategic and
operational fit will be critical to moving forward and must not be taken
lightly. But, if done well, the benefits
can be enormous.
Ready
to get started? Emerging technologies
are everywhere and only a systematic effort will help ensure that you keep
abreast of those of most interest to you. If you need help, contact me at Rich@TEMI.us.
