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Atlas of technological advance: a new tool is being created to help corporate strategists gain technological acumen and awareness.

Article Excerpt
Long-term corporate course-setting is the ultimate strategic responsibility of corporate leaders. As such, it involves the CEO and the strategy team. Frequently the strategy team also includes members of the corporate board and the executive committee.

Corporate course-setting requires four mental steps:

* Set the strategic agenda.

* Explore the possible.

* Evaluate the probable.

* Envision the profitable.

The first step delineates the potential playing field. What is pertinent to the strategic plan? How far should the minds of the strategists roam? Should they be thinking within the box, i.e., the present strategic space, or out of the box, i.e., a new space? The first step also carries with it an element of evangelical fervor--it must inspire.

The second step involves panoramic environmental scanning. The purpose is to identify individual threats and opportunities within the strategic space chosen.

The third step evaluates these threats and opportunities in relation to the corporation's own competencies. The strategists narrow their interests to what the corporation is capable of pursuing.

The final step requires intuitive synthesis--a flash of insight, a moment of executive enlightenment. The strategy team has to suggest a profitable pathway into the future. It integrates the preceding two steps with the subjective preferences of the corporate leadership.

As can be seen, it is difficult to describe the process explicitly. Parts of it are internal mental activities and not visible to outside observers. Inputs are many, varied, changing, and interrelated. Strategists follow a variety of procedures, and use many information displays--there is no simple algorithm.

The Role of Technology

What is the role of technology in this strategic planning process? Where does it fit?

This depends on the scope of the strategic plan. Is it meek and constrained and merely concerned with functional enhancement? Does it go further? Does it extend into competitive strategy, i.e., beating the competition within an existing industry? Or does it go even further, engaging in aggressive exploration, possibly reformulating the mission and migrating into a new industry?

In this article we focus on the last case--bold and aggressive strategic planning. This includes navigating the turbulent and rapidly changing technological environment.

This is an uncomfortable thought for many companies. The technological universe is so vast, so diffuse and so pervasive, how can it be cast into a simple framework that can be used in an explicit planning process? Increasingly, companies are turning to their technology executives for guidance....