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Article Excerpt
Technology management in its strategic context is the theoretical focus of this study. Technology management can be defined as "an interdisciplinary field that integrates natural science, engineering, and management knowledge and practices" (1). A classic definition from the National Research Council is: "An interdisciplinary field concerned with the planning, development and implementation of technological capabilities to shape and accomplish the operational and strategic objectives of an organization" (2).
There are variations in the strategies driving R&D and technology development, ranging from a separate and pervasive master-plan strategy to a jungle of different strategies and plans. Kaplan and Norton declare: "In our practice, however, we observed that no two organizations thought about strategy in the same way" (3). Consider the classic definition of strategy by Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military philosopher: "strategy determines the place where, the time when, and the fighting forces with which the battle is to be fought" (4). Put simply, strategy is about organizing one's forces into a winning position. In business, these fighting forces can be thought of as products, technologies, processes, organizational capabilities, and so on.
R&D strategy is one commonly known and often cited strategy. It implies that R&D is being driven by one master-plan strategy, separate for R&D activities, that is linked with business strategy, e.g., product innovation and technology strategy (5). This approach gives a functional impression, meaning that R&D has a strategy of its own as a function. This way it is, of course, easier to plan and implement a strategy for R&D, but it does not provide clear support for making and adopting a cross-functional strategy.
When strategies are not common across functional boundaries, there is a danger that the strategies are also not synchronized between functions, due to a lack of communication. There could be non-mutual objectives and misaligned directions requiring subsequent synchronization and coordination efforts that can prove quite traumatic.
Our conclusion is that a single R&D strategy is not sufficient; in fact, there are three crucial and related strategies essential for driving R&D and technology development:
* General business-competitive strategy.
* Product-and-platform strategy.
* Integrated technology-and-competence strategy.
Each of these strategies has a clear role and content, but they are still interlinked by strong relationships. None of these strategies is a separate functional strategy, driving only activities inside R&D. In fact, R&D cannot have a strategy of its own that is independent from the rest of the organization. On the contrary, they are common company-level strategies that are shared across the boundaries of different functions. This means that no organizational function can independently create and plan any of these strategies.
Competitive Strategy--Why?
Competitive (business) strategy determines the fundamental foundation and focus for R&D and technology development. It is also a starting point for the technology-and-competence strategy, as well as forming a basis for the product-and-platform strategy. Its role lies in strategic positioning by defining the key approaches for competing in relation to a given company's external business environment (e.g., differentiation or cost leadership, and strategy with a global-, local- or segment-specific focus) (6, 7).
The crucial elements of competitive strategy are fundamental strategic challenges and critical success factors based on external and internal appraisal (e.g., analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats-SWOT).
Strategic challenge always refers to an active measure, defining strategic action points and their timing. It is essential for addressing opportunities and threats.
Critical success factors illustrate the long-term "must" issues, where the company cannot fail and must be better than its competitors. In general, a competitive strategy addresses such fundamental business questions as (8):
* What business are we in and do we want to be in?
* Where is our competitive advantage and how can we improve our competitive position?
* What kind of organization do we want...
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