New approaches for the strategic management of technology

Abstract

Technology is an increasingly important element in the business of many large corporations; its impact, however, is complex and often difficult to integrate into the strategic management process. This difficulty arises in part because technical advances—in addition to providing new ways to implement existing business strategy—often bring about the need to rethink that strategy. Not only does this imply that business management has to accept a wide role for the technologist in the formulation of strategy, but also that technical management must broaden its approach beyond the traditional focus on the direction of projects, and begin to address the strategic management of technology. New conceptual approaches may be needed to accomplish this, and this paper discusses the implementation of one such approach for the planning of technology in a major corporation, and its extension to the determination of strategy for the corporate laboratory.