ASSIGNMENTS

BB0026 –Semester 5
(2 credits)
Set 1
Marks 30
Introduction to Technology Management

Q.1 Explain Life cycle of technology.

(5 Marks)

The life span of various technologies can be

conveniently identified as consisting of four distinct
stages. These stages are as follows:-
Innovation stage:-
It represents the birth of a new product, material or
process resulting from research and development
activities. In Research and development
laboratories, new ideas are generated by need pull
and knowledge push facts. Depending upon the
resource allocation and also the change element,
the time taken in the innovation stage as well as in
the subsequent stages varies widely.
Syndication stage:-
It represents the demonstration and

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commercialization of new technology with potential
for immediate utilization. Many innovations are
shelved in research and development laboratories.
Only very small percentage of these is
commercialized. Commercialization of research,
outcomes depends on the technical as well as non-
technical factors.

Diffusion stage:-
It represents market penetration of a new
technology through acceptance of the innovation by
potential users of the technology. But supply and
demand side factors jointly influence the rate of
diffusion
Substitution Stage:-
This last stage represents the decline in the use and
eventual extension of a technology due to
replacement by another technology. Many technical
and non- technical factors influence the rate of
substitution. The time taken un the substitution
stage depends on the market dynamics.

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 Life cycle of Technology
In the early days, the innovators and technology
enthusiasts drive the market; they demand
technology. In the later days, the pragmatists and
conservatives dominate; they want solutions and
convenience. Note that although the innovators and
early adopters drive the technology markets, they
are really only a small percentage of the market; the
big market is with the pragmatists and the
conservatives.

All technologies have a life cycle, and as they

progress from birth, through troubled adolescence
and on to maturity, their characteristics change.
During this life cycle, the customer segment varies;
starting with those technology enthusiasts who
nurture the fledging early products and help them
gain power and acceptability. In the early days of a
technology, the engineers rule: each successive new
product boasts of yet better technology: faster,

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more powerful, better this, better that. Technology
rules the day, guided by feature-driven marketing.
When technologies mature, the story changes
dramatically. Now the technology can be taken for
granted. It does no good to make watches even
more accurate than they are today: today's state is
"good enough." The vast majority of customers wait
for technologies to prove themselves, for the time
when they can get value for their money, value
without hassle. These are the late adopters who wait
until the technology is mature. Now the product has
to be driven by customer needs. Now it requires a
human-centered development cycle.
Everything changes when products mature. The
customers change, and they want different things
from the product. Convenience and user experience
dominate over technological superiority. The
company must change: it must learn to make
products for their customers, to let the technology
be subservient. This is a difficult transition for a
technology-driven industry to understand, a difficult
change to make. Yet this is where the personal
computer industry stands today. The customers
want change, yet the industry falters, either
unwilling or unable to alter their ways.
The high-technology industry is driven by engineers,
by technology itself. It has flourished through a
period of phenomenal growth, accompanied by high
profits. As a result, the industry has succumbed to a
technology fever, to the disease of futurities, to
pushing new technologies at the customer faster
than even the most compliant customer can absorb.
The normal consumers, who make up the bulk of the

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market, consist of people who just want to get on
with life, people who think technology should be
invisible, hidden behind the scenes, providing its
benefits without pain, anguish and stress. These
people are not understood by the wizards of high-
technology. These people are left out. I consider
myself one of these people
If the information technology is to serve the average
consumer, the technology companies need to
change their ways. They have to stop being so
driven by features and start examining what
consumers actually do. They have to be market
driven, task-driven, driven by the real activities of
those who use their devices. Alas, this requires a
dramatic change in the mindset of the technologists,
a change so drastic that many companies may not
be able to make the transition. The very skills that
made them so successful in the early stages of the
technology are just the opposite of what is needed
in the consumer phases.

5
Q.2 What are the classification of
technologies (5 Marks)

There are no agreed-on approaches for

classification. Technology can be classified as
follows:-
• State of the art Technology- These are equal
or surpass the competitors
• Proprietary technologies: These protected by
patents or secrecy agreements that provide
measurable competitive advantage
• Known technologies: These may be common
to many organizations but are used in unique
ways

• Core technologies: These are essential to

maintain a competitive position
• Leveraging technologies: these support
several products, product lines, or classes of

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 products.
• Supporting technologies: these support core
technologies
• Pacing technology:- whose rate development
controls the rate of product pr process
development
• Emerging technologies: these are currently
under considerations for future products or
processes
• Scouting technologies: formal tracking of
potential product and process technologies for
future study or application
• Idealized unknown basic technologies:
technology that, if available, would provide a
significant benefit in some aspect of life.

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THOMPSON'S TECHNOLOGY CLASSIFICATION
The model was devised in the 1960s by James D.
Thompson, and is called Thompson's Technology
Classification. 'Technology' is used in this model in a
way that is common in organization theory literature
- but is a bit different from the colloquial use of the
word. Robbins (1989, p. 468) defines technology as
'The information, equipment, techniques and
processes required to transform inputs into
outputs.' He explains the model as follows
Thompson sought to create classification scheme
that was general enough to deal with the range of
technologies found in complex organizations. He
proposed three types that are differentiated by the
tasks that an organizational unit performs.
Long-linked technology [A in the diagram]. If
tasks or operations are sequentially interdependent,
Thompson calls them long-linked. This technology is
characterized by a fixed sequence or repetitive

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steps ... That is, activity A must be performed before
activity B, activity B before activity C, and so forth.
Examples of long-linked technology include mass-
production assembly lines and most school
cafeterias...
Mediating technology [B in the diagram].
Thompson identified mediating technology as one
that links clients on both the input and output side
of the organization. Banks, telephone utilities, most
large retail stores, computer dating services,
employment and welfare agencies and post offices
are examples. As shown [in the diagram], mediators
perform an interchange function linking units that
are otherwise independent. The linking unit
responds with standardizing the organization’s
transactions and establishing conformity in clients'
behavior. Banks, for instance, bring together those
who want to save (depositors) and those who want
to borrow. They don't know each other, but the
bank's success depends on attracting both...
Intensive technology [C in the
diagram].Thompson's third categoryñintensive
technologyñrepresents a customised response to a
diverse set of contingencies. The exact response
depends on the nature of the problem and the
variety of problems, which cannot be predicted
accurately. This technology dominates in hospitals,
universities, research labs, or military combat
teams.
Robbins quotes Thompson in giving the following
example of intensive technology:
The intensive technology is most dramatically
illustrated by the general hospital. At any moment

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an emergency admission may require some
combination of dietary, x-ray, laboratory, and
housekeeping or hotel services, together with the
various medical specialties, pharmaceutical
services, occupational therapies, social work
services, and spiritual or religious services. Which of
these, and when, can be determined only from
evidence about the state of the patient.

Q.3 Within the context o f your text

book, is management a technology?
Explain with the substantial proof. (5
Marks)

Within this context, is management a technology?

The response can be a resounding “yes” or a
resounding “no”. The response depends on the
limits placed on the description of technology.

Every management action requires a process-or at

the least should follow a process. But substance,
action, and integrity must accompany that process.
It seems almost trite to say that all decisions should
follow some predetermined process regardless of
whether the decision involves a major financial

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investment or the introduction of some new human
resource program. Both involve allocation of
resources, so some process must guide a fiscally
responsible action. To that extent management as a
technology can be defined simply:

Management as a technology can be described as

the process of integrating the business unit
resources and infrastructure in the fulfillment of its
defined purposes, objectives, strategies and
operations.

This is a simple statement with significant

implications for management of technology. If the
broader descriptions in 1 and 2 (in the list at the end
of Sec. 1.2.) are accepted, then management
definitely is a technology. If the restrictive approach
of description 3 (technology as a body of scientific
and engineering knowledge) were used,
management would probably not be considered as a
technology.

It could be argued that descriptions 1 and 2 are so

broad that they encompass all of management and
further that considering management as a
technology is stretching the description of
technology. It is true that the broad perspective is
all encompassing, but then technology in one form
or another or to a greater or lesser extent drives
most organizations-especially those that are
concerned about the future. If it does not drive the
product base, it does drive the distribution process
from order entry to customer satisfaction.
Technology cannot be restricted to the
manufacturing industries. It encompasses not only

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the manufacturing sector but all industries-
agriculture, airlines, banks, communication,
entertainment, fast food, clothing, hospitals,
insurance, investment and so on-and determines
future viability of the business unit as well as the
industry.

There is no limit to the way in which organizations

can describe technology. The important point is that
organization defines what they mean by technology.
This is a holistic approach and differentiates MOT/TM
from the single issues approach-managing
engineering, managing research, and so on.

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Q.4 The human being used to be the
masters of technologies. Give the
comparative analysis on this statement.
(5 Marks)
Until recently, we used to be the masters of
technologies, we used to drive technology, but
today we have become technology’s servant, and
technology is driving us . We believe that we have
crossed a “technology threshold”, whereby our
response to technology has become one of catching
up. Many companies are unable to cope with the
dramatic changes taking place in the very nature of
technologies. This, in turn puts a company in a
reactive posture, rather than a proactive one.
Companies which are learning the art of managing
new technologies, have a better chance at being a
technology master instead of a technology servant.
The chaos that companies face today in responding
to “rapid technologies” can be harnessed as a
positive strategy to create opportunities for new
products and/or service

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It will not be too long before we see integrated
communication systems, combining technologies
related to television sets, computers, VCRs,
telephones, and fax machines. Cable companies will
soon be in the computer business; and computer
companies, in telecommunication business. It is
impossible to even conceive the extent of the
technological integration revolution we will be facing
even before we enter the 21st century. Our
wristwatches might become microcomputer devices,
working as remote-control units and information
retrieval systems. We might see a series of
technology thresholds bombarding us in the years to
come, and every time we cross one of them,
companies have an opportunity to convert
technological chaos into economic opportunities.
Q.5 What are the impact of
technological change on firms
competencies.
(5 Marks)
Technology:-
According to Porter, "technology is very under
defined term and is about discussion of

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competition."

According to Betz," Technology develops

business by providing technical knowledge for
the goods and services that a firm produces. "

Although all firms use technologies in products

production and services, not a gain a positive
competitive advantage from technology. There are
many factors in competition, and technology is only
one factor. Yet some firms effectively use
technology as a competitive advantage, and others
do not. One important factor in the successful use of
technology has been the role of general
management technology strategy. In particular, it
has been management’s ability to foster corporate
core technical competencies.

An example of this is Joseph Morone’s study of

companies that have turned technology leadership
into long-term competitive advantage for business
success. The similarities among the cases of success
(in using technology for a competitive advantage)
begin with the way general management defines the

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domain in which their businesses compete. In every
case, a strategic focus has been consistently
articulated and applied for decades.

Impact of Technological Change on Firm

Competencies
Technological change can alter the basic capabilities
of a firm in either production or marketing, or both.
Technological change can alter corporate operations
to preserve or to destroy existing competencies in
production or marketing.
Abernathy and Clark classified innovations by their
impact on such existing competencies.
1. Regular innovations-preserve production
competencies and market competencies
2. Niche-certain innovations-preserve production
competencies but disrupt market competencies.
3. Revolutionary innovations-obsolete (phase out)
production competencies but
preserve market competencies.
4. Architectural innovations-obsolete production
competencies and disrupt market competencies.

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For normal strategic process at the executive level,
a firm can deal with the regular and niche-creation
innovations since the technical skill base of the
organization is not affected by either type of
innovation. However, the event of either a
revolutionary or an architectural innovation requires
a strategic business reorientation, because these
discontinuities obsolete the current technical skills in
firm, there by impeding the firm’s future ability to
produce and to serve market.

The relationships between the nature of innovation

and markets are:
Incremental technological change allows a fir to
grow and hold markets in an industrial structure.
Discontinuous technological change allows firm to
alter an existing industrial structure and to compete
with the competitors

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Q.6 How do you assess technology
management? (5 Marks)

Technology Assessment (TA) addresses the

question, Will the technology work and is it likely to
make money? This Technology Assessment is an
independent and interdisciplinary analysis that
comprehensively and systematically evaluates the
potential positive and negative impacts of
introducing and applying technology.
Although the Technology Assessment may build on
the results of a Technology Survey (TS), a TS is
certainly not a necessary precursor to this higher
level of analysis.
A Technology Assessment typically includes:

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• A detailed review and analysis of the technology
development proposal documentation and
literature
• Verification of the representations made by the
proponent and a reviewer's conference
• A review of the technology plan; an evaluation
of the depth of proponent's in-house expertise
• A search and analysis of state of the art in the
proponent's area of technology
• A search and analysis of related and competitive
technologies
• A detailed analysis of the technology and
development plans, schedules, and budget
• A review of the enterprise’s management
capabilities and ability to respond to the
opportunity; structured interviews with key
personnel
• Formulation of conclusions and
recommendations, along with documentation of
full details of methodology, sources, and
references

Sampling of Recent Technology Assessment

Engagements

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Technology Assessments are based on almost 10
years in this business domain, and we capture this
experience in mature and cost – effective processes
for technology assessment and Technology Due
Diligence.

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 ASSIGNMENTS
BB0026 - Semester 5
(2 credits)
Set 2
Marks 30
Introduction to Technology Management

Q.1: What is technology management?

And who is technology manager?

Technology Management:

Technology management is about getting

people and technologies working together to do
what you want. Technology management is a
collection of systematic methods for managing the
process of applying knowledge to extend the range
of human activity and produce defined products
(goods or services). It is not about managing only
technical specialists in technology-based
businesses, but includes that conventional, but very
limited definition in a holistic and integrative
approach. Effective technology management
synthesizes the best ideas from all sides: academic,
practitioner, generalist, or technologist.

The Technology Manager:

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 Managing technology is about
systematically applying know-how both technical
and managerial- to meet needs by getting people to
produce particular goods and services and thereby
create competitive advantages for the firm. Thus, a
technology manager must have three critical and
interlocking skill sets.

First, the manager must be a change manager, in

both the usual sense of possessing skills for
implementing effective organizational changes and
also in a technology change sense. Second, as with
any good change manager, the technological
change manager must have a deep and practical
understanding of the institutional structures being
affected by the change and those affecting the
change and must be familiar with the technologies
involved, but also comprehend the institutional basis
in which these technologies exist or will operate.
Third, the technological change manager must
understand the fundamentals of relevant technology
change mechanisms and trajectories and effectively
operate within relevant technological, political,
economic, and management systems.

Thus, the profile of a good technology manager

should be that of a person who combines solid
competence in

1. General management

2. Change management

3. Overall technological literacy

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Q2. What are the factors affecting
technology user and its general meaning.
Factors affecting General Meaning
Technology user

Economic Social Economic viability in the short

term or long term. Factors
dictated by the social needs of
people affected by the
technology

Political Factors imposed and controlled

by the policies and directives of
political system in which the
technology user functions

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Ecological Ecology-sustaining facets that
emphasize balance between
natural and synthetic or artificial
systems

Nature-imposed Factors strictly imposed and

controlled by the natural systems
of the universe in a predictable
or unpredictable manner.

Technical Functionality at expected levels

of performance, as defined by
the user

Educational Level of education and training

Proficiency in skills acquired

Psychological Emotional and mental states

Behavioural characteristics

Perceptual conditions

Personal health Factors directly affecting the

health, safety, and general well
being of individuals who will be
affected by the technology

Q.3: What are the strategic issues in

technology management?
Strategic Issues:

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 The strategic issues of technology management
require greater attention by managers involved in
developing business unit strategy. Consider the
following strategic issues.

· Understanding the scope of managing technology

· Managing technology – different levels

· Technology managers – who manages technology

· Adding value with technology

· Developing a technology policy

· Bridging the gap between technology policy and

results

· Precursors to technology strategy

· Including technology in business strategy

· Rationalizing strategy and operations

· Managing the decision-making processes

· Systems thinking – the imperative

· Negative impact of single issue management

· The role of technology achieving competitive

advantage

· Managing technology in a dynamic environment

During the strategic-planning craze, technology was

essentially ignored. Elaborate strategic plans were
developed without any strategy. Volumes were

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prepared but were seldom reviewed after approval.
Strategic planning processes yielded volumes of
data instead of information, an interjection of
operational detail but insufficient as an operational
plan and prepared on a basis of at least
questionable, if not false, assumptions. Those
assumptions included the assumptions of a static
rather than a dynamic environment, were based on
a questionable premise of an annual event, dealt
with data rather then information, focused on
analysis without comparable emphasis on synthesis
failed to translate the strategy in meaningful terms
throughout the organization, and ignored technology
that affects over 75% of the sales value of
production.

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 Q.4: How do you determine technology
management as an emerging discipline?
Technology management is rapidly emerging as a
discipline combining the elements of business
management and engineering. In support of the
meaning of technology management one description
view this discipline as “The research and education
on how to:

· Manage the technology component of individual

product life cycles

· Capitalize on process technology to gain a

competitive advantage, and

· Relate and integrate product and process

technologies”

Technology management is applicable to every

phase of technology-oriented businesses (in either
application or development) such as marketing
(services) and planning activities as well as R&D,
product development, and manufacturing. Major
elements referred by the National Research Council
Task Force Report on Management of Technology
include the following area of study.

· Research management

· Product planning and development

· Project management
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· Integrated manufacturing processes

· Production control

· Quality assurance

· Information systems design and use

· Software development

· Product venturing

· Corporate technology

· Integration of technical [disciplines] with business

and financial decision making.

“Formal knowledge of technology management is

valuable, not only for managers of R&D, but also for
manufacturing, marketing, financial, and general
corporate management.” Therefore, it is important
to view the management of technology not only
across all disciplines and industries but also in a
global environment in a rapidly shrinking society.
Both manufacturing and services industries are in
need of this knowledge today, although the latter is
just beginning to be cited with frequency.

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Q.5: What are the basic tenets for MOT.
Explain in brief.
A tenet is a principle based on observation,
intuition, experience, and in some cases, empirical
analysis. Ten tenets are proposed next, as guiding
principles for an enterprise to operate within a TC
framework. They recognize that short-term
treatments of any issue in general, and technology
management in particular. Some of the tenets are
as follows:

Value diversification is a poor substitute for

MOT:

Value diversification refers to the improvement of

stockholders investments in a company through
quick-fix solutions on paper, such as mergers,
acquisitions, and other stock-exchanging strategies.
Unfortunately, this traditional approach to value
enhancement results in mostly short-term gains.

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Manufacturability must keep pace with
inventiveness and marketability:

In industries in general, and manufacturing

companies in particular, people in manufacturing
functions often find themselves coping with
increasingly aggressive marketing strategies and
design strategies.

Quality and productivity are inseparable

concepts in managing technology:

The non-traditional total productivity management

approach to competitiveness forcefully argues that
quality, price and time are the three competitive
dimensions which must be simultaneously created
and monitored for companies to be long-lasting.
Quality and total productivity are like two sides of
the same coin or two rails of the same track.
Companies that have excellent quality and
competitive prices still cannot do well unless they
can bring products of highest value to the
marketplace in the least time possible.

It is a management’s responsibility to bring

about technological change and job security
for long-term competitiveness:

Employees must feel that they have job security,

particularly when they are responsible for
suggesting and implementing new technologies.
They feel betrayed after they spend hours of hard
work designing a technologically advance
environment for greater competitiveness, only to
find themselves victims of their own making. A
smart approach to managing technology is to look at

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the competitiveness challenge as a holistic one. The
Japanese have been excellent in taking such a
systematic view while managing all their basic
technologies.

Technology must be the “servant” not the

“master”, the master is still the human being:

Until recently, we used to be the masters of

technology, we used to drive technology, but today
we have become technology’s servant, and
technology is driving us. We believe that we have
crossed a “technology threshold”, whereby our
response to technology has become one of the
catching up.

The consequences of technology selection can

be more serious than expected because of
systemic effects:

This principle has major impact on the economic

viability of the twenty-first-century organization,
because we will be selecting multiple technologies
with a rapidity that is hard to comprehend at this
time. Product technologies will become obsolete in
such short periods of time that they will resemble
the toy industry, where the average shelf life of a
product may be only one season, or sometimes only
a month.

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Q.6: How do you link technology to
competitive advantage?
Technology is related to three competitive
advantages of low price, higher quality, and sooner
availability.

Technology and cost-low price:

Customers don’t normally care about what a

supplier’s costs are; they only care about and often
only see the price that is charged. It is important to
note, therefore, that there are other ways to achieve
lower prices than lowering costs. Subsidies-either
internal to the firm or provided by governments-can
be used to lower prices, and in international
competition, changes in exchange rates can lower or
raise prices overnight without any change in the
firm’s costs.

Product costs are emphasized, but as indicated

earlier, low costs must be pursued in each and every
activity of the low-costs leadership firm. Wringing
the last penny of cost out of production activities
may be more than counterbalanced by “far” in
distribution (outbound logistics) activities, for
example.

Production costs and advanced manufacturing

management technology:

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 When we look at advanced manufacturing
management technologies (AMMT’s) advanced ways
to manage manufacturing operations, however, we
see a more straightforward linkage with various
production costs. There are a number of so-called
Japanese manufacturing management practices that
can affect production costs.

Technology and high quality:

A customer who expresses a preference for one

particular product or service over a competing
alternative because of its higher quality might be
conveying one of two different meanings:

Ø The reliability of the product or service is higher-a

production-process-related phenomenon.

Ø The performance of the product or services is

higher- a design related phenomenon.

Reliability: Building it in

There are two basic ways to improve reliability: to

build it in or inspect it in. Building it in is usually the
preferred way to improve reliability because; this
involves improvement of the production process
itself and therefore has the added competitive effect
of lowering manufacturing process costs at the same
time.

Reliability: Inspecting it in

Inspecting quality into the process without building

it in results in higher reliability as perceived by the
customer because few or no defects get past the
inspection system, but there are no reductions in

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production process costs because the process itself
remains unchanged-warranty, services, loss of
customer goodwill, and liability costs of poor quality
are merely shifted to scrap and rework.

Performance: Designing it in

Improving product performance is largely a matter

of product design and the choices that are made in
the product design activity.

Technology and Sooner Availability:

The third and final competitive advantage to be

examined in the context of advanced manufacturing
hardware and management technologies is that of
availability.

New products:

Two situations from which to examine the

availability advantage: that of new products and
that of expanded or extended product lines. Perhaps
the ultimate availability advantage is to come to
market first with a new product that is not available
from any competitor. For that period of time when
no competing alternative is available, a firm can
charge what the market will bear, can create first-
mover advantages which will endure even after a
competing alternative is available, can obsolete its
current new product with an even better or cheaper
one to stay ahead of the competition, and so forth.

Licensing or acquisition:

There are a couple different ways to obtain new

products. One way is to licence or acquire them as

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products, or to license or acquire underlying
technologies which feed into the second way-the
firm’s internal new-product development process
which normally is managed by the R&D function.

Expanded or extended product lines

The second situation in which the availability

advantage can apply is with expanded or extended
product lines, and there are three cases of how this
can happen.

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