Principles of Technology

Management – (FUS-CC-623)

[Link](Technology Management)-II Sem

Department of Futures Studies
University of Kerala
 Module II - Syllabus
• Approaches to Technology Management
• Basic Definitions
• Systems Approach
• The Technology Cycle
• The Technology Flow Process
• Basic Tenets for the Management of
Technology
Reference Book
• “A Handbook of Technology Management”,
Gerard H. Gus Gaynor , MC- Graw Hill , 1996.
Objective
• Our objective here is to prescribe a technology
management approach that enables companies to
enhance their competitiveness,
• It is sufficient to say that we need some new, but
relevant thinking, to make our enterprises more
competitive.
• We now present one such approach in the context of
managing technology.
Basic Definitions
• We will use the terms Technology management and
management of technology (MOT) interchangeably here.
• “Technology” is the means by which a tangible or intangible
product (or service) is produced (or offered) in the "market.“
• Thus, the use of technology can be seen even as far back as the
times of primitive humans,
• Whose technologies included : Stones to create fires,
• Bows, and Arrows to kill animals for food,
• Canoes carved out of tree trunks to cross lakes, etc.
• Although these technologies have now been cast aside infavor
of more developed tools, the purpose for which they were
used has not changed.
• Simply the means by which results are achieved.
Contd...
• Because of the incredible pace at which technologies are being introduced
into the market nowadays, the technologies we designate as "high-tech"
today might be primitive and antiquated from the standpoint of people just
a few years or decades from now.
• Consider the fairly recently introduced 486 microprocessor personal
computer technology and today's Pentium microchip.
• The latter is more high-tech in our perception although the former has been
in the open market for only about 7 years.
• The term market indicates that there must be a demand or need.
• The terms tangible and intangible in this definition are purely relative in
nature.
• The distinction between these terms takes on relevant meaning in
appropriate context.
Contd...
• A few years ago, a famous university on the U.S. West Coast used goats to
graze the grass on its campus, as a cost-effective "technological substitute“ for
more expensive lawnmowers.
• Certainly, in this context, there was a need to mow the lawns, and goats were
an alternative technology, producing a tangible product-a mowed lawn!
• The use of animals in today's highly technical, computerized world stands out
as an aberrant and somewhat awkward occurrence.
• Yet, it should also kindle us into thinking, "Why limit technology to just
inanimate objects?"
• For centuries , we have used animals to accomplish tasks that our size made us
incapable of doing.
• Even today, in some Far Eastern countries, elephants are used to move huge
logs of lumber, as substitutes for forklift trucks.
• Dolphins were even used by the U.S. Navy Some years ago to detect and
uncover potentially dangerous mines in the Persian Gulf.
• Aren't dolphins an example of a cost-effective substitute for sophisticated mine
detecting devices?
Contd...
• As these examples show, technology comes in more forms
than just microchips and hardware.
• With this argument in mind, we can be led into a broader
thinking on the subject of technology management.
• In order to improve our competitive power, we need to better
understand the complexity of managing work, technology ,
resources, and human relations.
• Two other terms, Innovation and Invention, must be clarified
for the purpose of our discussion here.
• Although these two terms are normally used interchangeably ,
there is really a distinct difference in the two meanings.
Contd...
• Schmookler (1966) pointed out that,
• Every invention is (a) a new combination of (b) pre-existing knowledge
which (c) satisfies some want.
• When an enterprise produces a good or service or uses a method or input
that is new to it, it makes a technical change.
• The first enterprise to make a given technical change is presumably an
imitator and its action imitation.
• Innovation is seen by Schonberger and Knod (1991) as
• Technological breakthroughs-new products, services, and techniques-when
they occur, but is more often the result of modest, incremental,
improvements to existing products, services , and operations.
• According to Michiyuki Uenohara, research director at NEC Corporation,
innovation is "the result of tiny improvements in a thousand places“.
• John [Link], vice president for research at Ford Motor Company,
expounds on the point saying, "The cumulation of a large number of small
improvements is the surest path , in most industries, to increasing your
competitive advantage" .
Systems Approach to MOT
• Over the years, many concepts have been developed in managing
technology.
• However, Malaska's work (1987) comes close to a systems view,
through a conscious development of technology, by a principle he
proposed:
• The use of natural forces, matter and space on terms set by man and
directed by him , must be adapted to the ecological entity of which it
is a part, and
• must be carried out according to the principles which ecological
development has shown to be correct.
• The recycling of matter and the many-stage use of energy must be
established into the technical way of life and requisite exchange of
entropy with the ultimate environment must be safeguarded.
Contd...
• A systems view, idealistic as it may be, is a necessity today,
particularly in view of the fact that today's businesses are forced to
operate in an international arena in order to preserve their market
shares and economic stability.
• The world market is not only going to be a forum for the flow of
goods such as cars, computer chips, and corporate bonds, but also,
as Johnson (1991) sees it, a world market for labour.
• In fact, those economies that do not "play" their business game in
the international arena generally limit their domestic growth as well.
• The total systems approach challenges enterprises to be aware of all
the available resources (including animals!) and to make the most of
those available, while designing technological systems.