MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Question 1. Define the term technology. Write a short note on evolution and growth of technology. Technology is derived from the Greek word technologia in which techne means craft and logia means saying. On the whole, technology means having the knowledge of making something. The word technology refers to the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a pre existing solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, including machinery, modifications, arrangements and procedures. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology. Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture. Additionally, technology is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyber culture has, at its basis, the development of the Internet and the computer.

Evolution and Growth of Technology:The history of technology dates back to the time when humans were able to prepare some simple tools with easily available natural resources. History indicates that the advancement in technology had a major leap with the invention of the wheel. From the invention of the wheel, much usage of the technology has started. The technology in all the fields has grown to a larger extent and now we can see the technology involved in almost all the things we use in our daily life. We know that there are some advanced technologies at present which include the printing press, telephone and Internet which have helped us to communicate all over the globe. Till now we have mainly concentrated on technology management in general.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Question 2. Citing an example, state and explain the reasons that compel a company to go for the new technology. Reasons Compelling a Company for Obtaining a New Technology The use of new technologies plays an important role in the industry. Whenever a company wants to adapt the new technologies, it has to make decisions related to the acquisition of the technology. The company has to see the experience of its R&D for the actual need of acquiring the knowledge. The acquisition of technology becomes critical when the market lead time and competition is more. The following explains the reasons that compel the company for technology acquisition.

Technology acquisition helps to bridge the gap technology, in the developing countries like India. The fastest way of bridging the technology gap is through collaborations. Acquiring the technology from outside company is more costly than acquiring technology from the R&D of the same company. It will be better, if we develop the new technologies from the in-house R&D. The dependence of the company on the collaboration is bad and we should have the self-reliance in the company every time.

Technology acquisition depends on the policy environment. Sometimes the economic policies do not allow the foreign countries to sell their goods and services in the domestic market. In such times, the foreign companies can get the financial returns only through the collaboration and selling the raw materials and components.

Technology acquisition is the process by which a company acquires the rights to use and exploit a technology for the purpose of improving or renewing processes, products or services. It does not include retailed or mass market off the shelf software which is generally governed by nonnegotiable "shrink wrapped" licenses.

Technology acquisition is mainly designed for business-to-business technology acquisition. In few cases, technology comes from a university or research organization. The origin of the technology can take place in any area but it has to be tested, proven and ready to use.

Technology acquisition helps for enhancing the productivity of an organization. The company planning for technology acquisition has to make the agreement between the two companies and even the details of the costs are also present as part of the application.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Question 3. Describe some characteristics of technology forecasting. Explain in brief about the six phases in technology forecasting process.
Characteristics of technology forecasting A technological forecast relates to certain characteristics such as levels of technical performance (e.g., technical specifications including energy efficiency, emission levels, speed, power, safety, temperature, so on), rate of technological advances (introduction of paperless office, picture phone, new materials, costs, so on). A technological forecast also relates to useful machines, procedures, or techniques. In particular, this is intended to exclude the items intended for pleasure or amusement from the domain of technological forecasting, since they depend more on personal tastes rather than on technological capability. A technology forecast can be for short-term, medium-term, and long-term.

The Forecasting Process:Twiss has suggested some general elements for the technology forecast process. The forecasting process involves three elements that are shown in the figure:-

We can study technology forecasting in six phases as shown in the figure below:-

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Identification of needs: This is the first phase in technology forecasting process. After identifying the expected outputs and the objectives of the future, a thorough analysis is done in order to make sure the relevance of technology forecasting. This phase ends with a decision of technology forecast. Prepare project: This is the second phase in technology forecasting process. In this phase, the forecasting activities that are planned and resources are allocated. The roles of each human resource are carefully prepared and explained. There are three human resources, clients, core tem and external participants. The client includes both customer and user of technology forecast. The core team performs the activities like defining references, writing documents, creating the structure of the forecast and filling it. The core team co-ordinates the efforts of experts from team, external participants and clients which help to develop an entire forecast. The external participants help in providing data, information and experience. The major sources of information and data are identified in this phase. Define objectives: This is the third phase in technology forecasting. This phase once again goes through the objectives that are defined in the first and second phases. This phase decides the dimensions of the forecast. This includes both the normative and exploratory forecast. We use normative forecast, when the desirable future is seen and the normative forecast focus on finding the path, from the present to the desirable state. Perform analysis and develop Technology Forecast (TF): This is the fourth phase in the technology forecasting process. This is the central part of the present research. In this phase, we start with defining the boundaries of the technological system that has to be forecasted. This, in turn, involves definition of other four steps that are clearly shown in the diagram. The four steps in defining the boundaries include defining of the key functions and futures, defining system in relation with the laws of system incompleteness and energy conductivity, defining the system in terms of technological, social and environmental contexts and lastly the analysis of the drivers and barriers for the development of the system. After completing the definition of the boundaries, we get a shape of problem and also the contradiction network. We have to capitalize this set of problems. The first step in this, is reformulating the technological barriers into the contradictions. The next step is, defining critical-to-X features, and third step involves the revising and reformulating the collected contradictions to match with the critical to X features. The last step in this involves mapping of obtained contradictions as a network. The network consists of critical-to-X features, components of system and opposite values of features. The next step in the analysis and develop TF is the 'analysis of limitation of resources'. This helps to find the resources that are less and causes problems on the map. R&D helps to get the raw materials and solve the problem. This also helps in determining the time delays of the activities. The next step in the analysis and develop TF involves; build the time diagram'. This uses the results that we get after the problem mapping. The different order of critical to X features is developed by considering the different contexts.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Validate Results: The fifth phase in the technology forecasting process is to validate results. This includes the customer satisfaction with the results of TF. There are different processes that are associated with the evaluation of results of the forecast. R&D uses the traditional method of evaluating the results of forecast. We can do peer review with the external experts and our colleagues in between working hours of the forecast to make the evaluation easy. Application of TF: This depends mainly on the needs and the formulated objectives. We have seen the developing of TRF using the contradiction networking. This helps mainly in the projects.

Question 4. Write a short note on technology strategy. Explain in brief about the innovation management. We know that a strategy is a long term view that describes a high level framework. This high level framework describes where the organization needs to be in the future years. We can define technology strategy as a planning document that explains how technology should be utilized as part of an organizations overall business strategy. The document is usually created by an organizations technology manager and should be designed to support the organizations overall business plan. Most of the organizations use technologies in product and services generation, but all the organizations will not gain the positive competitive advantage from the technologies. There are many factors in competition, and technology is only one factor among them. Yet, some firms effectively use technology as a competitive advantage, and others do not. One important factor in the successful use of technology is the role of general management in technology strategy. In particular, it has been management's ability to foster corporate core technical competencies. The central idea here is that a business can be developed around a long-term, consistent focus on a core technological competency. What it means, is to have a core corporate technical competency, to lead in both innovating new-technology products and improving manufacturing quality and lowering cost of these products. With this, not only products can be improved, but also manufacturing process can be improved in future generations of technology. The role of management in building competitive advantage for an organization depends on the technology strategy. It is better to understand the intended strategy of general management. We can see that there are three aspects of relationship between the management and technology strategy. These are: The view of management of the impact of general management on the business and business strategy. The management checks whether there is any chance of discerning the technology strategy. The management checks whether there is any chance of discerning particular orientation towards new markets, developing superior products and pursuing learning curve and cost leadership. The managers play an important role in the decision making process of the technology. The decision making process involves many problems in sustaining and building competitive advantage. In the case of competitive markets, technology intensity introduces the layer of complexity.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Innovation Management:We can define innovation management as the systematic processes that help the organizations in developing new and improved products, services and business processes. This involves the use of creative ideas of an organizations employees that brings new innovations to the market place, quickly and efficiently. In business, innovation should not be only limited to the big ground breaking ideas, creative workshops and product based companies. Innovation is often small, incremental changes to products, services and processes. The innovation involves all the managers from different departments. This needs to be planned and managed as a core business covering all parts of a business. This needs to be integrated at the strategic and operational levels. The activities of the innovation need to be driven by the strategy and current business imperatives. The successful innovation culture consists of all the aspects of a business, and these aspects have to be managed effectively and efficiently like any other core business. Innovation can be built into business, at three levels. The three levels are the annual business planning process, quarterly innovation and day-to-day activities. Innovation is managed through some sort of platform or application. There are two types of innovation tools that are, an electronic suggestion scheme, and a management system controlling the innovation process. The management of the innovation system need to be given to the senior management to control the overall system of innovation. The best practices and tools are applied consistently and appropriately across the organization. Any platform should encourage for the learning activity as a core feature. Installing the innovation culture in any of the company has leaders and teams with ability and commitment. In order to create culture of continuous innovation, the organization requires leadership and commitment from the senior management team. The management team also see that some staff members in the organization are rewarded for the innovative ideas they put in. The senior management need to encourage the innovative ideas from the staff.

Question 5. What is the importance of technology diffusion? What are the benefits of technology absorption? In general, we know that diffusion is the process of spreading. The process of adopting the new technology by the customers who came to know about the technology from other customers is called as the technology diffusion. Diffusion involves special types of communication methods or system to help diffuse changes in practice, as well as changes in knowledge or attitudes. Thus, we can say that diffusion is the process of closing the gap between what people do not know and what they can effectively put to use. Importance of technology diffusion:Technology diffusion plays a major role in most of the countries today. The barriers to technology diffusion help us to determine the magnitude of technology diffusion. These barriers determine the volumes of diffusion. Diffusion enlarges the set of available technologies and increases the productivity of the country. In case of diffusion, productivity is determined by the domestic technology in the production country and the diffusion technology from other countries. The technology diffusion plays more important role in the sector of goods that are not tradable, than the sector with the tradable goods.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

The free technology diffusion generates more gains compared to that of the free merchandise trade. We can increase the merchandise trade by removing the diffusion barriers since the countries achieve higher productivity by taking the technology from the diffusion process. A well-managed technology diffusion system enables an organization to plan its technology development projects in a more meaningful manner as well as transfer the technologies more successfully. Such an approach results in better returns for the investments made in R&D and technology development systems.

Benefits of technology absorption:After the role of technology absorption, we will now study about the benefits that we get from technology absorption exercises, as evidenced by Government and industry experiences so far. These benefits are: Repeated collaborations for the same product/process are avoided. Acquisition of further technologies becomes selective. Ability is developed to unpackage the technology. Savings can be affected in foreign exchange due to indigenization /use of indigenous alternatives. Effective utilization is made of available indigenous research expertise and facilities to achieve the desired results. Know-why and technology up gradation capabilities are built-up. Exports are increased. Technically competent groups of scientists and engineers trained in technology absorption get matured and strengthened. The base for technological self-reliance is enhanced.

We gain the benefits of technology diffusion, ranging from R&D services to the larger sales. Technology diffusion helps in sustaining the growth of the company through technical strength. Many developing countries, including India, have liberalized their industrial policies in the recent past. In the wake of the liberalized nature of New Industrial Policy and other policy measures in Trade and Finance, it has become imperative for industry to accelerate its R&D efforts to meet the emerging competitive environment.

Question 6. Explain the implementation of new technology. Briefly describe the automation decisions. Implementation of New Technology We know that planning is the key to success of a project. In the same manner, a sound planning is essential for the success of any technologys implementation. The failures that are likely to arise during the implementation process may be due to the poor planning or inadequate resources. Valuing the conflicts will facilitate the organization to keep away from these problems, and for the management, to anticipate the likely trouble spots and ease it accordingly. You must keep in mind some vital preliminary considerations. These considerations are:

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

Initial considerations: The management of the business needs to understand that the new system alone cannot find solutions to all the problems experience by the organization. The whole implementation process involves the complete business process and/or academic practice, consumer services, communication with suppliers and a relationship among all other engrossed stakeholders. There are a number of less-substantial activities, which are critical and people those are involved must: Have an understanding of the organization predominantly, in terms of its traditions and principles are essential. The underlying principle of any new system implementation should be able to provide all the better services to all concerned through it. This information has to be conversed to all concerned parties. A complete review of every business processes and, where required, academic practice, and developing and introducing new policies before tuning the system to meet the decided requirements should be undertaken. The complete approval of the difficulty and flexibility of the system should be determined. The inbuilt dangers of customization of any software should be understood. A thorough system test procedures should be conducted, while accepting the likely need for software malfunction and improvements. The training and development to be conducted for the internal staff should be planned in advance. The users must be trained, to use the system. The users must be trained, to identify faults and correct freely. The essential nature of system documents has to be accepted and retain accordingly. Planning and implementation: A thorough plan with efficient management is necessary for success, and to work against the fear of high costs, extended time, losing key persons and common disappointment with the result. Go-Live Considerations: Finally, it is essential that the go live day causes as tiny disturbance to the daily business, since it is practically possible. The various issues arising at this point of time will negatively affect the organisations status, sometimes irreversibly, with all stakeholders. Automation decisions In general, we can say that automation decisions are the decisions that are related to automation. The automation decision is considered most suitable for coherent, evidently defined decision situations. The automation decisions act like legal support systems that instantaneously solve and offer solutions to the recurring organisation problems. They are directly related to business informatics and business analytics. The automated decisions are basically dependent on business rules. These rules can be shaped or activated by business analytics. One of the components of automation decision support is rules-engine. For the purpose of operational decision making, a rules-engine is used. The engine employs actionable analytics and business rules to make and deliver adapted alert. In addition, it relates the business intelligence to business users or to create and deliver action messages for processing by operational applications. To handle a particular business situation, it produces alerts and messages which might contain the announcement, warnings and suggested solution to solve a problem.

MBA Semester 4

MI0040 Technology Management

Devesh Singh Katiyar Roll No. 521157856

A rule engine can also be invoked by a user in real time to assist in business decisions, whether to fund a loan to the client or in providing credit cards or to calculate the risk occurred in a particular business transaction. The current automation design decision systems are well suited for the decisions that have to be made often and rapidly, by the use of information that is available electronically. The chief consideration is that the knowledge and decision criteria used in these systems have to be highly structured. If specialists are capable of readily codifying the decision rules, and if premium data are accessible, the conditions are favourable for automating the decision. The rule engines are implanted in a number of software products, including web application servers, and business intelligence tools, where they are sometimes called intelligent agents. The sophisticated stand alone rule engines are building up and advertised by the vendors. To fully exploit the advantage of the influence of a decision making system, the analytics, suggestions and actions has to be linked and integrated with the overall business process. It can be achieved by means of business process automation (BPA).