Forecasting and Management of Technology, Second Edition

11.3 Strategic Planning for Technology Implementation

The technology delivery system (TDS) provides a framework for the long-term views of strategy in general or for specific strategies, like that for intellectual property. Strategies must be implemented, and planning shows how resources can be applied over time to achieve them. Planning can range from brief entrepreneurial business plans intended to attract investors to much more elaborate plans for large, complex organizations. In all cases, it is not so much the agreement of subsequent actions with those planned that makes the plan valuable. Instead, it is the process of creating a plan that has a plausible chance for success and the understanding that it produces that justify the effort.

Existing firms seldom do complete business plans for innovations, but they too must have processes to plan for implementing new technologies. The framework for such planning is suggested in Exhibit 11.1, which is based on Maddox, Anthony et al. (1987). While these steps aren't magic, they are a systematic way to manage technologies for organizational success. Since very few technologies are sufficiently compelling by themselves to change the future, managers must have processes to develop them and provide the collateral assets that will make their implementation successful. Processes like the one described in the exhibit help keep the organization focused on those technologies that create real opportunities.

Exhibit 11.1 Planning Framework ...