The term technology has come to mean exclusively information technology these days. In this article, however, the emphasis is on all technology, for example nanotechnology, modern biotechnology and conventional technologies in addition to infotech.
Technology Becomes Core Business
In a traditional business, technology played a supportive role. A manufacturer, for example, might select a technology that was appropriate to the market. If there was a huge market, the business might opt for automation; in a small market, manual technology might be the appropriate one.
Advances in information technology made it possible to build businesses on technology itself. Google, Amazon and eBay have business models where IT plays a core or critical role. Google is practically a pure IT business that built its fortunes through contextual online advertising.
Amazon might be retailer; but the business has taken on an amazing new format; so does the eBay auction model. Both have exploited the power of information technology to reach huge markets and to achieve a new dimension in meeting customer expectations.
And now new technologies like nanotechnology and modern biotechnology are posing new and unfamiliar challenges to business management. These technologies can not only disrupt the markets for established products and processes but also change customer expectations in a fundamental way, just as information technology did for communications.
There is also the issue of convergence of technologies. Nanotechnology, for example, has applications in life sciences, electronics, healthcare, pollution control and other areas.
And biotechnology projects such as human genome mapping would simply have been impossible without modern information technology.
What all these mean is that technology cannot be viewed as an incidental issue of managing a business. It has acquired a strategic dimension and needs to be integrated into the strategy development process.
The Issues of Technology-Business Integration
Major issues that make technology a strategic issue include:
- The Need to see into the Future: Emerging new technologies can seriously affect the demand for existing products and commodities. For example, nanotechnology can theoretically make it possible to create foodstuff synthetically and this can affect the market for cereals. Businesses need to pay focused attention to likely future developments.
- Aligning Technology with Business Objectives: Existing practices for aligning technology with business objectives identify misalignments "after the event" when it is difficult to make changes. New approaches and practices are needed to do this before commitments are made to particular technologies and their applications. The business objectives themselves might have to be modified as a result of the future visualization exercise above.
- Creation of Technology Roadmaps: Technology roadmaps identify technology solutions to be adopted for achieving business objectives. Their creation involves identifying existing and future needs and the technologies (including emerging technologies) that can satisfy these needs. In the process, attention will be focused on technology developments and their business impact.
- Risks Management: New technologies typically pose a dilemma. On the one hand, they open up business opportunities. If these are not tapped by us, competitors might gain a lasting advantage. On the other hand, as yet unproven technologies might fail owing to varied factors, including regulatory issues. Nanotechnology, for example, is receiving serious regulatory attention and its application is even banned in certain areas (in certain countries) until their safety has been demonstrated.
- Clearly Identifying the Role of Technology in Business: Businesses exist to provide value for its stakeholders (who include not only its shareholders but also employees, vendors, customers, community and government). How do a particular technology and its application help in achieving this objective? For example, does it help make more money for the business, or save money in making and delivering the value, or justify itself by generating business value in some way (for example, through a reputation for environment friendly practices)?
- Change Management: Fast changing technology will inevitably lead to changes in business processes and employee roles. Excellent change management practices need to be evolved and sustained as part of technology and business management integration.
Integrating technology and business management is thus a multidimensional exercise and few, if any, businesses are likely to have succeeded in a complete integration. The value of such integration lies in the superior business advantage it can provide in such forms as market leadership, sustained growth and community acceptability.
Technology is no more just a means to achieve the traditional business goal of making money for its owners. Instead, it has become a disruptive element that transforms not only products and processes but also customer expectations and the business environment. Technology management has to be seen as a strategic planning issue that deserves serious attention and has to be integrated with business management right from Board level.
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