EXECUTIVE FORUM - TECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE

Creating and applying new knowledge and technology has long been a cri tical key to financial success. With increasing resource requirements for technological advance and acceleration in the rate of global techn ology diffusion, strategic thinking about technology must go beyond th e simple development of new products or services. There are three comm on management failings iii the strategic management of technology: the inability to understand status and trends of the technologies necessa ry to and sufficient for competitive advantage; a focus on product tec hnologies and neglect of process technologies, particularly informatio n technologies, in the search for competitive advantage; and the inabi lity to accurately assess the time and cost of converting market need into market demand for new technology Two straightforward but rigorous metaphors, Strategic Space and the Technology Food Chain, can help to overcome these basic shortcomings in strategic thinking.