Engineered Wood Journal: Technology Management

Deciding the direction of a research program is one of the most important factors in successful technology development, yet this front-end analysis often gets the least attention. This is probably because it is difficult and time consuming to do it right. It is common practice to follow the herd or listen to an "expert" in setting strategic goals for research or deciding technology acquisitions.

Consequently, many organizations work on the same things, reducing the chances of coming up with proprietary technology. Furthermore, key "trend-break" issues are missed-for example, the rapid rise in the use of recycled fibers in the 80s and the dioxin and forestry issues of the 90s.

Future awareness and scenario planning are tools that can be used to inject some discipline into strategic thinking and achieve a common language between all stakeholders. When this is done well, there is a greater chance of being the first to develop the leading strategic technology or the significant new product. It can also guard against being surprised by unforeseen trend-break events.

Having developed plausible future scenarios that address a focus question or issue, the next step is to link this to a business strategy and hence to a technology strategy. The technology strategy will be designed to maximize the odds of developing and successfully exploiting competitive technologies and minimizing the risks of poor technology decisions and blind alleys, regardless of which scenario or combination of scenarios unfolds. Included in this analysis is a balancing between a shorter-term "bread and butter" technology focus (low risk for failure, but usually modest rewards), with a "big hit" technology focus (higher risk, but huge rewards).

Managing the Innovation Process
In the management of a research and technology (R&T) program, what is important is its make-up, its balance in priorities, how it is to be funded, and tools to ensure built-in value. The technology program portfolio is defined as the mix of individual research and technology programs, projects and services within the whole R&T program. Development of the portfolio requires team structures, using well-tried tools, to arrive at a game plan that maximizes value for the dollars to be invested.

Appropriate organization structures also are needed to ensure that optimum value is delivered in the execution of a technology program portfolio. There should be a particular emphasis on teams and team functioning. Disciplines and best practices for program and project management should be in place. Research program management disciplines are important for the individual researcher, the program team and the sponsoring organization in order to ensure that the ongoing management of the research effort is focused, on track, and optimally using scarce resources. The commonly used tool of stage gate project management is used to plan for speed and critical path delivery of the technical results. Of particular importance is the discipline of early termination of projects that have become low priority.

Best practice technology management principles set standards and guidelines for all practitioners in the technology innovation process. Many of these process issues are people skill related-from how to behave in a team environment, to communications, networking, and leadership. These issues are fundamental to the successful execution of a research project or technology acquisition process.

Historical wisdom indicates that the main distinction between successful and unsuccessful projects has little to do with the sophistication or elegance of the research or technology, and everything to do with people issues. Good people skills cannot be overemphasized for their contribution to successful technology development and delivery for commercial implementation. In order to extract maximum value from the research management process, it is also important to identify sources of waste in the R&T system.

Delivering Technology for Commercial Application
Maximizing value from R&T requires that some form of value measurement be made on a regular basis. Measuring value is difficult because it involves judgment. Keeping a credible R&T system scorecard is important. Costs are highly visible; the benefits also should be visible. The value of the R&T system also includes the management of proprietary or strategic technologies and the licensing opportunities that these might afford.

All stakeholders must have a long view on the value of R&T, and view it as a "built-in" value issue rather than as an afterthought needing an audit. As a consequence, they must also see technology as a means to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. Measurements are needed to reach this state.

The volume of available information in today's world is doubling every few months. The consequence of this is that we have to unlearn some of the paradigms we use for accessing and using information. This includes the manner in which we approach technical problem-solving and innovation. The new paradigm says, "somewhere out there lies the solution to almost any problem," and the trick is to first recognize and then to access that "solution".

Put another way, you don't necessarily have to find the "solution" yourself because someone else has probably already found it in some other context. This approach to problem-solving for technology acquisition is likely to be more efficient for resource utilization in the R&T system. It can be summarized as "the skillful adaptation of known technology to new applications." This needs appropriate (and often different) organizations, protocols and skills to optimize the R&T system for this method of problem-solving and technology acquisition.

Alan R. Procter, former research director at MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., is an adjunct professor specializing in the field of technology management in the forest products industry at the University of British Columbia. He can be reached at 604-822-5936.

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