Sanjay Goel

MGTS 4480
Management of Innovation and Technology
Summer 2001

Technology Plan Format
Team size - minimum 3, maximum 4
Due - July 2, Monday (2001!)

This assignment requires that you develop a technology plan for a specific company.

As a first step, please select a company of interest. You are welcome to select companies that you are already working on, in your other classes. (Please see attached note on research resources.)

1. Provide a brief introduction about the company - size, location, line of business, key products, reach (local, regional, national, global), brief history, public or private, and other information that you believe provides a well rounded view of the company.

2. Describe the strategy this company is following. [For the purpose of this assignment, strategy is what Michael Porter said it is in his article - so read and refer to the article repeatedly to make sure that you are using the strategy in the sense he means.] If the strategy of the company is not clear, frame a suitable strategy for the company [again using Porter's typology - differentiation, cost leadership, focused]. Describe your strategy briefly - see how Porter describes the strategy at IKEA, and other companies.

3. Formulate a technology plan that will implement your strategy. Specifically, answer these following questions, and others that YOU believe must be asked:

a. How will you use technology in the organization?
b. How will your plan ensure competitive parity?
c. How will your plan ensure competitive advantage? Will it lead to lower cost, or higher revenue, or both? For how long?
d. How will it implement your business level strategy? Show CLEARLY how specific aspects of your technology will help you implement your chosen strategy. Think in terms of developing an activity system (akin to several shown in Porter's article). Show this activity system in your plan as an appendix.
e. How will you involve suppliers and customers in the process?
f. How will it help the company ride the technology trajectory? (e.g. what are the feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and organizational learning)?
g. Are there any safeguards from technological discontinuities (disruptive technological change)?
h. How will you measure progress or success? Develop some performance measures that you will track.
i. Discuss at least four specific ways in which your plan is better than the company's current practice.
j. Discuss at least two potential problems of your plan.

4. Formulate an implementation plan for your technology plan. Specifically, answer the following questions, and others that YOU believe must be asked:

a. How will you fight resistance to change?
b. What changes would you require in organization structure to facilitate implementation?
c. What changes would you require in organization culture to facilitate implementation? And how would you go about changing the culture?

Other details:

Page length - minimum 10, maximum 15. In addition, 4 pages can be used as appendices to support the text. One of them should be an activity system (see section 3 above). A title page is required and not counted for page limit purposes.

Spacing - double-spaced.

Bibliography - optional. Please include if you refer to other sources for guidance or information. This will not count for page limit purposes.

Meetings - Please schedule a meeting with me about a week before the plan is due to discuss your plan. You are more than welcome to meet me before the last week as well, and I strongly encourage you to do so.