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Technology is another large topic which means many things to many people. Martino (1983) notes that Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictionary defines technology as "the totality of the means employed to provide objects necessary for human sustenance and comfort." I use a slightly generalized version: Technology is the system whereby a society satisfies the needs and desires of its members. A system contains hardware, software, people, processes, organization, and purpose. In this context, a product is the artifact of the technology. The artifact of technology may be hardware, software, process, or system which may be part of the means or system constituting another technology. This definition is broad enough to encompass competitiveness as the technology it is.Many disagree with these definitions. For example, Dussauge, Hart, and Ramanantsoa (1992) specifically exclude from technology activities such as marketing which are not involved in the production of material objects or services. Is a report not a material product? Is the definition of a marketplace not a service? Furthermore, in the context of an integrated product and process development system, marketing activities are the guiding component of the system which produces a material object of high value to the customer. I submit that every process of inherent value, such as marketing, provides a product (which may be a service) and that the system of the means for producing that product is a technology.
Dussauge, Hart, and Ramanantsoa (1992) note that "technological innovation often modifies the base of competition in a given industry and technology is, in many cases, one of the main sources of competitive advantage." They also note that "firms can use technology to place themselves in a favorable position by deliberately upsetting the competitive environment, forcing a re-definition of the existing business and a change in the rules of the game." They provide excellent examples. They further note that "the advances made over the last twenty years in the semiconductor industry with respect to cost of memory, or of data processing, are due to the speed with which innovations were introduced rather than due to long production runs."
With the exception of the commercial electronics and computing industries, until very recent years, historical data showed that "new" technology in the USA rarely reduced cost. In general, technology in the USA has been used to increase performance and hence complexity. As an example, U.S. Military systems, depending on the type of system, have increased in cost between 2% and 12 % per year above inflation since World War II. Currently in the USA technology driven health care cost is still increasing at a rate well above inflation. Both have increased in complexity because of increased performance driven by technology.
Until recently, in the USA, performance has been defined by the manufacturer based on available technology and their guess at what the customer wanted. Occasionally they guessed correctly and thus increased quality with the increased performance. Both low cost and high quality are necessary for competitive advantage. With even increasing cost and randomly increasing quality, the USA lost the competitive advantage, along with a major fraction of market share, to their competitors (Dertouzos, Lester, and Solow, 1989).
In contrast, Japan has consciously designed new technology for high value which means high quality and low cost. They have learned to listen to their customer and to provide a product which have high value to the customer. They have developed integrated product and process development (IPPD) technology which includes the technology to simultaneously design the product and the manufacturing of the product. They have simultaneously deployed quality, cost, reliability, and technology as a part of their IPPD. They have used technology to develop entirely new markets. They have recently bundled together technologies which enhance their ability to understand what the customer will buy. It becomes quite clear that technological innovation has been a cornerstone for their success in obtaining the competitive advantage. They have been consciously inventing their future and the future of the world marketplace.
Fortunately for the USA, and the rest of the world, many now understand what Japan has been doing and are borrowing, or developing on their own, new technology which will help them obtain or maintain competitive advantage.
Many organizations speak of "transfering technology." But what does that mean? Given the definitions above it should be apparent that to transfer technology involves transfer of the system which includes the
It becomes obvious that the transfer of any part of the system, without the rest of it, does not transfer technology. The transfer of technology is systemic and must be implemented holistically!
Foremost, we must keep in mind that technological elegance is simplicity, not complexity.
Potentially Competitive New Technologies
And they said it couldn't be done
Technology Bibliography
Design for Competitive Advantage | Table of Contents | Use