18.7: Managing Now for Future Technology and Innovation

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Learning Objectives

How do you look into the future to keep pace?

To keep pace with changes in technology and to keep up with needed innovation processes, individuals within the firm must keep track of what competitors are doing as well as what inventions or discoveries may usurp an industry’s place in the market. This is an external process, and that involves scanning the environment. The information gathered during scanning should inform the firm about the general trends and opportunities to create new value. Internally, the firm wants to understand the task and processes as well as understand the skills that currently exist in the organization. By identifying potential future scenarios in the external environment and understanding what resources and capabilities the firm has, the task for those managing technology and innovation becomes answering the key questions:

Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
What do we need to move from here to there?

concept check

How do you keep up with a constantly evolving environment of technology and innovation?