Technology Management – The CTM Perspective
Background:
The purpose of this note is to outline the Cambridge University Centre for Technology Management (CTM)
view of technology management so that comparison can be made with the research and teaching portfolios of
other centres. In parallel we are attempting to develop the ‘big picture/world view’ of technology
management in order to show how the various perspectives on this subject may be related to each other.
CTM Research Overview:
Our research in the area of technology management originated from several starting positions. These
included our history of taking a process view of strategic issues, new product introduction / innovation
research and make or buy (technology
• TM: a process approach
Key:
• New product introduction
• R&D project selection
selection) decision making. The continued
for SMEs
Present projects
• Strategic technology management
• Product planning
Past projects
• Auditing decision making quality
growth and development from these core
• World class software delivery
Future projects
• Technology Selection
• NPI collaboration
• TM across interfaces
themes has shaped our view of the domain of
• Integrated engineering &
• Strategic make or buy
• Integration of marketing into NPI
industrial design
technology management. Figure 1 shows past,
• TM & KM for sustainable
processes
• Strategic management of
production
software technology
current and proposed research projects linked
• Industrial make or buy decisions
Management &
• Strategic management of
•
Strategic management of
business processes
holonic manufacturing
to the key themes that now appear to underpin
organisational competences
technology
•
KM in international collaborative
• Technology transfer
our research portfolio:
Centre
for
business networks
in collaborative R&D



Management and business processes
Innovation and change
Industry and technology evolution
Innovation
&
change
• Technology change
• Innovation in advanced
materials technology
Technology
Management
Industry &
technology
evolution
• Technology foresight
• Engineering reuse
• Mobile communications
• Innovation management in high-tech firms
• Technology evolution in high-tech firms
• Growth & co-evolution in high-tech enterprises
Gregory’s
early
paper
‘Technology
Fig. 1 - CTM project portfolio
management: a process approach’ applied
process thinking to technology management. The five-process model (Fig. 2) aims to provide a
comprehensive view of the activities that are involved in technology management in a manufacturing
business. Extensive research and practical application has resulted in a number of enhancements to this
framework:



The processes can be interpreted at different
levels within a manufacturing organisation
(e.g. strategic or operational).
The framework integrates functions within a
manufacturing business (e.g. research,
manufacturing, marketing).
Links can be made to other conceptual
business views (e.g. the resource-based view
via the technologies, systems and process
models for strategy and new product
development).
External Environment
External Environment
Identification
Protection
Selection
Internal
Environment
Exploitation
Acquisition
External Environment
Fig. 2 – Technology management process framework
Our other main areas of research can be derived from this overarching process framework. For example
make or buy issues are strongly linked to selection and acquisition processes, and new product introduction is
largely concerned with technology exploitation.
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However there are some limitations with this framework in terms of its linkage to the outside world and the
explicit representation of human aspects of business, existing models of technology management, innovation
and strategy.
Individual
Cambridge
research
projects have developed their own
frameworks to conceptualise the
necessary subset of technology
management issues. For example
current work in make or buy decision
making has resulted in the framework
shown in Fig. 3 in order to link the
relevant factors into a decision making
methodology.
External
Environment
• Competition
• Availability of Suppliers
• Social Elements
• Political Elements
• Cost reduction
• Lack of capacity
• Reduce time to market
• Increase quality
• New product introduction
Areas
Factors
Technology &
Manufacturing
Processes
MAKE-OR-BUY?
Costing
• Investment
• Return on
investment
• Payback period
• Total acquisition cost
• Capacity
• Control
• Flexibility
• Complexity
• Life cycle
• Focus investment
• Balance capabilities
• Skills shortage
• Increase responsiveness
Triggers
Skills &
Systems
Sourcing
• Capability of suppliers
• Reliability of suppliers
• Supply chain management
• Know-how
• Expertise
• Policies/procedures
• Cost savings
• Quality
Performance
Other principal characteristics of our
• Capacity utilisation
• Flexibility
Measures*
• Time to market
• Economical
work are the manufacturing business
Elements
focus (the unit of analysis is usually
the firm or a subset of the firm) and
Fig. 3 – Make vs. buy decision support framework
the emphasis on practical outputs from
the research, often in the form of a decision making methodology.
• Environmental
Elements
Current work is focusing on linking technology resources to the business objectives of the company. We are
developing tools to facilitate this, and formulating an associated framework to visualise their integration and
links to business theory. The particular aspect of technology management under review is technology
planning and one related tool is technology roadmapping (Fig. 4a). The accompanying framework (Fig. 4b)
is derived from the route map format and shows market, product and technology levels in the business
against a time axis.
“Know-why”
Business Level
Focus: Organisation, networks and business portfolio; marketing & finance
Process: Strategy development and implementation to deliver value into the future
time
Business /
Market
Product /
Service /
Process
Push
mechanisms
- capabilities
(knowledge
flows)
“Know-what”
Product Level
Focus: Product /service portfolio and platforms; manufacturing & operations
Process: Innovation, and new product development and introduction over time
“Know-how”
Technology
Organisation / Context
“Know-who”
Technology Level
Focus: Technology-science-engineering base / platforms
Process:: Technology management (ISAEP) to maintain the technology base
Fig. 4a - Technology roadmap
(schematic)
Time
“Know-when”
Fig. 4b - The technology planning framework
Although no single integrating picture of manufacturing business has yet been found which satisfactorily
integrates all the above, we have derived a picture which is perhaps more a business model (Fig. 5). This was
developed to support the Manufacturing Leaders’ Programme, and links resources and processes in the firm
to systems and supply chain. This visualisation is more of a systems view of manufacturing business, and has
been used to underpin a manufacturing business audit and to show the relationship between the main taught
subjects of the Programme. It may provide a useful starting point for the technology management framework
as systems theory is all-encompassing in its scope.
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Pull
mechanisms
- requirements
(knowledge
flows)
Fig. 5 – Technology as a firm resource - Manufacturing Leaders’ Programme framework
The Big Picture:
We have yet to draw the composite ‘big picture’ for technology management, but we think it will incorporate
features of the frameworks described above. It may be useful to identify some of the requirements of this
framework as a precursor to its derivation. It should:



Show the current context and resources of the business together with the processes that link them.
Be interpretable at different levels and by different functions within the business.
Show explicitly, or indicate the connection to, the other principal conceptual frameworks and theories of
business, in particular:
- The resource-based view
- The competitive forces (strategic management) view
- The systems view of manufacturing business
Business Environment / Context
- Innovation and knowledge management
The innovation 'funnel' concept provides a possible basis for linking
technology management to new product development and innovation,
in the business context, and has potential for forming the basis of a
practical and academically robust framework (Fig. 6). This
framework has interesting parallels to the technology roadmap and
planning framework presented in Fig. 4.
Innovation /
New Product
Introduction
Products /
Services
Technology / Resources
Fig. 6 - Technology management framework
(innovation / product perspective)
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