Gregory Framework Of Technology Management

Gregory Frame exploit Of Technology ManagementThere ar some(prenominal) engineering science portion outment deterrent showcases. The Gregory frame spurt has been proposed in 1995 by M. J. Gregory. This demonstrate has been make ground on previous work on engineering science worry. There atomic number 18 several elements subscribe been identified previously consort to the engine room direction in spite of appearance organic laws. Competence and capability are of import to be analyzed within the arranging to understand the strength and weakness. They too reflect how well the organization plunder replete the nodes and how fast the organization whitethorn response the grocery store. According to this depth psychology, the caller-up tail assembly identify the adequate to(p) engine room outline. Organization learning is similarly widely used conception in engineering science steering. RD victimization and bracing product introduction are the cropes which engine room is utilise in. Innovation activities are taken to deliver the customer satisfaction. Gregory, 1995 However, there is no agreed good example for engineering science way has been proposed.establish on the literature query on previous work and the learning of technology management in some(prenominal) companies, Gregory proposed the 5 processes frame work for technology management. The 5 processes have been identified as be offset assignmentSelectionAcquisitionExploitationProtectionIt aims to identify the suit up to(p) technologies can be used now or in the future in the identification flesh. The identification ordain be goed through a positive review of live technology, emerging technology and in-house developed technology. Leonard, 1992 The information c all in all for in this phase to conduct review admits external drivers, grocery storeing analysis, stakeholder information, and futuristics taking into custody, and so on A group of approaches ma y be applied here, much(prenominal) as PESTEL.Selection is the process to determine the technology can be developed within the caller-out. The process will be set outed with guilds schema. The criteria in this phase are usually from contrary sources. Technology audit, SWOT analysis, and RD portfolio analysis are the approaches usually can be used in this process.It aims to image out the suit able order to acquire the technology and applied in the organization in the acquisition phase. There are several promoter to obtain the technology. Companies may choose to develop the technology by itself by RD activities or organizational learning. They in any case may choose to collaborate with diametricals as suppliers, or pardners. Technology may also be purchased via brokers or licenses, etc. The acquisition means should be considered to be suitable with company strategy by considering the heterogeneousity of RD, risk management, and financial limitation, etc.The exploitatio n process is to convert the obtained technology into the practical production to take in the financial profit. The come upon pose here is to apply the scientific technology into products can gain the maximum profit. Technology fusion is an important concept here to research rude(a) function. The exploitation is the only process in this framework able to generate profit to coer all the technical fit outment.The protection phase is about how to protect or master(prenominal)tain the witness and relative expertise in the manufacturing process. The traditional charge to protect the technology is the legal method as licensing or patenting. Gregory, 1995This process framework is a general representative for technology management to be used in organizations. This process is non a defined caseling plainly comes from the process those companies apply the technology. It reflects the mundane the management takes to manage technology within the company. The framework also associ ates all the relative activities which include innovation, product technology, production technology, etc. into the model. This framework also modifys the company to align the technological considerations with credit line strategy. E actually process in this framework indigences a set of activities and criteria to implement. and so this framework also enables the management to evaluate the solid processes and manage the relative dimensions. Further more, a process-based model can make the technology management process in company visible and trans fire. WMG, 2010However, few companies may apply this model into their pipeline. The process framework includes a variety of activities in different process and related to to different function. But in many companies, the activities have been included in separate rail line process as new product introduction, mart strategy setting, etc. Thus there is a quarrel for companies to apply this model entirely. WMG, 2010Holistic approach i n technology managementManagement of technology links engineering, science, and management disciplines to address the planning, purification, and implementation of technological capabilities to shape and carry out the strategic and doingal objectives of an organization National Research Council, 1987 Refer to the definition of technology management, it requires quislingismism of the RD, manufacturing, service and operation function, marketing, finance, and HR function in the company. Thus a holistic approach needs to be taken to manage technology in the company. It will be divided to several reasons to formulate in below paragraph and what are the benefits.Firstly, technology management involves multi-functions within the organization. In a company, not only engineering department or RD department is responsible for technology management, all the functions within the organization are more or less related to technology. WMG, 2010 Thus technology management requires a system of integration within the organization. For example, the product development and role process has been considered as a traditional technical activity. Engineers and designers can work individually towards the goals. However, this kind of isolated work can result an ungratified output. The engineering department may complain the marketing department for the myopic data the production department may complain engineering department for design need rework. Without crosscutting functions, it will not only raise the m whiztary value but also cause the friction betwixt departments.Secondly, technology management requires broad companionship within the organization as business strategy, marketing, customers, competitors, existing product and service, SWOT, etc. Thus it is important to understand the everywhereall soul to manage technology powerfully. Furthermore, it is important to consider technology relative issues with the indispensable information and external information how te chnology may influence the operation within the business how the limitations and necessarys of the business may affect the technical decision. If the technology management careen achieve the system integration, it may lead to products tilt meet the markets requirements and customers expectation since the technology management hasnt been associated with marketing activities project may last for long time with back and forth process because necessary technical information hasnt been input as well as apostrophize will be increased company may response to the market slower. Consequently the company may gain fewer profit liken to it could gain. Steele, 1989Thirdly, technology is not the isolated content within technology management. The mention elements in technology management are management of innovation process, development of technology, technology utilization to obtain profit. Badawy, 2009 The activities of technology management include development and research design manufac turing and operation organizational learning technology transfer, etc. Based on this perspective, technology management is not only a process to be applied in RD but in a broad range of functional area. All the activities within technology management are used to align the technology strategy with company strategy. The company structure and business strategy are the important factors to determine the technology strategy. Pavitt, 1999 The technology strategy may be set to align with companys semipermanent profitable project or short-term project to compete with former(a) companies on the market. The technology management would consider all the parts inside of the organization to ensure it can align with business strategy.Fourthly, Technology is a method instead of objective. WMG, 2010 Technology can only be applied through a fundamental structure instead of existing alone. Wyk, 2005 Alternatively, the technology has to be implemented to enable the firms profitability and growth. The p rocess to utilize technology is insisted of a set of cross function activities. Thus the technology would not be existed isolated or developed without business objectives.As higher up analysis, it can ensure the maximum profitable though a holistic approach in technology management. For example, the operation management aims to drive the whole processes as quick as possible while eliminating mistakes, delays, etc. The rough-and-ready operation management not only requires the output can satisfy customers but also generates profits to company. A proper technology strategy here can enable the operation processes to proceed faster and effective by avoiding unsuitable product strategy has been processed. Holistic approach can also ensure the output is marketable by avoid the inadequacy of external information, which cause high risk to fail in the market. The holistic approach also can ensure the technology strategy to align with the overall business strategy. Furthermore, it also hel ps the company to identify the proper way and pace to adopt the technology.The collaboration case study between Sony and EricssonNowadays, its very common for companies from different countries and sector to work together. In 2001, a articulation endanger company Sony Ericsson liquid communication has been established by a Nipponese electronics company Sony Corporation and Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson. Caroline Sanja, 2007 The aim of this cooperation is to give the planetary phone with multimedia system communication solution to customers all over the world. The sign for this collaboration is to associate the Sonys multimedia consumer electronics expertise and Ericssons technical knowledge in telecommunications. Once Sony Ericsson established, both of the companies stopped their individual restless business. The Sony Ericsson winding Communications is a London-based 5050 go approximate business. beforehand the collaboration, Ericsson ran its peregrin e business in the market for years and obtained 10.7% in the handset market in 2000. It has a great loss when faced the cheaper unsettled phone producer as Nokia. Mobile phone is one of the nubble businesses in Ericsson. Thus they huckster abandon this part of business. Ericsson had the advantage of the trail pedestal. Meanwhile, Sony had just 10% market office in Japanese handset market and 1% in all over the world. However, Sony obtained the multimedia technology enable to inaugurate the global market. Sony Ericsson employed 2500 impede from Ericsson and 1000 stuff from Sony. III-Vs Review, 2001 Sony and Ericsson both obtain 50% of the bully. And severally of them obtains half of the boards positions. This business had been judge to take over all the erratic phone technology from the parents and to be able to compete with Nokia and Motorola in the market.How does the collaboration between Sony and Ericsson conductedThe initial of Sony is to olfactory perception for a partner to explore the GSM and CDMA technologies. Sony had soft attachment with Qualcomm and Siemens in the 1990s. In the experience with Qualcomm, Sony developed CDMA technology together with Qualcomm, but products have been sold separated under 2 brand name. The competition guide this soft alliance to the end as well as the collaboration with Siemens. However, Sony agnize its a huge investment to conduct RD alone in telecom technology. Before Sony and Ericsson arrived a Memorandum of Understanding, many partner candidates as Motorola, Alcatel and Nokia had been considered. At that time, Ericsson gained a big operation loss in 2000. And it was tone for a partner to take over the handsets operations. There were many authorization candidates had been chose. Sony was one of them. Sony held the advantage of the multimedia consumer electronics expertise but had been limited on designing and innovations. Initially, Sony pauperism to take over all the operation include the loading technology, design, distribution and marketing. However, the top management of Ericsson didnt indispensableness to abandon the core technology of handset, which was developed in Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). Thus Ericsson proposed soft alliance which had been turned d give by Sony who insisted the sum venture deal.EricssonSonyOriginal round numbers in 2001 in Joint venture30001500Market knowledge Telecom operatingvaluableLimitedMarket Knowledge multimedia consumer electronicslimitedvaluableHandset technologyvaluableDont want gold contributionFig1. Sony-Ericsson partnership when mergeAccording to the Fig1, Ericsson obtained the core handset technology, as yet Sony at that moment dont want any cash contribution. In that time, Ericsson vie the study role in that deal according to its global market make out and handset technology. Thus the Ericsson Mobile Platforms has been excluded in the interchangeable venture deal. Thus EMP has to reduce the operating appeal and sell technology to other company as LG.The final agreement was finalized in the end of 2000 between the dickens companies. Then followed a group of discussion on how to conduct this collaboration in term of management, manufacturing, Research and Development, and governance, etc. The board of the junction venture was formed 50-50 from both companies, and with a president to be named by Sony. 1,500 staff came from Sony and Ericsson brought its organization of products, sales and marketing. The new joint venture has been named Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. There were many challenge issues for two big companys collaboration. The intellectual holding rights (IPR) is one of the critical issues. Since it was very exhausting to identify how much the two companies should transfer IPR to the joint venture at the beginning. Sony built up a team called Functional Integration Team to tackle the joint venture issues. Sony decided to take over the management of manufacturing by controlli ng the Sony-Ericssons suffer production plant with Chinese partners. And Sony also is in charge of the planning chain management which Ericsson had long-term operational experience in. Thus Sony took many important positions in Sony-Ericsson management Sony executives had been transferred to take over the business units and summate chain management. While Ericsson ex-executives took over HR and other departments. The operation of the joint venture started at Oct-1 2001. Sigurdson, 2004There are tierce main issues occurred at the beginning of collaboration in Sony-Ericsson. Design is one of the issues. Sonys designers had different understanding on the outlook and functions with the Ericssons designers. For example, the Sony designers proposed that streamline shape of mobile phone is pause than straight line mobile phone. However, its difficult for Sonys designers to explain this concept to Ericssons designers. In Sony, the information of design philosophy is tacit instead of ex plicit, thus in the joint venture, designers from each company cant understand the in-house words from each other. This was solved by re-designing a new set of internal toll in Sony-Ericsson. The few number of published mobile phone model lead to a big loss in the first two years. However, another side, the conflicts between the two types of last also enabled Sony-Ericsson to enter the world(prenominal) market. There was an argument on the product design in Japanese market. The Sony designers claimed that design is the closely important part and Japanese market need attention due to the customers high standard needs. Japanese market is the most progress mobile phone market and more than 10 major(ip) mobile phone manufacturers existed in the market at that time. Sony-Ericsson obtained a mint candy of important experience, and also able to learn the technology trends from Japanese market.The befriend issue in Sony-Ericsson is the supply chain management, which didnt work well. Firstly, the manufacturing had been divided into three manufacturing facilities in Sony-Ericsson Ericsson manufacturing contracts with EMS, Sony manufacturing company, Ericsson manufacturing plant in China. There was a huge challenge on managing the manufacturing since its very difficult to manufacture products ordered and meet the requirement of quality. Especially the outsource supplier EMS, which met great challenge on delivering dependent products on time. The different type of manufacturing source brought Sony-Ericsson a critical problem. Secondly, magazine to market is a very important criterion in mobile phone market due to the fierce competition. The management of platform in Sony-Ericsson is a weak accuse compare to the other competitors as Samsung and Nokia. cod to lack of management, in the platform, it was found the new orders were laid without organization. This became worse when the marketing strategy had been set to increase the market share. The issue occurred be cause Sony-Ericsson lack the knowledge on management of production process and supply chain management.The trio issue was technology transfer. Sony contributed the screen and camera technology to Sony-Ericsson. All the related technology was explored in Japan and transferred to Europe. It took a long time for the technology can be applied based on the telecom infrastructure in Europe. The core handset technology came from Ericsson. EMP combined the software and baulk as product, which is a new business model. As above information indicated, EMP didnt be included in the joint venture deal. And the cost of EMP was rightfully high because of the exploration of 3G and GSM at the same time. Thus EMP served Sony-Ericsson as customer, as well as Siemens, LG, and Samsung.In the first year of the joint ventures operation, Sony-Ericsson scattered 292 million and didnt made profit until 2003. Sony and Ericsson were not satisfied with the performance of the joint venture. However, they stil l tried to inject heavy(p) into Sony-Ericsson in 2003. The Sony-Ericsson walkman branded mobile was doing well at the beginning. However, it had been over taken by music mobile from other manufacturer as iPhone and other brand recent years.The collaboration between the two big companies has been considered as one of the most complex one. It took long time to implement and consolidate. Compare to the previous soft alliances, Sony aimed to physique a stable collaboration to expand the mobile business. In summary, the joint venture is able to combine the technical strength from both sides. As identified before, Sony is good at the multimedia customer electronics. The first serial publication of products is walkman portfolio. Sony transferred their multimedia technology to Sony-Ericsson. While Ericsson contributed the core handset technology and telecom infrastructure which enable Sony-Ericsson to release series of mobile phone based on cooperation with telecom operators. But due to S ony dont want to invest at the beginning. The core handset technology still has been unploughed in EMP. This is one of the mistakes of Sony in this collaboration. EMP was focusing on integration of software to system. And it became one of the advanced research center on GSM and 3G. However the operation cost of EMP kept on increasing. Sony-Ericsson purchased chip with software from EMP, which was a high-cost component. Even though, EMP couldnt balance the cost and income. It had to supply other mobile companies for sustaining. Sony-Ericsson cant involve the management of the EMP. This will become a weak point in the future.The managers of Sony-Ericsson initially came from Sony and Ericsson, but the management was isolated from Sony and Ericsson. The challenge issue here is the different culture of the two companies. Globalization is a common phenomenon everywhere. Even difference of culture can be solved in personal level. Its quite difficult to merge a big group of people with tot ally different culture. Sony is a big international company. However, it still holds a perspective of business strategy, marketing, design, and product development, etc different with other western companies. Compare to Sony, Ericsson is a low masculinity organization which has low work stress, high gender quality, comparability between employees, and team work. In traditional Japanese company, staff cant question the bosss instruction which is observation in western company. Thus Sony-Ericsson created their ingest company value as Passionate, Innovation and Responsive. Caroline Sanja, 2007Phase1Culture AwarenessPhase2Creating new culturePhase3Managing SEMC CultureSeminar Workshop Leadership ProgramsFig2. Developing Sony-Ericsson culture Caroline Sanja, 2007The Fig2 indicates how Sony-Ericssons own culture has been developed. The difference of business strategy between the two organization cause many friction in the collaboration. The CEO of Sony mentioned this issue in 2008, th at if the Sony-Ericsson cant work towards the same goal, its very difficult for this collaboration to continue. primarily speaking, the joint venture ran with several issues at the first two years. This at one time affected the financial performance of Sony-Ericsson. Due to this bad performance, it almost direct to an end of the collaboration. However, finally both Sony and Ericsson injected a certain amount of capital to the joint venture. Sony-Ericsson performs relatively well. But this collaboration didnt enable Sony-Ericsson to compete with Nokia and Samsung in the market.Discussion on outcome from Sony and Ericssons point of views in terms of succeeder and failure of this collaborationFrom both of Sony and Ericssons point of views, it is benefit to look for a partner to establish a joint venture. This alliance can obtain advantage as risk reduction, international expansion, technology transfer, sharing capital facilities and equipment. Once the joint venture establishes, t he tangible and intangible assets will be transferred from parents to the joint venture. The tangible assets include capital facilities and equipment, technology and patents. The intangible assets may include the brand name, explored market, reputation of company, etc.Sony was in a credible good place in Japan before the collaboration. And they found the mobile business is a growing business. However, Sony was not a major shammer in GSM market in the global market. However, Sony is very excellent on product design. It wouldnt be difficult for Sony to gain more market share from the initial 2%. But if Sony want to be a major player, its not enough to rely on product design and multimedia expertise only. According to the previous experience on soft alliance, Sony realized joint venture would be the best choice to work with partner in this business. The benefit to conduct this collaboration with Ericsson is Ericsson is experienced in European market It obtains the infrastructure of t elecom and it has handset technology in 2000, Ericsson locate number 3 in mobile phone market. Sony can enter European market easily with this partner and also can built the brand name for other business of Sony as TV. Sony doesnt have to invest on infrastructure and technology on this deal. However, the failure of this collaboration to Sony is the EMP. Sony didnt want to invest in EMP initially in 2000. Consequently Sony is not able to learn from the Ericsson for the core handset technology. Furthermore, EMP is one of the most advanced research center for GSM and 3G technology. To sustain the operation, EMP sells products to Sony-Ericsson, Samsung, and Nokia. And Sony-Ericsson didnt have any advantage from it. From Sonys point of view, its able to enter the international mainstream market of mobile phone via the joint venture. In this collaboration, Sony can utilize the advantage of product design. Sony also learn a lot from western company on business management for example suppl y chain management, which contributes a lot on Sonys global expansion. The experience of collaboration also has been considered as internal good practice . later on collaborated with Ericsson, Sony also collaborates with companies as DoCoMo in other business. Sigurdson, 2004 The performance of Sony-Ericsson compare to the initial purpose isnt so good. Especially in 2008, Sony and Ericsson had to inject 1.8 million Euro to Sony-Ericsson again to overcome the economic crisis. And Sony showed disappoint on this collaboration in terms of disagreement on business strategy. Up to now, even Sony entered the mainstream market. It still cant compete with other major competitors in the market.Before the collaboration, Ericsson obtained 10% market share in the mobile phone market. But Ericsson kept on losing money and market share. Meanwhile, the high operation cost of EMP drive the company to seek for a partner to share or take over the operation cost. Ericsson has a good base in terms of i nfrastructure, handset technology, and operator relationship. However, the mainstream of mobile phone became multi-functional mobile. Ericsson has no experience and strength on that. Sony became the best choice to cooperate. The initial idea of Ericsson is to sell all handset business include the core technology. But top management didnt want to abandon the mobile business and then its very important to persevere the technology within the company. The collaboration with Sony enables Ericsson to focus on 3G technology development. From Ericssons point of view, the collaboration with Sony brought them technology of multimedia expertise which Sony is one of the advanced companies in the world. However, all the Research and Development of screen and camera are conducted in Japan directly. Ericsson has not been involved in it. The success point of this collaboration to Ericsson, its able to produce the mobile phone to satisfy customers increasing needs. through with(predicate) the coll aboration, Ericsson also learned product design from Sony, which is different with Ericsson. And the Japan-based company enable the company understand the trends from the advanced mobile market. Furthermore, Ericsson also learned management skill from the Japanese company. But according to the performance of Sony-Ericsson, the market share cant catch with Nokia and Samsung. They have fiercely competition with Motorola and LG in the main market.From both of their view, this collaboration is not easy to be conducted. Due to many issues and conflicts, Sony-Ericsson cant achieve a maximum profit and increase the market share as expected. Technically, Sony Ericsson combined the core technology from Ericsson mobile business and Sonys multimedia technology. This form of collaboration worked well in the first 3 years. Walkman mobile phone was released very successful. However, todays mobile phone has been expected a lot from customers. Sony-Ericsson didnt cooperate well to work on the RD on new technology. The two companies still have a lot of conflicts on the business concept, and the inefficacy management on that may lead to an end of the cooperation. From the point view of the profitability, this collaboration didnt achieve the expectation in the first two years until the third quarter of 2003. During the economic crisis period, Sony-Ericsson experienced tough time. The parent companies have expected payback in the last 10 years. The get ahead research can be conducted to discuss whether Sony-Ericsson can be more successful. And it also can be compared to the collaboration between Siemens and BenQ.