Abstract

Technological change can either create or destroy profits, markets and industries. Examples of significant technological impact on business are numerous from the invention of the steam engine to gene splicing. A company that integrates technology into its strategy significantly improves its chance of reaping benefits from technological changes. Whether it decides to be a technological leader or not, the results of integrating technology into strategy can improve a company's determination of priorities among technology options, identify the technical resources needed to achieve business goals, and speed up the movement of ideas into production. The company can also focus better on its internal technical efforts and tune its external technical monitoring to specific issues facing the business. In the past, most of the frameworks for strategy development have been based either on marketing or on financial considerations such as market segments, market position, investment requirements and cash flows.