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FILLING A VOID IN TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

1.  The continuously expanding technological universe is the most dominating and dynamic macro force impacting on every business.

  • Every day there is a global outburst of new technologies: New materials (M), new forms of energy (E), and new ways of handling information (I)
  • One half of economic growth is directly attributable to new technologies
  • But technological advances also cause unwanted outcomes: too many innovations fail; billions of dollars are wasted each year on poor technological investments; technology causes pollution that destroys the very life-giving forces of nature
  • Why is this so?

2.  According to mainstream technological literature, there is an anomaly in technological knowledge

  • Specific knowledge of individual specialties is brilliant; integrative knowledge of how they fit together is virtually non-existent
  • Formal studies of the expanding technological universe are not pursued in the fields of engineering, corporate management or S&T policy
  • There is a sensitive void in technological knowledge
  • This void impedes clear management and policy initiatives

3. The creators of Strategic Technology Analysis (STA) recognized this void in the seventies and developed the concepts and constructs to fill it

  • STA provides the rudiments of a formal body of integrative technological knowledge
  • It views technology as a phenomenon in its own right
  • It focuses on the inherent characteristics of technology
  • It is based on a natural order covering all technologies

4.  STA provides the basis for academic courses, executive education seminars and a highly innovative research program

  • It has laid the groundwork for integrative technological knowledge
  • Much remains to be done to include integrative knowledge in mainstream technological literature

5. STA confers on participants an innate sense of technological destiny, it helps them to more effectively grasp, guide and communicate technology

  • It makes possible managerial actions that were not possible before, like technological positioning – aligning corporate strategy with opportunities along the technological frontier

Rias J van Wyk, Director: Technoscan® Centre, P.O. Box 390516, Edina, MN 55439
E-mail: host@technoscan.com.  Web: www.technoscan.com.
Telephone: 952 885 1979
Date: 2013.07.31