Isabela Marie S.

Mendez

1. In the Philippine setting, how can alliances and collaborations amongst and
between companies contribute to the development of various industries in the
country? How can it contribute to our economic development? What are the
critical elements/components that must be present to leverage on the benefits of
alliances and collaborations? Likewise, be able to cite the “dark side” of doing
alliances and collaborations, if any. Expound by citing examples.

The power of alliances and collaboration among and between businesses drives
substantial development in our country, resulting in transformation, significant economic
growth, and profit. It is also a way that would provide an avenue for businesses to work
together toward a common goal. There are various organizations that have been
founded to form strategic alliances or partnerships in order to collaborate on specific
product initiatives or to address current issues in our country. Companies from various
sectors in the Philippines pursue their own programs and projects, but we should realize
the benefits of alliances and collaboration in order to enhance efficiency, save money
through shared expenses, and combine skills and abilities.

Alliances and collaborations foster innovation by combining resources such as

research, technical skills, knowledge, and expertise to develop new or distinct products
and services. Since team members are in a collaborative mode, it can offer multiple
viewpoints and inputs for solving a nation’s need, the chances of creating disruptive
technologies are highly likely.

Despite our economy’s rapid expansion, the Philippines continues to fall behind in the
fields of science, technology, and innovation. Strengthening the link between companies
may aid to alleviate poverty through job creation and income generation. This can also
strengthen the supply and value chain, improve the skilled workforce and the quality of
the products and services by participating in economic development. Private companies'
alliances and development also contribute to economic growth through partnerships
with the public sector in the functions of transportation, infrastructure, healthcare,
education services, etc. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, business groups are
brought together to form collaborations in support of projects focused on helping Filipino
families in this pandemic. There are also other implications of COVID-19 in forming
alliances and collaborations with the private sector in partnership with governments to
develop and procure vaccines.

Based on the reference slides from Dr. Posadas, there are factors that you need to
consider in leveraging the benefits of alliances and collaborations such as the factors
that create advantages or disadvantages of collaborative arrangements by identifying
the type of the company and its core technology, the alignment of vision and strategy of
the companies, and on how your partnership will support the business goals. It is critical
to assess company compatibility as well as review the needs and assets. To gain the
benefits of alliances and collaboration, structure, policies, and processes must be
established to avoid overstepping. You must be able to accept change when forming
alliances and organizations in order to achieve long-term success resulting in
trust-building and improvement of relationships between parties.

When corporations form alliances and collaborate on a project, there are unavoidable
problems that may arise and dangers involved when you have undefined roles, tasks
are not aligned, and unclear goal-setting and expectations within the group. Even if the
agreement is clear for both parties, there may be variations in how each organization
does its business. Apple with Intel on its Macs comes to mind as a company that
created alliances or collaborations that failed or ended. Personally, I am an Apple user
who discovered this when researching if the Mac with the M1 chip is superior to the
Intel-based Mac. They claim that Intel has slipped behind in manufacturing and had
some challenges over the last couple of years, allowing Apple to gain a competitive
advantage. Circumstances change, and a lack of adaptation may result. Many
partnerships in the technology business have fallen apart as a result of increased rivalry
after acquisitions and when they are no longer beneficial to each other.
One party may become reliant on the other in a long-term strategic alliance. Alliances
should be adaptable, with no need to merge funds and the ability to operate
independently of one another.

2. If a company is on the losing side of the business, is technology assessment a

key factor to save the company? If yes, explain how technology assessment will
redeem the company from extinction. In addition, would you also suggest
technology forecasting as a tool that must be employed by the company? Why or
why not?

Technology assessment can be used to estimate the impact of new technologies on a

company's internal operations, other firms' operations, society, and the environment. It
can be a crucial instrument for facilitating sustainable development and technology
management. However, it can also be useful in making decisions and for companies
that need serious rebuilding. As per Porter (2012), the definition of Technology
Assessment has evolved. In the perspective of Coates (1976), it is a systematic study of
the effects on society when technology is introduced, updated, and modified. Lastly,
according to Baark (1991), TA can aid in tracking the evolution of technological
innovation in terms of regulatory, promotional, constructive, and experimental.
Technology assessment helps the state to be proactive on the innovations of technology
as it is inevitable, it should also assist in the formulation of policies to foster
technological innovation for the sake of national competitiveness or development. In
terms of constructive and experimental, the development of technologies responds to
social and political priorities as the organization performs social experiments to improve
their products to innovate.

Conducting further analysis of their value chain to better understand the particular
needs and challenges of the firm at present and continuous review and monitoring of
emerging technologies as part of a technology assessment can help a company build
an effective life cycle plan for its process and technologies in order to raise market
awareness. You must remain open to the issues in terms of your product and
customers, and focus on enhancing data documentation in order to easily locate actual
problems and drive more revenues from the analysis.

Given that the company is in trouble, we can consider the function of technology
forecasting alongside technology assessment as a method to monitor and anticipate
future project opportunities and skills development. It is more of a future-oriented
direction of an organization. Foresighting is necessary for successfully managing the
current from the future. (Porter et al. 1991). Through this approach, failures that have
occurred can be used to determine what improvements the organization should do in
order to grow and improve based on previous data. As a result, forecasting can reduce
the loss associated with uncontrollable occurrences outside of the organization while
maximizing the benefit from events that are dependent on the company's previous
activities. Having insights into your existing business while evaluating it, then
forecasting trends and technologies, and merging this knowledge into useful insights
allows you to allocate and estimate your budget more accurately. Moreover, this can
assist to reevaluate current operations and processes while analyzing to implement new
technologies in the organization. To summarize, technology assessment has evolved
into a collection of foresight analysis personalized to meet certain needs of your
customers through disrupting innovations.

3. Explain the distinction between the actors/players and the institutions in a

system of innovation. By doing a quick search on the Internet and based on your
personal assessment, agree/disagree that our country has a national system of
innovation. Be able to explain your stand by citing examples and cases that
would support your assertions.

Upon my study and research, I agree that there is a Philippine National Innovation
System. We have come a long way to establish a national system of innovation that
refers to the R&D organizations, the role of private firms and of the government, the
alliances between universities to produce new technologies. Firms, universities,
technical training institutions, technological information systems, research and
development centers (RDCs), technology and resource centers (TRCs), financial
systems, and government are the primary components of the national innovation
system.

Firms. They are an essential component of the innovation system's structure since the
majority of the inventions are produced and adopted by the firms. Alliances with
universities and technical institutions are vital aspects of the structure through R&D. An
example response of a private sector is Pascual Laboratories when they adopt and
commercialized herbal products developed by the National Integrated Research
Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP) under DOST’s Philippine Council for Health
Research and Development (PCHRD), and produced “Lagundi” and “Sambong.”

Universities. Universities are the primary source of new knowledge, skills, and ideas
that make a significant and direct contribution to the industrial sector's development
(Patalinghug, 2002). In the Philippines, there’s a university-industry collaboration
organized by the alumnus of UP which is called the Manufacturing Linkage Program
and its main goal is to reinforce the manufacturing industry for engineering students.

Technical Training Institutions. These are skilled people from techvoc institutions; this
aspect of the innovation system provides corporations and industries with skilled
manpower. The private sector is the one that offers post-secondary or non-degree
courses of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the Philippines. In
the government sector, we have TESDA which supplies technical manpower training for
economic development.

Research and Development Centers/Technology and Resource Centers.

Institutions such as RDCs and TRCs are necessary to assist firms in gaining access to
external knowledge and technology. RDCs provide common R&D facilities to an
industry or firms like basic and applied research while TRCs are mainly providing
technology development and diffusion.

Technological Information Systems. Patents and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR),

Standards of technology, Publications or Documentations, and testing centers comprise
Technological Information Systems.
Financial Systems. A well-funded startup company provides a solid foundation and
gives off technological innovations. If capital is overly focused on short-term gains, it
will be a hindrance to the future development of enterprises' technological capacity.

Government. They actively fund research, development, and promote science as they
play a significant role in the innovation system. Underinvestment in R&D led to a lack of
competitive policies in the Philippines and market position.

There are adequate government agencies that have been established to formulate,
implement and coordinate the Science and Technology policies of our country’s national
system of innovation. To mention a few are DOST, which have been created from the
restructured National Science and Technology Authority (NSTA) and the agencies that
were created under DOST are the ff:
● Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) – to promote the
commercialization of technologies
● Science Education Institute (SEI) – to formulate plans for the development of
S&T education and training
● Science and Technology Information Institute (STII) – to maintain S&T data
system
● Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) – to undertake applied R&D in
industrial manufacturing, mineral processing, and energy
● Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) - to undertake R & D in
high-technology areas.

Evidently, there are abundant institutions that promote and uphold innovations however
our innovation system needs to catch up and highly requires support from the
government to ensure that the overall system runs efficiently. To develop and deploy
skilled employees or competitive Filipino workers as resources, collaboration among the
components of the innovation system should be increased.

4. To become a leader in the industry, a company should possess a form of

product that has a critical value capable of winning the allegiance of the market
place. In order to remain competitive and hold the title of “technology champion”,
a company must command a significant market following. Explain how can this
be achieved by a company? What will be the role of technical standards in
strengthening the business position of a company in the market?

Every technology champion or market leader should have a competitive strategy and
advantage to sustain their position in the industry. The Technology Leadership strategy,
for example, consists of building and maintaining a preeminent competitive position in
all technologies in order to gain a dominant market position. Being the first to introduce
technological changes or innovations is a competitive strategy in and of itself. Usually,
they take advantage of producing unique and low-cost products and services.
Industry-standard is also a significant aspect in a company's competitive position and
success while building technology in the market. Microsoft and Intel, for example, has
become technology champion in the computer industry because of their dominant
standards in terms of processors. Licensing, diversification of their products,
partnerships and market positioning are some of the strategic options a company may
consider alongside establishing a technical standard.

Developing a dominant design or technical standards on your products strengthens and

maintains your companies’ position in the market since you are the benchmark of other
companies when measuring the quality of a product, service, and process. By
innovating continuously, you can be one step ahead of your competitors. In this way,
you can respond to what your customers need by reacting quickly and adapting to
change. Imposing a dominant design on your competitors to prevent them from
developing alternative technologies and goods can provide you with a competitive edge.
To keep your competition at bay, you'll create a technology monopoly. The firm that
holds a “technology champion” will continue to flourish with the help of its marketing
strategy and advertising to persuade consumers of the “best design” of its products or
processes.

Some R&D outputs of technologies became standards for other firms or institutions,
signaling the start of the massive impact of technical standards on the development,
commercialization, and production of innovations. In order to ensure the quality of a
product or service, compliance with standards must be ensured to consumers.
Furthermore, this can greatly define their position in the market as “technology
champions.”

However, the term 'standard' must be used to refer to the technical specifications of the
reference, as well as the compatibility and connectivity of numerous components that
are essential for a product's interoperability. Competitors approach the market with a
variety of platform-based advances. The performance standardization happens during
the research and development to evaluate and determine the “best design.”

Multiple opportunities and competition among suppliers in the process of developing

complementary product elements may result in a wider response to the needs of the
consumers if a company keeps its dominating standard in the market.
5. Today is the first day of the newly-elected President of the Republic of The
Philippines, you have been summoned by the President as s/he needs an advice
on the topic “How can the Philippines Launch on a National Technological
Catch-Up Program?” The President doesn’t want to commit any mistake in
pursuing a national initiative that will affect the lives of millions of Filipinos. The
President also needs your honest assessment of how prepared the country is for
launching such a program. Be direct and concise as possible as the President is
a very impatient person. Cite all applicable concepts/principles that are helpful to
the President.

The Philippines have been left behind in terms of technological and industrial
advancements by other neighboring Asian countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan,
Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Brunei to name a few. We are laggards
when it comes to adopting new digital technologies. Support from the government will
be needed for this technology catch-up program to succeed. There are several stages
of innovation, first is research and development, deployment, and commercialization.
Each stage requires corresponding support, adequate funding for research and
development is needed while requiring critical assistance from the government in
deploying technology to reach its commercialization stage.

I would tell the newly-elected president honestly that our country has still a long way to
go in terms of the readiness to employ a technology catch-up program compared with
the aforementioned countries above, but it is necessary and the Philippines should
practice and be pursued to become globally competitive. As a technology management
student and a concerned citizen of the Philippines, I would offer help by recommending
based on what I've learned in our MTM classes. The following will be my
recommendations for the Launch of a National Technological Catch-Up Program in the
Philippines which will focus mostly on the role of the government, exporting strategies
and foreign investments, improvement needed of the industries’ linkages, investments
in foreign countries, education and upskilling, the importance of funding the R&D
programs, formulating technology strategies through technology entrepreneurship and
commercialization, technology diffusion, technology transfer, technology assimilation,
and technology acquisition.

Role of the Government. By incorporating technology management into its planning

and policy-making, the government plays a key role in aiding a technology catch-up
program involving several government agencies like DOST, DTI, DOE, DOTC, DA, and
NEDA. They must always assess their development status on a regular basis to
determine their strengths and weaknesses, and they should also learn from the
industries of other international firms to strengthen our country’s standing.
Exporting Strategies and Foreign Investments. Our government must push exporting
activities to constantly improve our products and processes and reach its global
competitiveness. Our Department of Industry should expedite international trade in
order to promote industrial development. To improve our industrial and economic
development, the Philippines should not solely rely on foreign direct investments. We
should strengthen our high-quality local suppliers and low-cost, it will then become
crucial to other countries or companies.

Industries Linkaging. Our government should encourage the development of the

horizontal or vertical linking of groups of industries. In the same way, this means more
opportunities will be given to SMEs by upgrading their technologies and increasing
linkage with larger firms leading to the dissemination of their products swiftly across the
different regions in the Philippines, as well as provinces.

Education and upskilling. Every improvement and development plan boils down to the
education and skill-building of Filipinos. In order to begin a national technical catch-up
program, the government, academe, and business sectors must collaborate to update
our education system and keep up with other innovative countries. Programs in science,
engineering, management, and business should grow and enact intensive programs to
boost the number of R&D scientists and engineers on a globally competitive scale.
Technology management in every curriculum of different college programs like
business, engineering, science, economics, and public administration should be
integrated. Continuous employee development, such as training programs, should be
necessary for the private sector to maintain skills and expertise.

Importance of funding the R&D programs. We have already formed R&D

organizations and have come a long way, but the job of the government, universities,
and private sectors is to collaborate and strengthen the national system of innovation
while maintaining portfolios of R&D projects. We should increase our R&D investments
and incentivize this as well to encourage innovation.

Technology Strategies through the application of the ff topics: technology

entrepreneurship and commercialization, technology diffusion, technology
transfer, technology assimilation, and technology acquisition. By applying some of
our learned lessons in our MTM classes, we should establish more technology
incubators to encourage R&D personnel to become entrepreneurs of their own
innovations to nurture and sustain partnerships. In deploying new technology, we should
disseminate the information and empower technological knowledge to Filipinos properly
by utilizing technologies and other organizations of the government. We should equip
our workforce to become instruments of innovation by developing technology transfers
as they entice SMEs to become suppliers and support local industries. The Philippines
should firmly adopt technology assimilation and upgrade imported technology so that
we may avoid becoming overly reliant on expensive foreign suppliers while also
improving our competitive advantage through incremental innovations, as emulated by
neighboring Asian countries’ technology catch-up programs.

References:

The Sustainability Institute by ERM. (2020, December). Leveraging The Power of

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Atienza, C. (2021, September 28). The dangers of collaboration. BusinessMirror.

Retrieved January 20, 2022, from
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Leswing, K. (2020, November 10). Apple is breaking a 15-year partnership with Intel on
its macs - here's why. CNBC. Retrieved January 20, 2022, from https://cnb.cx/3qQZEPZ

Posadas, R. (2013). Technology Assessment & Technology Forecasting, Technology

Management Center, University of the Philippines - Diliman.

Porter, A. (2012, February 6). Technology assessment. Retrieved January 20, 2022,
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Patalinghug, E. (2003, May). The Philippine National Innovation System: Structure and
Characteristics. Retrieved January 20, 2022, from
https://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/ris/dps/pidsdps0304.pdf

Fernández, E., & Valle, S. (2019). Battle for Dominant Design: A decision-making
model. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 25(2), 72–78.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2019.01.002
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... Research Gate. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://bit.ly/3ApUbmd

Posadas, R. (2006). TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND CATCH-UP

COMPETITIVENESS:
WHAT THE PHILIPPINES CAN LEARN FROM SOUTH KOREA AND TAIWAN.
Philippine Management Review.
https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pmr/article/view/1817/0q