CHAPTER 1

HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

By
Dr. Norhadilah Abdul Hamid
Department of Management and Technology
Faculty of Technology Management and Business
University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do
doesn’t mean it’s useless” –

Thomas Edison (Inventor)

• Technology is a Greek word that came
from the combination of two words,
which are techne; meaning for art and
logos; meaning for logic or science.
Thus, technology means the art of logic
or the art of scientific discipline.

• All the knowledge, products, processes,

tools, methods and systems employed
in the creation in goods or providing
services (Khalil, 2000).
 Benefits of Technology
• Technology can be applied in almost everything we do in our lives through
transportation, education, manufacturing, data security and for business
development.
• Example:
– Oil and Gas Companies : adopt clean energy production to reduce non-renewable
oil and gas.
– Communication : Phones, computers, emails, fax, or social networking sites (SNS)
such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.
– Learning: Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Homeschooling, Cubetto, Bring
Your Own Devices or BYOD, Flipped Classroom and many more
– Entertainment: Netflix, Iflix and YouTube, and revolutionary cinemas for more lively
experiences
– Transportation: flying delivery drone from Amazon Prime Air, driverless Tesla cars by
Elon Musk, buses by Amphicoach, supersonic aeroplane (where packages are
safely sent to customers in 30 minutes or less using drones), electric bus and
Hyperloop tunnel from New York City to Washington D.C by Elon Musk
• Tesla Model S – Driverless car

https://m.media- Speedy Hyperloop

amazon.com/images/G/01
/acs/test/jr/121216/Prime https://www.cnet.com/videos/see-a-full-scale-
Amphicoach Bus AirVideo._CB509077587_. hyperloop-test-track/
mp4
EVOLUTION BY AGE OF TECHNOLOGY
CIVILIANS vs TECHNOLOGY
Civilizations Technology
Egyptians Big Cities, Huge Pyramids,
Magnificent Temples - to store
crops.

Chinese Pottery, forged armor, built

walls – to defend country.

Japan Robotics, Bullet Train, Mobile

phone – to gain better life.
Classification of Technology
New Technology
• Any newly introduced or implemented
technology that has an explicit impact on the
way a company produces products or provides
services.

• The technology could be around for many years,

but if it is newly introduced into an
organization, it is considered a new technology.
• Has profound effect on improving productivity
and maintaining competitive business
enterprise.

• Examples? : Foldimate Machine

Emerging Technology
• Any technology that is not yet fully
commercialized but will become so within about
5 years.

• It may be currently in limited use but is

expected to evolve significantly.

• Create new industries and may make existing

ones obsolete.

Examples:Elon Musk’s plans and effort to colonise

with the people to the Mars by rocket in year 2024
High Technology
• Refers to the advances or sophisticated
technologies.

• Utilized by a wide variety of industries

having certain characteristics.

• High tech companies:

• Employs highly educated people
• Technology is changing at a faster rate
• Competes with technological innovation
• High levels of R & D expense

Examples: Uniti, a high technology Swedish

electric car
Low Technology
• Refers to the technologies that have permeated
large segments of human society.

• Low technology companies:

• Employs people with relatively low level of
education
• Uses manual/semi automated operation
• Low R & D expense
• Technology base used is stable with little change
• Products to satisfy basic human needs

Examples: Furniture
Medium Technology
• A wide set of technologies that fall
between high and low technologies

• Usually refer to mature

technologies that are more
amendable than others to
technology transfer

Examples : Automotive industries

Codified Technology
• This technology is not easily understood by
people who are not used to work with it.
• It is based on coding and is encrypted. Thus,
it can easily transfer information if
understood correctly.
• Codified technology is the technology that is
transferred in coding and enables to show
how it works.
• It is also precise and faster to be transferred,
as compared to tacit technology

Examples : Blueprint or technical drawing

Tacit Technology
• Tacit technology is any technology that has no consistency in
the way it is offered or disclosed to a big audience.
• It is experience-based, where technology developers are the
ones who have the know-how question.
• It is usually conveyed through demonstration or observation.
This is followed by assimilation by those who seek the
knowledge.
• It occurs through close interaction between the source and
the host. However, the transfer process is difficult, less precise
and more time-consuming. Tacit cannot be easily written or
verbalised.
• It is only through observation and assimilation

Examples : skills like speaking a language, playing a music

instrument, carving a figurine out of a piece of wood, or playing
the skateboard
 ROLE OF FIRMS IN TECHNOLOGY
ENVIRONMENT
– The drivers of change in the environment.
• By creating new products, processes and materials, they alter the rules of competition, transform
industries and create new industries.

– The beneficiaries of change initiated by others.

• By adopting more efficient technologies into their products and processes, performance can be
improved and value can be created.

– The facilitators of technology development

• By investing in other parties’ research projects.

– The victims of technology change

• When a competitor introduces a new product or when new technology transforms industries,
corporations may face the threat of obsolescence.
 MANAGEMENT
• Art of carrying a business.

• Involves directing and controlling an organization and steering it

toward achieving its objectives.

• Needs an understanding of human and organizational behaviour.

• Include planning, organizing, staffing, motivating and controlling

functions.
FOUR FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERIAL
PROCESS
 MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY
• Management of technology is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the
planning, development and implementation of technological capabilities to
shape and accomplish the operational and strategic objectives of an
organisation (Khalil, 2011).

• An interdisciplinary field that integrates science, engineering and

management knowledge & practice (Khalil, 2000).
• The focus is on technology as the primary factor in wealth creation.
• Wealth creation involves more than just money, - enhancement of
knowledge, intellectual capital, effective exploitation of resources,
preservation of the natural environment and others factors that
contribute to raising standard of living and quality of life.
 How to
Technology
management  manage the
technology

*Refers to the technology used to manage organizations or certain functions

Eg: MIS, ICT, E-commerce

JTH3033 Chapter 1 20
 FRAMEWORK IN TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT

• Technology management creates a linkage among science,

engineering & management disciplines.

• The ability to become a competitive enterprise and sustain

economic growth is affected by the economic system, technical
capabilities & trade conditions.
 THE PROCESS OF MANAGING TECHNOLOGY
Consider the example of iBOT:

• Invented by Dean Kamen, who saw how difficult it

was for someone to handle a wheelchair in
settings that were not flat, such on stairs.

• He sought to build a chair that could stand up and

balance like human -- A wheelchair that could
carry a person up and down stairs.
 The iBOT Case

• The engineers need to design the product…

• The financial experts have to underwrite the costs…

• The marketing experts have to test the product, ensure actual

acceptance of product and educate individuals the benefits of this
product...

• It not only took the vision of one person to see a different solution, but
it took an entire organization to develop the product!
KEY DECISION IN MANAGING TECHNOLOGY

• The firm must determine if it wants to be a leader or follower in its

industry.
– Both has own benefits, but the choice will result in the firm
taking radically different measures.

• The firm must also determine whether it will develop its own new
technology or buy the technology.
– Each approach has benefits and drawbacks that need to be
weighed by the firm itself.
 CONT’D
• The firm needs to determine the scope of products or services
it wants to offer.
– Determine how it can leverage its technology and innovations to
create a total platform of products and processes.

• The firm must also determine the scale of products or

services.
– How it will price the products, where it will market the products, and
where it will manufacture the products.
 NATURE OF MOT

INTERDISCIPLINARY
PROCESS GOAL ORIENTED SYSTEM
MIX

INVOLVES RISK SOCIALLY BENEFICIAL EVOLUTIONARY

 PROCESS
• From the MoT viewpoint, an organisation is believed to be a dynamic
structure of integrated systems organised by a management team that is
seeking to achieve such business targets.
• The biggest problem in the field of new technology growth now is not how
to break via technical differences, but how to make the best possible use of
current technology eligible for use.
• This requires the process of articulation, i.e. the process of searching and
selection of technological possibilities.
• From this point of view, every organisation must meet a set of minimum
skills and expertise criteria, in order to fulfil an acceptable cost-
effectiveness relationship in its processes, and sustain the standard level
identified by the market and the environment it operates in
 GOALS ORIENTED
• Innovation is the crucial key that determines the firm’s growth.
• Ultimate goal of an organisation - to satisfy the customers’ wants
and needs.
• In particular, start-ups and creative companies are driven by long-
term objectives rather than the maximisation of short-term gains.

• Despite the fact that the company is free to formulate its action
plan, it cannot always do so without taking into consideration some
of the most powerful stakeholders ' needs and prescriptions.
 INTERDISCIPLINARY MIX
• “Integration is a making of a whole or entire where the whole to be
the result of integration is, in this context, technology
management”.
• This reflects the fact that the field of technology management has
become truly interdisciplinary, stressing the need to learn how to
integrate numerous fields and experiences, and also includes their
diversification and incorporation.
• Employees need to be able to work together as interdisciplinary
teams in the implementation and management of the business
operations.
 SYSTEM
• Technology leverages this knowledge to boost the efficiency of
goods, processes and services, as well as their overall utility.
• Some innovations in technology are incremental innovations,
which lead to the development of a new but not
fundamentally different system.
• Architectural advances aim to expand the radical-incremental
concept of innovation and incorporate the notion of
improvements in the way products or systems are connected
together.
 INVOLVES RISK
• Technological threats are becoming increasingly prominent and risky.
• If data is stolen from a client, electrical outages occur at an overseas
factory, or there is simply a lack of infrastructure in a developing nation
where you work, technical risks can be extremely dangerous.
• Cyber-attacks, DoS attacks, data breaches, password theft and incidents of
information protection are all technological risks that endanger the
organisation.
• When it comes to these types of technology danger, those who hack the
system and access confidential information may either be outsiders or
insiders — personnel within your own company or in your supply chain
 SOCIALLY BENEFICIAL
• An example of an organisation that commits social benefits to
society is Phillips.
• From year 2009, Philips’ Business adapted the aspects of
sustainability and managed to cover all the aspects that
practise eco-friendly concept, by reducing the environmental
and ecological “footprints” of all their production of goods.
• Since 2004, they have a strong standing with ‘green products’
that could improve the environments
 EVOLUTIONARY
• Technology is an important engine of creativity both in innovation
evolution and proliferation.
• Apple is one of the giant companies that has produced revolutionary
products. What was the first product from Apple? It was a computer, more
precisely the Apple I of 1976, which distinctly had convenient circuitry and
usability of computer terminals. Jobs and Wozniak have had to sell the
costly calculator for Jobs' VW Microbus and Wozniak to pay for their recent
development. Steve Jobs came to reveal that they were about to launch a
handset, the first iPhone was born and released to the public a few months
later, on 29 June 2007. The iPhone was the first touch screen phone to
have an MP3 player (iPod) device and a fully functional web browser; it
was truly a great breakthrough.
 DRIVERS IN MOT
• Change in Technology
• Change in Scope
• Change in Competition
• Change in Asset Valuation
• Change in Focus for National Competitiveness
• Change in Emphasis on Knowledge Management
EXERCISE

• In group of five, identify various

technologies according to different era
• Explain how these technologies impacted
the society during that era
The end.
 CONTACT ME

+60-0127421076

hadilah@uthm.edu.my

Fb:

Department of Production and Operation Management,

Faculty of Technology Management and Business
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
THANK YOU
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)
86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat
Johor, Malaysia

Tel: +607-453 7000

Fax: +607-453 6337

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