Management of Technology and Innovation: Competing through Technological Excellence

Management of Technology and Innovation: Competing Through Technological Excellence By P N Rastogi 2nd Edition, Response Books (An Imprint of Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India, 2009, Pages: xv+368, Price: ?395 ISBN:978 81 321 0083 6As business operations become more technology intensive, management of technology has become a topic of professional and academic interest. Technology, if managed well, can bring unprecedented gains. The book by P N Rastogi is a welcome addition to the existing literature in the area. The book qualifies as an extremely good review of literature on the subject of management of technology and innovation from diverse perspectives. It covers the fundamental concepts and themes, in the areas of manufacturing technology, product and technological development, related organizational theory and covers even the role of government. The author has provided additional content on the theme of wealth creation through a conceptual framework of technological excellence, human capital, social capital and knowledge management.The book comprises 19 chapters. These chapters are organized into 5 parts based on their topicality. Chapter 1 serves the purpose of setting the context of the book. It discusses the role of technology in driving global industrial competition and lists how technological developments have resulted in a revamp of old business models and have spawned new and innovative business forms.Part I of the book introduces the underlying concepts and themes for Management of Technology and Innovation. These are presented in two chapters. Chapter 2 describes the strategic issues involved in management of technology and their interrelationships. The chapter presents a lucid description of the three axes of manufacturing activities. These are used effectively to highlight the importance of the three components namely, Transformation, Finalization and Information. The chapter further lists how the change in technology affects the three. Drawing parallels between the service and product industries, the author explains how a trade off between the three can be used by different industries to achieve the same level of efficiency. The author introduces the four basic interrelated components of technology namely: Technoware, Humanware, Inforware and Orgaware which will help readers understand that technology management is much more than technology alone. A well laid out technology strategy is important for every organization. Chapter 3 of the book discusses in detail how technology strategy forms the basis of technology management. The choice of strategy depends on the organization's ability to sense its environment, identify the need based on the competition, and, implement at an organizational level. The author presents tools that can be used by organizations to evaluate their technological effort which will be of great value for a practitioner.Part II of the book covers Technology Management in the domain of manufacturing technology. It is organized into five chapters. Chapter 4 of the book introduces its readers to how technological innovations can improve productivity. The chapter includes productivity techniques which can be used for improving production operations such as motion study, ergonomics, works/methods study, value analysis, etc. A very good overview of the systematic guiding principles is drawn from the seminal studies in the area. The author has further discussed Quality Circles Programs, two tier/ three tier circles and other variations such as Productivity Quality teams (PQ) and Quality Error Removal (QER) techniques for technology management. Chapter 5 of the book addresses the key topic of Technology Absorption, i.e. acquisition or development, assimilation, and, utilization of technological knowledge and capability from an external source. A detailed description of the different channels of technology acquisition, transfer and the basic issues thereof is given.