Mountain Surfing

Numerous studies, articles and books have remarked recently on a key governance gap for many technology companies boards of directors. Attention to this issue arises from survey results that show only about 14% of technologies focused companies have well developed global technology intelligence scanning practices. What expectations and fiduciary assessment practices should be instituted in the boardroom to assess how well management can explain the companys product development strategy in terms of the ever changing global technologies landscape and the competition?

These 7 questions represent the strategic questions mentioned in recent publications that should be asked of CEOs.

1 - Do we have a complete view of what our technology stacks are? Does our picture of the technology stacks include potential disruptive as well as sustaining options?
Does management have a clear and up-to-date understanding of the technology innovation landscapes for all of the layers of our technology stacks?

2 - What is the sense of urgency regarding the opportunities and risks that exist in our technology stack? Is there consensus among company stakeholders about the strategic priorities of the technologies in these stacks in terms of the current competitiveness of the companys technology portfolio and strategic innovation roadmap? What compelling visual tools are used to ensure people see it and believe it, regarding urgency and impact?

3 - What is our on-going process for technology innovation intelligence gathering, and how do we ensure that we are getting the most reliable information? If the service or data is being outsourced, how do we ensure that the analysis is tuned to our companys specific strategies, rather than being generically common data that any competitors in this marketplace can also view and act upon?

4 - Are we able to involve our key domain experts in the technology innovation discovery and analysis process early enough in the process for them to spot truly innovative, out-of-the-box ideas that no one else would perceive? What process and tools are in place to ensure that whoever in the company that might contribute to the discovery of viable insights is kept in the loop early on when creative ideas can still have time to be considered. Outsiders cant generate some of the insightful business ideas that can connect in the minds of people who are living and breathing a business daily are we involving the right internal people in the process?

5 - How effective are we at finding potential technology partners and assessing the true synergistic value of their technology? Do we have a way to do thorough homework on potential partners technologies capabilities before approaching them? Are we able to surprise them with how much we know about their capabilities and intents, so we can quickly get to the real truths? Can we easily prove to them with hard data the profit-making synergistic technologies fits of our proposed partnering ideas?

6 - Do we have a clear picture of what real intellectual property barriers in a technology area look like? Do we have built into the process the analysis and visualizations that can give us the confidence to know why and when to say no? Especially before we decide on our strategic direction of new initiatives, and begin to invest and develop or acquire technology? Alternatively, can we easily drill down deep into the data that proves a winning ideas technology risk proposition?

7 - Who in our organization fully understands our technology landscape and can present our technology innovation strategic plan in a way that everyone can understand it? How deep is our bench? Is everyone visualizing the companys future from the same playbook? Could each and every one of the key managers in R&D, or Business Development, or Marketing, or Partnering pinch hit for the CEO on this subject? Could they each make a strategic level technology landscape presentation to the Board in terms that the Board would understand?

Most importantly a final question, if we cant do this all now, can we get most of these answers in time for the next board meeting in 8 weeks?

Greg Narog, Oval Ideas, Inc. Oval Ideas is a provider of software tools and methods to technologies products based companies, helping them visualize and validate global technology innovation and product strategies in a market context. Click here for more information Knowing beats guessing.

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