Monitoring the technological environment

For both defensive and aggressive reasons, knowledge of technological developments is essential to the long-term competitive success and survival of a firm. Such knowledge is necessary both at strategic and operational levels within the firm. It is insufficient, particularly at the strategic level, for a firm to limit itself to knowledge of the technologies with which it is experienced and the cultures with which it is familiar. Technological threats increasingly come from rival technologies and countries wish which we share neither language nor tradition. The paper, based on research at the Technical Change Centre, suggests that there is still a great deal that British firms can do at all levels to improve their ability to monitor technical change.