Technological strategy and innovation process À method to coordonate them

Innovating consists of launching new activities based on novelty: products, processes, services, organization or business model. In so doing, the company modifies its professional practices to varying degrees. Indeed, the development and industrialization of a new product leads to changes in the internal workings of many departments. For example, in the choice of raw materials and suppliers, in quality control, in production processes and operating conditions, in packaging, or in the choice of distribution channels, to name but a few. All these elements, together with the associated know-how and internal routines, make up what is known as the "technological system". Experience shows that the greater these changes are, the more complex and essential it is to simultaneously manage product innovation and the adaptation of the technological system. Major innovations carried out by existing companies illustrate this phenomenon perfectly: for example, car manufacturers are in the process of acquiring skills in information and communication technology to launch the connected car, while banks are equipping their maintenance and IT departments to handle innovation in ATMs and online banking.

Failure to consider and anticipate the impact of an innovative project on the company's technological system can result in a high risk of project failure, and even jeopardize the company's viability (see the cases of "Kodak", "Nokia" and "BlackBerry", to name the best-known).

But steering the evolution of a company's key capabilities cannot be as simple as launching a research program or changing a workshop's tooling. It requires coherent planning and formalization of technical design, allocation of financial resources and adaptation of skills and knowledge over the medium term. Innovative companies ensure consistency between decisions on the product within the framework of a given project and decisions on skills and equipment for the company as a whole within the framework of a strategic technological program.

Things work both ways: innovation influences strategy, which in turn impacts design choices. Innovation and technological strategy are two aspects that need to be coordinated: the question is how!

In France, under the impetus of Jacques Morin, technological strategy was introduced in the 1980s, with the aim of providing a tool for the process of building technological strategy and determining which businesses would be the most profitable for the company in the future.

In this article, we provide the basics of technology resource management, then detail the concrete approach to building a technology strategy consistent with innovation. Finally, we illustrate this approach with a case study. Note that the...