Financial Benefits of Analyzing Emerging Technology
There is one primary question most business executives ask when considering the adoption of emerging technology: what kind of economic return will I get in proportion to the expenditure? That question is of paramount concern to businesses ranging from sole proprietorships to Multi-National Corporations (Rheingold, 1994, 32-28). Answering that question has given rise to a new profession -- technology managers, or TMs (Chesbrough & Teece, 1996, 68).
In a commercial situation, TMs are responsible, as a rule, for five main areas: a) keeping upper management informed about new technologies that might improve profitability, b) keeping all current technology (computers, phones, fax machines, and so on) operational, c) supervising training for all divisions within a company to ensure that workers are maximally efficient, d) maintaining cost and production analyses for the technology currently in use, and e) making educated guesses about the future needs of the company to ensure that the company remain competitive while staying within budget. To accomplish these various tasks, the TM is constantly requested to prepare analytical reports for management's consideration (Watson, 1998, 1).
The structural premise of this analysis is to treat it as a typical technology report dealing with the following problem. Using a hypothetical company, Abdulla Mahij (AM) Service, that is a 100-employee firm specializing in answering research questions. The company is located in Saudi Arabia and there are only two similar firms that can be considered competition. (Both of these firms are owned by Multi-National Corporations and are having troubles adapting to the rigorous cultural differences of doing business in the Mid East. AM is the only research service in the country that is owned and operated completely by Saudis.
(This analysis is written as if it were a Technology Report, similar...