Creating Technology Strategies: How to Build Competitive Biomedical R&d Hardcover - 1997 - 1st Edition

From the rear cover

"In an environment of intensifying global competition, deployment of technology is becoming the strategic battlefield of the international marketplace." --National Critical Technologies Panel.

Creating Technology Strategies prepares business and scientific leaders in the biomedical industries to battle for dominance in the global marketplace. It closes the gap between R&D scientists' and corporate executives' understanding of the relationship between R&D decisions and the achievement of business objectives. In doing so, the book creates a blueprint to guide the day-to-day and long-term allocation of science and technology resources and helps achieve a consistency among corporate, R&D, program, and project decisions.

Alice M. Sapienza, a scholar and strategic consultant to biomedical firms, explains the special issues of concern to these firms and some of the pressures on their leadership to invest in and manage R&D resources wisely. She provides a conceptual foundation for understanding the technology life cycle and supplies tools with which the leadership team can.

• Analyze the external environment and take advantage of the competitive situation
• Codify the firm's competitive position in terms of the technology it possesses
• Develop a strategic vision that encourages consistent R&D investments
• Determine the consequences of and requirements for changing the firm's competitive position
• Assess the fit of external knowledge sources (new recruits, acquired firms, etc.) with the biomedical firm
• Implement competitive technology strategy at program and project levels.

Supplemented with strategic investment assessment guidelines for both industry insiders and nonindustry venture capitalists, Creating Technology Strategies covers both macro and micro R&D issues. For R&D scientists, managers, and potential investors in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic industries, this book provides much of the information needed to understand the complex and crucial issues of biomedical R&D strategy.

How to compete successfully in an industry unlike any other . . .

A direct relationship to public and personal health; a three-part consumer base consisting of medical professionals, third-party payers, and patients; a high level of government regulation; and the intensely emotional nature of many of the decisions that must be made--this combination of factors sets the biomedical industry apart from all others when it comes to determining R&D strategies. In this book, a leading industry consultant, Dr. Alice Sapienza, speaks directly to biomedical scientists, corporate strategists, and R&D managers. Dr. Sapienza sorts through the many complex issues that affect both business and R&D decisions and arrives at sensible conclusions that enable biomedical firms to maximize the effectiveness of R&D programs while strengthening their competitive position. The approaches developed in Creating Technology Strategies will be of particular interest to

• Members of the R&D leadership team, who must understand, design, and implement a technology strategy that supports the achievement of business goals.
• Corporate management, who must better understand the role of science and technology in the attainment of strategic objectives.
• R&D scientists, who must assess and manage programs and projects in ways that are consistent with corporate and technology strategies.
• Investors, who must analyze a biomedical firm's competitive position before committing their resources.

"Dr. Sapienza provides an extremely useful framework for R&D based companies to use in attempting to realign their business strategies. . . . [She] touches on many of the critical elements of the competitive technology environment. . . . [The book provides] a highly effective vehicle to allow groups of key decision makers . . . to understand the future of the research-based biomedical research industry for the 21st century." --Michael Williams, Ph.D., D.Sc., Vice President, Neuroscience Research, Abbott Laboratories

"[It] is well worth reading and thinking about. . . . includes several hypothetical cases . . . bringing to life some of the more difficult conceptual material. Dr. Sapienza brings an intimate knowledge . . . of technology and strategic issues facing the leadership of many knowledge-based organizations today." --Muzammil Mansuri, Ph.D., Vice President, MITOTIX.

"I am impressed . . . it presents a sophisticated, but realistic, approach to the problems facing the biopharmaceutical industry in defining and implementing a relevant business and research strategy. . . . Dr. Sapienza has caught the flavor excellently." --J.D. Fitzgerald, M.D., Materia Medica.