Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology-Based Firms

While innovation may be the lifeblood of technology based industry, it does not guarantee success to the individual firm within it. The ability to bring useful and desirable products to market in a timely, cost-effective fashion requires the unique talents of managers armed with an arsenal of modern principles and methodologies specifically geared to the technology invention and innovation process. But even in technology based firms, many managers have only scant technical background, while scientists and engineers may have little or no management training. And courses on managing technology based firms are currently taught only in a meager handful of universities. This book grew out of Michael J. C. Martin's experiences developing and teaching courses in managing technological innovation-entrepreneurship to business, engineering, and science students. It provides a dynamic framework within which managers from virtually any professional background can develop efficient, highly productive work systems guaranteed to maximize a high-tech firm's competitive edge. Throughout, the emphasis is on leveraging a company's strategic advantage. To that end, the author provides a host of "battle-tested" tools of the trade, including technology development programs, industry- and market-specific strategic plans, R&D project planning techniques, socioeconomic forecasting and market analysis techniques, and techniques for matching company capabilities with customer and product demands. All of the tools and techniques presented are applicable to the development of a broad range of products, from small high-tech consumer goods to large and complex systems such as aircraft and heavy weapons technology. Anindispensable survival tool in today's hypercompetitive international high-tech marketplace, Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology Based Firms is must reading for industrial engineers, project managers, and R&D managers.