Technology Management

Unit 8

Unit 8

Technology Generation and Development

Structure: 8.1 Introduction Objectives 8.2 Technology Generation Process Determinants 8.3 Technology Development Process Determinants Technology development approaches 8.4 Importance of Technology Generation and Development 8.5 Need for Technology Strategy 8.6 Importance of Research and Development (R&D) Corporate research and product lifetimes Production costs and R&D Translation of R & D efforts to technology 8.7 Summary 8.8 Glossary 8.9 Terminal Questions 8.10 Answers 8.11 Case Study

8.1 Introduction
Previous unit familiarised us with the different aspects and issues in technology management, including the change in technology, the life cycle of technology, and transformation of technology. Apart from these aspects, the unit enabled us to understand the different technology policies and technology instruments. We also discussed about different technology development options and strategies, the relationship between technology and socio-economic planning, and diffusion and growth of technologies. In this unit, we will study about the generation of technology, wherein we will study the process of technology generation, its importance, and its determinants. We will also study about the technology development, which will enable us to understand the technology development process, and the different technology development approaches. We will also analyse the need for
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technology strategy. We will also discuss about the importance of Research and Development (R&D), and its efforts are translated to technology. This unit will enable us to understand the importance of technology generation and development. Objectives: After studying this unit, you should be able to: Explain the process of technology generation and development, and its importance at the national and enterprise levels. Explain the need for technology strategy for continued competitiveness and growth of a firm. List out the determinants and their relationships in technology generation. Describe various approaches available for the development of technology at enterprise level. Identify the importance of R & D. List out various inputs required to translate the R & D efforts to technology.

8.2 Technology Generation

We will start our discussion with the meaning of technology generation. Technology generation and development is often identical with the term "Research and Development (R&D)". However, technology generation involves R&D efforts, while technology development involves further stages of translating R&D efforts into marketable products, processes and services. Basically, we can consider the R&D process as having four distinct stages as shown in figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1: Stages of R & D Process Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 144

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As per the figure 8.1, the recognition of a need for innovation is one of the inspirations for R&D. A Research" on existing knowledge for satisfying identified need helps in idea generation-this is the need push which is shown in the figure 8.1. The other primary motivation for R&D is to find potential applications for advances in knowledge. Research" on existing activity for introducing new knowledge also helps in idea generation-this is the technology push as shown in the figure 8.1. The development" includes creation, design and production and marketing of the generated idea. Through the entire process, its ideas and knowledge which are being followed, and the process is not complete, until the new idea is converted into a marketable product or service, which can be a hardware or software intensive technology. Let us understand the objectives of Corporate R & D and R&D Projects. Corporate research and development is the principal corporate asset for long-term technological competitiveness. We can classify corporate research activities by the purpose of the research: To support current businesses. To provide new business enterprise. To explore possible new technology basis. The R&D projects tend to go through the following stages: Basic research and invention. Applied research and functional prototype. Engineering prototype and testing. Production prototype and pilot production. Product testing and modification. Initial production and sales. The first three stages are usually called "research", while stages four to six are called "development'; hence, the term "research and development (R&D)". Each stage of innovating a new product is expensive, with the expense increasing by an order of magnitude at each stage. The management decisions to continue from research to development are therefore very important. Overall, the expenses of modern industry for R&D were considerable. The major purpose of research is to reduce technical risk before production-scale investment is committed. It is generally reported
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that at each stage, the cost rises by orders of magnitudes in the ratio 1:10. It is precisely this reason, that technology generation and development is costlier than basic R&D, and hence all countries or all enterprises are not able to pursue these activities at similar levels. 8.2.1 Process As we are discussing about the technology generation, let us now discuss about the process of technology generation. Let us have a look at an illustration of the various inputs required for generation of technologies in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2: Process of Technology Generation

In the figure 8.2, goals, surroundings, criteria and resource allocation are some of the inputs to R&D, the output of which is technology. The input resources into R&D organisations are the traditional inputs such as money, materials, facilities, energy, labour and management, and the intelligencebased inputs such as science, knowledge, skills, information and existing technologies. The effectiveness of any R&D is determined in terms of the 'usefulness' of the technologies it produces with respect to the overall objectives of the corporation Besides these factors, the R&D or technology generation involves many other aspects such as, monitoring and evaluation of R&D projects, funding
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of R&D, training and development, resource personnel, interactions at all levels, management policies and support, the availability of support structures and incentives at government level, timely collection and interpretation of technical and other information. The quality of resource leadership and commitment of the top management for research is extremely important. In Indian industry or corporate sector, it is generally observed that the research personnel occupy secondary place to finance, marketing and production personnel, and are not given due importance in decision-making at corporate level. Sometimes, inefficient personnel from other departments are posted or transferred to R&D department, thereby indicating a complete neglect of R&D concept. Such management attitudes need to be changed in the overall interest of the company. 8.2.2 Determinants After the process, we will now discuss about the determinants in technology Generation. The main determinants of technology generation are the stages of skills and abilities of the associate, its competitors and supplier network, as well as the competitive environment. The higher level of local capabilities and competitive environment will lead to a better quality of the initial transfer and rapid upgrading. Many of the multinational corporations invest in supporting the in-house skills and technical knowledge to a great extent, with a view to achieve efficient production, but not necessarily to raise the capabilities to the next level of technology. In order to achieve this, countries require policies, which: Modify the competitive atmosphere and encourage promoting the use of world-class technologies and management methods. Improve the skill base and employee training. The policies should help to raise the quality of labour force outside the firm and ensure to provide better training to the employees within the firm. Motivate the investors to shift into more complex technologies, and promote the technological functions undertaken locally. Improve the technology access for local enterprise, by providing information on foreign and local sources of technology.

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Self Assessment Questions 1. Technology generation and development is often identical with the term ________. 2. The effectiveness of any R&D is determined in terms of the 'usefulness' of the technologies it produces with respect to the overall objectives of the corporation. (True/False)? 3. Many of the multinational corporations invest in supporting the in-house skills and technical knowledge to a great extent with a view to achieve efficient production but not necessarily to raise the capabilities to the next level of _________. Activity 1: Imagine you are generating a technology for your business. What are the necessary inputs you will consider for it? Hint: Goals, surroundings, criteria.

8.3 Technology Development

The previous section familiarised us with technology generation along with its process and determinants. This section will help you to understand its development. Though, broadly speaking, the 'D' of R&D covers Technology Development, the latter has much wider implication. For better understanding, more elaboration of various factors that determine technology development is described in this section. 8.3.1 Process Let us first study about the process of technology development. The various stages of technology development process or life cycle, starting from the generation of ideas in the R&D department, to estimate market and inputs required, to execute projects, to perform trials and modifications are depicted in figure 8.3. We may observe that this process is tedious and requires top management commitment and support from outside. Risk factor is large and the success rate depends upon the quality of inputs provided to the R&D department.

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Figure 8.3: Technology Development Process

8.3.2 Determinants As we are studying about technology development, we will now study about the determinants in technology development. You can see the determinants and their interrelationship in technology development from R&D to technology diffusion and substitution are shown in figure 8.4.
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Figure 8.4: Determinants in Technology Development

A per the figure 8.4, natural resources are assembled and processed through the succeeding stages. The supply factors include natural resources, human resources, fund allocation, and produced resources. The demand side factors include market potential venture capital and enterprise profitability. The coordinating organisations, supporting facilities and government policies and systems have a major role to play in the success of the technology development process. 8.3.3 Technology Development Approaches This section will give us a brief idea about the approaches of technology development. In-house R&D: Technology development activities are generally carried out through setting up of separate in-house R&D units within the business, managed and headed by a well-qualified and experienced chief, directly reporting to the top management. However, this unit has close interactions with other departments within the company and there could even be exchange of personnel among different departments. The
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strength and facilities in the in-house R&D unit would depend upon the technology policy of the company and the nature of the business. In large companies, there are sometime R&D labs for each department and a central R&D lab for major R&D projects. Industrial R&D is mostly product or process oriented with specific objectives and time schedule; and not basic research. Incremental developmental efforts or import substitution efforts are generally common in most of the industries in developing countries including India, while emphasis is on new technologies or new applications of technologies in advanced countries. Co-operative R&D: A group of companies in a particular industrial sector promotes an R&D centre as a society or a non-profit making company. The R&D is funded by the participating companies and the government. This R&D centre undertakes R&D as per the requirements of the companies in their larger interest, and sets up expertise and facilities of common nature and which are usually expensive. A company can also support specific projects to this centre. Cooperative research facilities are normally utilised for the projects which are not of cautious nature from the business point of view. Otherwise, most important part of the R&D can be done at the centre and the remaining part involving finer details or critical technological aspects affecting the competitiveness is done at the in-house R&D division of the company. Contract research: A company may contract components of technology development to suitable R&D organisations, academic institutions, or consultants or experts. The in-house R&D unit may coordinate the progress of the activities, to develop the desired technologies. This approach usually requires considerable internal technological and managerial capabilities coupled with a strong Science and Technology (S&T) information base. R&D collaboration: A company may collaborate with another company in areas of common interest, if costs of development are high. Such inter-firm collaborative R&D efforts are becoming common in developed countries mainly due to high costs and shorter technology life cycles. It is found in areas such as micro-electronics, materials, information technologies, bio-technologies, and so on. A firm may also collaborate with the public funded or privately funded R&D institutions on case-tocase basis, where R&D results are shared mutually, and so are the
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expenses. A company in India may even collaborate with another company or R&D institution abroad, on mutually agreed terms. Research societies: Large corporations or industrial houses may set up independent research societies, in addition to their in-house R&D units. Such societies may undertake R&D activities mostly relating to the broad interests of the promoting companies in line with the national interests. They will also take advantage of those facilities for the activities and programmes in their in-house R&D unit. Governments usually encourage such societies and provide several tax concessions and financial incentives. Research companies: Large firms of technology innovative industrialists may support research companies, specifically for conducting research and development of technologies for others on commercial basis. The development costs and reasonable profits are recovered from the sale and transfer of technologies. Such a concept is common in USA, and other developed countries while it is yet to gain recognition in developing countries such as India. A company may adopt any of the approaches or a combination of the approaches depending on its needs and resources.

Self Assessment Questions 4. Technology development activities are generally carried out through setting up of separate _____ units within the business, managed and headed by a well-qualified and experienced chief, directly reporting to the top management. 5. The coordinating organisations, supporting facilities and government policies and systems have a major role to play in the success of the technology development process. 6. Risk factor is large and the success rate depends upon the quality of inputs provided to the __________. Activity 2: Suppose you have to create a document on development of technology. Enlist the steps to develop a new technology that you can add in your document. Hint: Various stages.
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8.4 Importance of Technology Generation and Development

As we are now familiar with both the technology generation and technology development, we will now study about their importance. Distributed Energy Systems Technology Generation group is committed to the development of practical, real-world energy solutions to meet their customers evolving needs. Through new product development, key strategic relationships and industry leading solutions, they are focused on meeting present commercial needs while advancing the innovation required creating future energy choices. Partnering with commercial, as well as the government entities like the US Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Science Foundation, NASA and California Energy Commission, the Technology Generation group is advancing technologies in several core areas. Hydrogen fuelling systems: Distributed Energy Systems is developing hydrogen fuelling systems to meet the needs of an increasing number of fuel cell electric and convenient power applications. Individuals, task force, and communities seek out the hydrogen fuelling systems because they are available in a range of production capacities and produce pure hydrogen. Military & Aerospace hydrogen applications: Leveraging the core proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology, Distributed Energy Systems designs, develops models and builds solutions to meet the needs of commercial aerospace partners and civilian and military government agencies. From high pressure electrochemical cells to high energy density regenerative fuel cell (RFC) energy storage systems, the work is being developed for low earth orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites, high altitude airships and high altitude winged aircraft. These advanced technologies also have applications in ground-based and marine environment. Backup power and renewable-to-hydrogen systems: Regenerative fuel cell technology can be used in a wide range of backup power applications including telecommunications, critical loads, peak shaving, remote geographies, and load levelling in finest power markets. In an effort to look for ways to extend present resources, the technology has been used and validated with renewable sources of energy such as wind
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and solar. To meet the growing demand for electrolysers for hydrogenbased renewable energy systems, Distributed Energy Systems has developed the HOGEN RE hydrogen generator. As the next evolution of the companys advanced proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser, the HOGEN RE generator incorporates sophisticated power electronics to make integration to renewable power sources easy and efficient. Megawatt wind turbine technology: Distributed Energy Systems has developed an advanced gearless drive train design for megawatt (MW) scale wind turbine applications. This slow speed permanent magnet generator directly coupled to the blade hub, and connected to the grid with an advanced power converter platform offers advantages in efficiency, reliability and performance. They have also designed and tested a 1.5 MW slow speed permanent magnet generator for direct drive wind turbine applications and developed and commercialised a power converter platform for wind and related applications based on their FlexPhase power module technology.

Self Assessment Questions 7. Distributed Energy Systems ___________ is committed to the development of practical, real-world energy solutions to meet their customers evolving needs. 8. Distributed Energy Systems is developing hydrogen fuelling systems to meet the needs of an increasing number of fuel cell electric and convenient power applications. (True/False)? 9. To meet the growing demand for electrolysers for hydrogen-based renewable energy systems, Distributed Energy Systems has developed the _________ hydrogen generator.

8.5 Need for Technology Strategy

This section will give you an overview of the need of technology strategy. Whether or not an organisation would generate or develop its own technology and with what intensity it would follow, the efforts in this respect would depend upon technology strategy it has planned or adopted. Though the term 'strategy' is commonly used as an antonym of 'tactics', it actually implies long-term, purposeful and interconnected efforts. While
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tactics means the action to deal with immediate specific problems. 'Technology Strategy" may accordingly be defined as a strategy to deal with the technology and related issues at macro and micro levels, with respect to set objectives. Let us have a quick overview of types of technology strategies and their need. Macro-level strategy: At macro level, each country outlines and adopts a technology strategy to achieve its political, economic and social objectives and translates the same into action through appropriate policies and mechanisms. These strategies may be different for different countries. For example, US may adopt to excel in "defence" or "warfare technologies" or in generation of first stage new technologies for knowledge-based industries, while Japan may decide to excel in technologies for consumer products of newer designs at lower costs. Korea may decide to adopt and upgrade imported technologies using mass production techniques for consumer products without really caring much for high quality levels. Also, without bothering for defence or other strategic applications. On the other hand, India may decide to develop its own capabilities in strategic areas such as defence, atomic energy and space where technologies are usually closely guarded or for maximum utilisation of its own resources. Thus, technology strategies may vary with the national perspectives, and accordingly policies and mechanisms are evolved and implemented. Financial resources play an important role in evolving the technology strategies. Depending on the resources available and the will of the government, the policies are evolved, mechanisms are set up and measures are taken to ensure the achievement of the set objectives. Micro-level strategy: The extraordinary range and potential uses of contemporary technology have important consequences for industrial and commercial firms. The industrial and organisational disorder produced by technological change, and increased international competitive pressures provide threats and opportunities for firms. An effective strategic approach to technology allows firms to cope better with these changes, and reduces the threats and insecurities facing them and their employees.
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The basic role of technology strategy in business planning is to help ask the questions like: what business the corporation plans to be in and how it should be positioned? Effective planning identifies the present decisions required to create desirable and competitive corporate futures. In particular, technology strategy must anticipate the transient impact of technological innovation on the future competencies of the corporation. An appropriate level of formal planning provides systematic and documented strategy. The inputs to the process occur through participation of staff and line management and of special planning groups. Technology scenarios should help management focus on the interaction of changes between technology and change in markets, resources, regulation and competition. Importance of technology strategy Mark Dodgson has identified the following five issues which bear on the importance of corporate strategy for technology: The need to cope with technological uncertainty. Complexity and discontinuous nature of technological development. The need for technology to be viewed in a global context. The need to attain complementarities. The relationship between corporate strategy technology and public technology policies. Linking business and technology strategy: According to Fredrick Betz, the basic role of technology strategy in any business planning is to pose three fundamental questions: In what business should the firm engage in future? How should the firm be positioned in these businesses? What research, production and marketing will be necessary to attain those positions? Formulating a technology strategy In planning technology strategy for competitive advantage, the following steps have been suggested: Identify all the distinct technologies and sub-technologies in the value chain. Identify potentially relevant technologies in other industries or those under scientific development. Determine the likely path of change of key technologies.
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Determine which technologies and potential technological changes are most significant for competitive advantage and industry structure. Assess a firm's relative capabilities in important technological aspects and the cost of making improvements. Select a technology strategy, encompassing all important technologies, that reinforces the firm's overall competitive strategy. Reinforce business unit technology strategy at the corporate level.

Self Assessment Questions 10. _________ may accordingly be defined as a strategy to deal with the technology and related issues at macro and micro levels, with respect to set objectives. 11. According to Fredrick Betz, the basic role of technology strategy in any business planning is to pose three fundamental questions. (True/false)? 12. Select a technology strategy, encompassing all important technologies, that reinforces the firm's overall _________.

8.6 Importance of Research and Development (R&D)

After discussing about the technology generation and technology development, and the need for technology strategy, we will now discuss about the importance of R&D projects in corporate research and the relation between R&D and production costs. 8.6.1 Corporate research and product lifetimes R&D projects in corporate research create and extend the lifetimes of corporate products that avoid technological obsolescence of businesses. Extending product lifetimes can be done by: Improving the production processes to lower production costs and increase quality. Upgrading and improving current product models. Creating next generation product models. The function of corporate research is to create and extend the lifetimes of the company's products. This is an essential function because all products have finite lifetimes which can extend to a period of one year or many years. In times of new and rapidly changing technologies, lifetimes tend to be
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short. A mature technology product may have a very long lifetime if no clearly superior technology has emerged. But even in a long-lived product, periodic reformulations, variation in product lines, and changes in packaging provide some change in the product. To maintain a long-lived product, quality must be maintained on balance with competing products, if not more, and cost reduction in production must be ahead of competitors. 8.6.2 Production costs and R&D Production costs of new products usually decline over times, due to process and product improvement. In any new product line, initial production costs are usually much higher than later production costs. All new products based on new technologies have initially high per unit product costs, because of: Large R&D and plant investment costs. Small volumes of initial production. Inefficiencies in the production processes and in production design. For a successful product, these factors improve over time. The increasingly larger volume of production also lowers per unit overhead charges. Innovations and improvements in production processes create more efficient production procedures. Market share, Profit margins, Pricing strategy These are also highly dependent on R&D efforts at corporate level and the efficiency at which R&D is carried out. The entry into a new high technology market is restricted because knowledge is new and is not widely known. Products then are high priced because sales volume is small and production costs are high. Yet, if the price is held there too long, other competitors can enter with technology products, since high profit margins and growing markets provide the competitive incentive. However, if prices are reduced in anticipation of production costs being increased in future, a competitor has less incentive to enter, and may incur losses. The strategic trick is for the technology innovator to ride the markets faster than the competitors and enter new products earlier than others. It is precisely due to this reason that open competitiveness encourages innovations as happens in advanced economies while restrictive policies and assured markets through licensing systems discourage innovations.

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8.6.3 Translation of R & D efforts to technology This section will examine the relationship between R&D capabilities and technology commercialisation, and innovation performance in IT-related businesses. The R&D was focussed on influencing the innovation performance of firms which resulted in a significant impact on innovation. The research implication of this decision is that the measurement of firms performance should not only depend on the intensity of R&D expenditures, but a broader set of factors, including learning and external networking capabilities. The technology commercialisation capabilities of firms participated as the role of a mediator in the relationship between R&D and innovation performance. Within the innovation cycle of input (R&D capabilities), process (technology commercialisation capabilities) and output (innovation performance), it is found that R&D occasionally influence performance in an absolute fashion. But its consequence was most often resolved by technology commercialisation capabilities. The practical assumption of this decision to the companies is that, in order to enhance their performance they must avoid closely focusing on R&D. Instead, they should also invest in capabilities to commercialise technologies resulting from R&D. When direct and indirect benefits of public R&D funding are compared together, the explanatory power of the relationship between R&D capabilities, technology commercialisation capabilities and innovation performance were stronger among the latter than the former. Self Assessment Questions 13. R&D projects in corporate research create and extend the lifetimes of corporate products that avoid ________ obsolescence of businesses. 14. Production costs of new products usually decline over times, due to process and product improvement. (True/False)? 15. The entry into a new high technology market is restricted because ____ is new and is not widely known.

8.7 Summary
We started this unit by giving a brief introduction on technology generation and development. We understood that technology generation and development is comparable with the term "Research and Development
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(R&D)". On the other hand, technology generation engross R&D efforts, while technology development involve additional stages of translating R&D efforts into profitable products, processes and services. We also came to know that recognition of a need for innovation is one of the inspirations for R&D. We further classified R&D projects into the following stages- basic research and invention, applied research and functional prototype, engineering prototype and testing, production prototype and pilot production, product testing and modification and initial production and sales. We learnt about the process of technology production wherein we saw goals, surroundings, criteria and resource allocation as some of the inputs to R&D, the output of which is technology. We analysed that the effectiveness of any R&D is determined in terms of the 'usefulness' of the technologies it produces with respect to the general objectives of the business. We learnt about the main determinants of technology generation, which includes the stages of skills and abilities of the associate, its competitors and supplier network as well as the competitive environment. We further discussed about the technology development approaches wherein we learnt the in-house R&D and Co-operate R&D, R&D collaboration, Research Societies and Research companies. We also discussed the Technology generation group which focussed on hydrogen fuelling system, military and aerospace hydrogen application; back up power and renewableto hydrogen system and megawatt wind turbine technology. We defined 'Technology Strategy" as a strategy to deal by means of the technology and related issues at macro and micro levels, with respect to set objectives. In addition, we learnt about the importance of R&D in corporate research and product lifetime and production costs and R&D, with the affect of R&D on technology.

8.8 Glossary
Term Transient Leveraging Obsolescence Description Passing particularly quickly into and out of existence or producing results beyond itself. It is depositing a small portion of the purchase price or a technique of taking position in the investment. It is the state of being which occurs when an object, service or practice is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. Page No. 160

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Reformulation Electrolyser Geosynchronous

To change or update a plan or idea that is already formulated. A device which is used to breakdown water utilising electricity, into hydrogen and oxygen. It refers to satellite that evolve around the earth with the same speed, but need not be the same distance from the earth.

8.9 Terminal Questions

1. Explain Technology Generation. 2. Explain Technology Development. 3. Discuss the importance Technology Generation and Development. 4. Explain the need for technology strategy. 5. Explain the importance of R&D.

8.10 Answers
Self-Assessment Questions 1. Research and Development 2. True 3. Technology 4. In-house R&D 5. True 6. R&D department 7. Technology Generation group 8. True 9. HOGEN RE 10. Technology strategy 11. True 12. Competitive strategy 13. Technological 14. True 15. Knowledge

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Terminal Questions 1. Refer section 8.2 Technology Generation. 2. Refer section 8.3 Technology Development. 3. Refer section 8.4 Importance of Technology Development. 4. Refer section 8.5 Need for Technology Strategy. 5. Refer section 8.6 Importance of R&D.

Generation

and

8.11 Case Study

The Human Resource (HR) director of R&D was called by the leadership team of ABC to organise a formal training specifically to the R&D people. Even though R&D training programs have been in position in the 1985s and 90s, the programs were neglected in the late 95s due to supply issues and challenging priorities all the way through the company. The present leadership appealed the HR to build up a corporate university. By definition, a corporate university binds business learning efforts directly to primary business goals. Challenge: A whole of six colleges make up the R&D University, one for every level in the company opening with incoming scientists and mangers at group 1 up to directors and top scientists at group 5. The primary goal of these colleges was to bring up the levels of marketable innovation, in large part, by increasing networking across business to encourage cross-fertilisation of thoughts. The leadership was well built, but the problem was to begin the task. Solution: The R&D leadership took the initiative and defined the goals and aspirations. To cause an increase in modernisation by rising networking across various business and success measure and providing training which is equally official and compulsory. The leadership defined the scope of the program as being limited to R&D people and lead to the success of having R&D people teach other R&D people. The formal training provided a way to establish this tradition which was lost during the last decade of global growth. By covering all these steps, HR was ready to design its next stage- design the college. This was accomplished by the HR by
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building up a task force to create the R&D colleges. The task force was headed by the HR leader and R&D leadership encouraged the people to become members. The professionals of R&D represented the various business units and scientific disciplines. A lot of questions were raised during the decision process and the choices led to the successful formation of the R&D University across five levels of the organisation. The victory of the college is well received all over the R&D. The main aim of the program was to increase networking with the hope that networking would direct to greater innovation. Questions: 1. Explain the issue that lead to the establishment of corporate University along with the challenges faced. 2. Discuss the steps taken to accomplish the desired task. References Ijaz Nabi, Manjula Luthria, Building Competitive Firms: Incentives and Capabilities. www.inoovation-enterprise.com. ieeexplore.ieee.org.

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