Firms world-wide, are facing conditions that challenge traditional approaches in their efforts to rapidly develop and deploy needed technologies that are strategy driven and appropriately customer responsive. The speed of technology change, increasing incidence of technical discontinuities, fierce global competition and the need to operate in very lean and flexible ways have compounded the difficulties of coping with uncertainty, complexity and the weak corporate voice of technology. In response, a consortium of large US technology-driven firms began working together about four and a half years ago, to develop new processes and tools properly fitted to today's needs in the areas such as technology roadmapping, scenario planning, technology transfer, portfolio management and improving the "voice of the customer". The MATI I (management of accelerated technology insertion) consortium consisted of General Motors, Kodak, Lucent, Rockwell and Westinghouse with such firms as Baxter, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Motorola, plus several Canadian organisations now becoming likely additional members of a MATI II programme. Throughout, close collaboration with the Kellogg School's technology management research group was maintained. Dr. Radnor will present an overview of the work done and the practices and processes developed by this best-practice and on-going benchmarking-based consortium. His particular focus for this lecture will be on corporate technology/product roadmapping.

About the Speakers

Professor Michael Radnor received his undergraduate and initial post-graduate qualifications in Mechanical and Production Engineering and then in Business Administration from Imperial College and the London School of Economics. His Ph.D. from Northwestern University in the US was taken in Industrial Engineering. Having carried out doctoral research on the management of R&D in large decentralised companies, he then devoted the next 35 years to the improvement of technology management knowledge and practices. Before returning to university life, he had worked for Israel Aircraft Industries, Lucas Industries in the UK and, in the US, with Westinghouse and as the head of a high tech. start-up firm. He has published two book and over a hundred articles.