Defining Investment Options 

Strategic Technology Scouting Program identified business- critical emerging technologies and strategic investment opportunities.

Can Technical Scouting Inform Strategy? 

Traditionally, technology scouting is thought of as a method for identifying external technologies to close gaps in the company’s internal capabilities. But when done strategically, technology scouting can also help identify new areas of growth.

A company had a rich network of partners to support technology and product advancement in the “core”. These relationships, by design, did not lead to identifying new and emerging technologies that could expand the company’s horizon or answer the question “what should we invest in next.”

New Program uses Technology Scouting as Strategic Advantage

We developed and implemented a Strategic Technology Scouting program for building Technology Landscape Maps.  The process, with the related tools and frameworks, guided the technology and marketing project teams through systematic identification of not only technology trends and specific technologies that can be disruptive for the core, but also those that can present opportunities for future growth platforms. The program helps to visualize information that is now used by the broader organization to inform cross-functional ideation and strategy. The process also evaluates specific technologies and companies as strategic alliance partners and identifies “M&A” targets.

New ways to uncover growth opportunities

This new process has been in place for a number of years and has led to a number of strategic partnerships that enabled transformational growth platforms. The scouting is now performed by project teams and has collectively resulted in a significant expansion of the company’s technology network.