‘‘Get out of the race to compete’’

The

whole issue of technology obsolescence has two sides to it. First, there is the

pure technology perspective that includes the R&D issues. The other side is

the application perspective or the use of the technology for commercial

purposes. The IT industry, particularly organizations and people who are into

the development side of it, tends to be adapting new technology for the sake of

it. However, the issue of obsolescence for those interested in applications, is

that of evaluating the change from the point of its ability to solve business

problems.

As far as the user industry is concerned, the issue of technology should be

viewed from the application angle. Whenever a new technology comes in that seems

to be able to address the business problems better, it is time to evaluate your

present systems. However, this does not necessarily mean that one should change

the existing technology. The decision for change should be, instead, triggered

by the new technologies’ ability to give the business a cutting-edge over the

competitors. For the technology creators, on the other hand, it becomes

important to keep track of the changes. This enables organizations to judge

whether their product is still the best way to solve a particular business

problem or not, and upgrade it to be ahead of competition.

Changes in technology can, hence, be looked into from three perspectives.

First, from the invention perspective. Second, from the perspective of things

that have improved. Improvement could be higher output or better quality. It can

also be judged from the increased reliability of the existing product, allowing

it to be used for more critical applications. The third is the change of

practices ushered in by the first two changes. Technology is also changing ways

of resolving business problems. The Internet, for instance, may not be a great

change from the invention perspective, but it definitely has led to a major

change in the way business is done. So, if you are competing against

technological obsolescence and want to succeed, get out of the race. In fact,

the pace of change is so rapid that a number of organizations want to miss a few

rounds and move into alternate and more advanced phases. What such organizations

usually do, is go in for the first round of change, implement it, stabilize it

get the return on investment out before implementing the next change. They also

know that, in any case, whatever they take is got to become obsolete and hence

decide not to compete with technology. Rather, their strategy is to concentrate

on using the present technology in the most competitive way. Fortunately, unlike

their US counterparts the Indian businesses have been wise in following this

strategy to beat obsolescence.