Deutsche Telekom's Technology Scouting Case Study

Technology Scouting.
A case study on the Deutsche Telekom
Laboratories.
René Rohrbeck
Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
ISPIM-Asia Conference
9th – 12th January 2007

Rohrbeck_(2007)_TechnologyScouting_Presentation.ppt 1
Agenda.
 Introduction
 Definition and elements of Technology Scouting
 Technology Scouting at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
 Conclusion

Research
gap
Motivation
 No sufficient research on…
 …success factors and
 …organization of technology scouting and
 …interaction with other function of the organization
Introduction.
Motivation and research question.
Research
Questions
 Increased competition
 Increased technological complexity
 Shorter innovation cycles
 Fast changing customer needs
Management needs to
makedecisions fast in
order to stayahead of
competitors
 What are the aims of Technology Scouting?
 What are important success factors of Technology Scouting?
 How should Technology Scouting be interweaved within the company?
 What organizational forms have proven to be effective?

Definition and elements of Technology Scouting.
Scientific classification of technology intelligence aspect.
Company
level
Regional/national
andsupranational
level
Usingdatafromthe
pasttoanticipate the
future
Usinggathered
informationfor
decisionmaking
Processand
actors
Organization
Future Analysis
TechnologyIntelligence
Foresight
Forecasting
Source: Own figure

Scientific classification of technology sourcing aspect.
Source: Own figure
Technology
Management
InnovationManagement
Product
specificationand
development
Prototype
validationandtesting
Marketlaunch
External
Technology
Sourcing
Storage,internal
generationand
usageof
technological
knowledge
Technologyselling
or
licensing
Fuzzy-front-end
ofinnovation

Technology
Management
Combination of the two aspects.
Technology
Intelligence
Technology
Scouting
Building and using a network of
experts for competitive advantage
Identification, assessment and
usage of information on
technological developments
Acquisition, development,
storage, usage and selling of
technological knowledge
Scouts facilitate the sourcing of
technology
Scouts identify and assess new
technologies
Provisioning of Technology
Intelligence to facilitate the
Technology Management

Definitionofthe
TechnologyScout
 The Technology Scout is either an employee of the company or a
consultant.
 He might be partor full-time assigned to the scouting task.
 The desired characteristics of a Technology Scout are similar to the
characteristics associated with the Technological Gatekeeper. These
characteristics include:
 lateralthinker,
 knowledgeable inscience and technology,
 respected inside the company,
 cross-disciplinary orientated and
 imaginative.
Sources:Wolff (1992), Allen (1971), Wilkin (1974), Taylor (1975), Myers(1983), Nochur (1992),
Definition of Technology Scouting.

Rohrbeck_(2007)_TechnologyScouting_Presentation.ppt 7 7
Generic Process of Technology Scouting.
The 6 steps of Technology Scouting can be divided into
Technology Intelligence and Technology Souring.
TechnologyIntelligence
Technology
Sourcing
Source:Own figure following Reger (2001)and Ashton/ Stacey (1995)
Usageof
information
Definitionofaims
andsearchareas
Selectionof
information
sourcesand
methods to
employ
Filtering,
analyzing,
interpretingof
data
Evaluating
anddecision
making
Collection
ofdata
1 2 3 4 5 6

Agenda.
 Introduction
 Technology Scouting atDeutsche Telekom Laboratories
 Conclusion

Goalsofthe
TechnologyRadar
 Earlyidentification of emerging technologies, technological
trends and disrupting technologies
 Raisingtheattention for the threats and opportunities of
technological development
 Stimulationofinnovation by combining the technology
reports with assessment of business potential and by
bringing people together
 Facilitationofthesourcingofexternaltechnologies by
reaching through the network of technology scouts to their
sources of information
Goal of Technology Scouting at DTAG.
Technology Scouting activities at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
are driven by 4 goals.

Process of Technology Scouting at DTAG.
The technological findings from the scouting network are used for
strategic and operative innovation management..
Source: Deutsche Telekom Laboratories(2006),The Technology - RadarEdition III/2006
Innovation
Strategy
CTOsandCMOs
R&D and
ProductManagers
Selection AssessmentIdentification
?
?
?
?
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
?
?
?
?
International
Scout Network
uses sources in
university & industry
Dissemination

Scouting network of DTAG.
The scouts have roles similar to the nodes in a neuronal network
and give access to information sources in industry and academia.
$
$

Scout typology at DTAG.
The DTAG has a balanced portfolio of internal and external as
well as full-time and part-time scouts.
Internal
External
Full-time Part-time
T-Systems
Detecon USA
Deutsche
Telekom
Laboratories
The size of the bubbles represents roughly the number of technological findings from the different scouts
Source: Own figure with data from interview
Ben Gurion
University
ASIA
Compete
Shanghai
University

Scout incentive system at DTAG.
Monetary and non-monetary incentives are used for the actors in
the scouting network.
Source: Own figure with data from interview
Actorin scouting network Usedincentives
Internal scouts
 Recognition
 Monetary reward in bonus scheme
External scouts
 Payment per relevant technology identification
 Business Development opportunity
Academicsources
 Recognition
 Chance for joint research projects
Industry sources
 Business Development
 Sales
 Collaboration opportunity

Agenda.
 Introduction
 Technology Scouting at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
 Conclusion

For
practitioners
Conclusion.
The 3 crucial elements to success of Technology Scouting are
goal definition, incentive system and backward-loop.
Further
research
 3 elements crucial to success of technology scouting
 goaldefinition
 Tailored incentivesystem
 Definition of backwardloop to sources
 Identify ways to measure valuecontribution of technology scouting
 Warningfunctionabout emerging threats and opportunities
 Impulsefunction to start innovation activity
 Validation of divisionoflabour
 Externalscouts for scanning (undirected)
 Internalscouts for monitoring (directed)

Thank you for your interest.
RenéRohrbeck
Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, 10587 Berlin
+49 30 8353 58536 (Tel)
rene.rohrbeck@telekom.de
http://futureorientation.net

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References (5/6)
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References.

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