Management of Technology and Innovation in Japan

MoT: From Academia to Management Practice 397
ers 4 was suggested. Those gatekeepers were charged with gathering information
across the whole company as well as outside it in different fields.
The “Identify” process was to be hosted in every business division and also in
the corporate R&D division. Each division was responsible for finding its own innovation
opportunities that were most interesting for their own business. Doing so,
all innovation opportunities that were attractive on short- as well as long term perspectives
had to be registered. In a subsequent step of consensus seeking, a responsible
corporate manager together with business division managers discussed
the risks involved in these innovation opportunities. According to the risk assessed,
the opportunity was either directed towards corporate or to a business division
for assessment.
Strategic
Intelli. Intelli Intelli.
Identify
BU R&D
Belting
Techn. Techn Techn. . Platform
Belting Division
Corporate R&D
Technology and Business Development Platform
Investigate High Risk Innovation Opportunities: competencies & technology development process:
Manage development strategic projects
Evaluate Moderate Risk Innovation Opportunities:
. technology & product development process
Manage competitive strategic projects
Product development Process
Business development Process
Coating Technology
Adhesive Technology
BU R&D
Ultra Clean
Outglassing Measuring Technology
Tech. Platform
Technology Exploitation
BU R&D
Rubber Forming
Tech. Platform
Technology Exploitation
BU R&D
Mechanical Design
Technology Platform
Filter Division Construction
Material Division Mechatronics …
Fig. 5. Extract of the proposed MoT organizational structure
New Mastered Technology Transfer Process
Competence building
BU R&D
Technology Exploitation …..
..
In the case of high-risk innovation opportunities, the “Investigate High Risk Innovation
Opportunity” process that was to be hosted by the corporate R&D divi-
4 “A gatekeeper is a real person. He has numerous contacts to external experts, and he
transfers knowledge from these contacts to the company. Thus, he informally pursues
technology intelligence activities. However, he is not perceived as a ‘formal’ intelligence
source by top management” (Savioz 2002, p. 98).