**4. Part III: strategizing technology is a process, not an event**

It is quite a challenging tasks to develop technology strategy of a large multinational corporation. In recent years the changes on all fronts, the economic, political, social and environment, are extremely rapid. These changes impact businesses and their long-term and short-term strategies. Just most recent global catastrophic event, the pandemic, has affected and impacted entire population of the globe and consequently businesses around the globe. The painful 'Brexit' has created newer issues in Europe and countries dealing with UK. Add to this the Ukraine invasion of Russia. The resulting inflation and shortages of various necessities including energy has posed completely new perspective of the world to business leaders.

**Figure 5.** *Two important input blocks to strategy formulation process.*

The Technology Strategist cannot isolate herself from this new rapidly changing world full of unanticipated events. The strategy formulated by her has to be:


It is critical to attend to the process of strategy formulation, rather than just the strategy itself. I propose to focus on the strategy formulation process instead of final product as technology strategy. Letza et al. [19] emphasize that no business process can be isolated from power, social relations and organizational context. I present here the Technology strategy formulation process in two blocks. First block to complete initial assessment of Technology and Economic aspects, followed by the second block adapted from Vaidya [20].

The two blocks shown in **Figure 5** indicate important inputs that are required for Technology Formulation Process of a multinational company. The left block of Technical, Operational and Economic considerations was discussed in part I, here we will explore the second block of Socio-Political dimensions. In order to get clarity, I have exploded the second block in **Figure 6**.

IPCRC model in **Figure 6** is an interesting model that takes into account social and political interests of a multinational company. It caters to the socio-political environment of a multinational company, proposing the activities that need to be completed while developing technology strategy. Here is a short description of each activity.

I—Identify the interest groups and their power bases: the interest groups carry their own norms and ways of work. It is important for strategist to understand the power bases behind such groups. As an example the largest business division in a multinational company may have higher power to influence decisions.

P—Acknowledge and recognize political aspects: the affiliate company heads and senior managers may have own ambitions. It is useful to know these persons and their thoughts.

#### **Figure 6.**

*IPCRC model adapted from Vaidya [20].*

C—Central coordination and mutual adjustment: it is useful to know the coalitions and their requirements beforehand. The give and take with necessary adjustments rather than mandate produces better result.

R—Remedial and serial strategy deployment: a step by step implementation proves better than the big bang approach. It allows any remedial measure to be incorporated as one progresses.

C—Collibratory intervention: it is always a possible that the higher level intervention has to be accommodated, such as a directive to place a data center in a particular region or having a preferred network provider in a country. The strategist needs to make room for such a possibility.

By following this IPCRC model a strategist will be able to develop an agreeable strategy which becomes easier to execute in various cultures and geography. Considering deployment challenges at an early stage of strategy formulation results in a executable strategy.

Since 2020 the world has faced pandemic, shortages of supplies, human tragedy, the oil shock, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the emerging tensions in Asia, many such worrisome issues. As a result, the world order, the relations amongst various sovereign states are being redrawn all the time. The globalization seems to be giving way to nationalization, there are people who believe that deglobalization is already in offing. In the dynamic and ever changing geopolitical and national and social interests it is extremely critical that the strategist focuses on strategy formulation process. The product, the strategy, is important however one has to build ability to quickly reform it using right kind of processes.
