What according to the author is adding to the pressure on the companies ........

Directions : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.  

From ‘apparel to aerospace’, ‘steel to software’, the pace of technological innovation is quickening. No longer can companies afford to miss generation of technology and expect to remain competitive. Adding to the pressure, innovations are increasingly crossing industry boundaries; a new fiber developed by the textile industry has potential for building materials and medical equipment. Some companies are adept at using a diversity of technologies to create new products that transform markets. But many others are floundering because they rely on a technology strategy that no longer works in such a fast changing environment. The difference between success and failure is not how much a company spends on research and development (R&D),but how it approaches it.There are two possible approaches. Either a company can invest in R&D that an older generation of technology the ‘break through’ approach-or its focus on combining existing technologies into hybrid technologies – the ‘technologies fusion’ approach. It blends incremental technical improvements from several previously separate field of technology to create products that revolutionise markets.In a world where the old maxim ‘one technology one industry’ no longer applies, a singular breakthrough strategy is inadequate; companies need to include both the breakthrough and fusion approaches in their technology strategy. Relying on breakthroughs alone fails because it focuses the R&D efforts to narrowly, ignoring the possibilities of combining technologies. Yet many western companies still rely almost exclusively – on the breakthrough approach.The reasons are complex: a distrust of outside innovations and not-invented here engineering and arrogance and aversion to sharing research results.

Report error