A heavy purse can buy most of the available hard technology in the world but the same cannot guarantee the success of any business venture. Hard technology includes computers, machinery, and equipment. This is extremely necessary for the success of any business but on their own, cannot get anything done. This is where the soft technology comes in. This is the human-based elements of technology such as innovation, planning, management, marketing, and administrative skills (Siu & Wong, 2015). It is soft technology that enables a company to understand what hard technology is necessary and how to effectively use it as this research paper seeks to establish.
The hard and soft technology Currently in Use
Soft technology must precede hard technology as it is superior to it. Hard technology can be said to play a supplementary role to soft technology. Among the commonly used hard and soft technology today is marketing skills. Modern marketing skill involves keeping an eye on the customer at each and every step of production (Siu & Wong, 2015). Before making any product, the modern entrepreneur conducts research on the intended customer of the product, customer preferences and also the purchasing capacity of the intended customer. Thus, the product itself is designed with the customer in mind, instead of looking for a customer for an already made item. Innovation is another critical soft technology being used in the local and international arena. Innovation includes both the ability to make the best possible products but also to make them using the cheapest means without affecting quality thus maximizing profits per unit sold. Human resource management is another critical soft technology being used in the commercial world (Siu & Wong, 2015). This is based on the understanding that no matter how advanced an organization is, it will rise or fall based on the humanity that works within it. Finally, modern entrepreneurship has perfected supply chain management into a science as it is a key determinant to technology.
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Among the tangible hard technology being used in the world today include computers and computerized gadgets. Computerization of equipment and gadgets has enabled companies to incorporate automation into most mechanical processes (Siu & Wong, 2015). This is based on the philosophy that the human labor force is better utilized when they use their minds more than their limbs. Most rigorous and repetitive processes and left to machines under the control of computers while the creative and thinking aspects are left to the human elements. Hard technology is also innovatively used for activities such as transport, warehousing, and marketing.
Technology Barriers Facing McDonald's
The general idea in modern entrepreneurship is to use innovation to buy as little as is necessary in order to carry out as wide an array of work as possible and at the lowest possible cost. For example, transport can be a means of warehousing. Instead of placing goods on a plane and transport them for a day, yet they will be needed after a month, they can be put in a ship and spend that month in the sea. This will cut both transport and storage costs. Further, if a job requires ten unskilled or semi-skilled employees, it can be done by two skilled employees supplemented by hard technology. MacDonald’s developed and excelled in a very different technological environment that there is today. Unfortunately, even after the environment changed, the company has still stuck its successful strategy although it is now overtaken by events (Kiernan, 2015).
A good example relates to human resource management. McDonald's employs over three times as many people as Apple Inc. Yet, Apple Inc. has almost ten times as high a revenue per annum as McDonald. This means that the core of MacDonald’s labor force goes into mundane operations yet, they are spread across the developed world meaning high wages. The company’s major barrier is a strategy that does not invest in innovation so as to combine the use of hard technology and soft technology, thus improving on productions systems to improve per capita revenues (Slocum & Buller, 2014).
Solution to the Impasse Above
The only meaningful change that McDonald’s needs is a change of strategy and a complete overhaul of its approach to commerce. Many companies are today changing the strategies that they were using at the end of the 20th century to survive in the modern business environment. McDonald’s cannot rely on a strategy that was still used at the end of the Second World War. It needs to incorporate hard technology into its operations through the innovative application of soft technology. It also needs to change its entire production method and use automated systems for its mundane work and reduce its workforce by over a half (Slocum & Buller, 2014). It should shed off production systems and even products that do not make high revenues per employee and introduce systems that do. Instead of seeking to expand its area of operation, MacDonald’s should employ technology to expand its productivity within its current area of operation.
Protection of Technology
The word technology in the perspective of the instant research paper relates to a careful combination of soft and hard technology, innovatively applied to undertake a certain task. The hard technology itself may not belong to MacDonald’s but its application in certain ways to produce expected results can be proprietary. The most successful companies in the world today register hundreds of thousands of patents, mainly utility patent grants. These are patents based on ways of doing things, not necessarily products (Slocum & Buller, 2014). For example, MacDonald’s may never be able to patent a Burger but it can patent many ways of making a burger at a lower cost but higher quality. The company can also develop them patent a new way to run a restaurant at half the current manpower but serve twice the number of customers. These formulas can be patented and protected globally.
References
Kiernan, M. J. (2015, April 29). Why Innovation is Key to McDonald's Future. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-j-kiernan/why-innovation-is-key-to-_b_7166686.html
Siu, K. W. M., & Wong, Y. L. (2015). Soft and Hard Technologies in Technology Education. Curriculum Design and Classroom Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications , 378
Slocum, J., Lei, D., & Buller, P. (2014). Executing business strategies through human resource management practices. Organizational Dynamics , 43 (2), 73-87
