Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Winter 2000


Tom Long

Course Title

Strategic Management of Technology

Course Number

EMGT 510/610



There has been much speculation that the century we have just entered will eventually be known as the "Century ofBiotechnology." Just as physics has dominated the 20th century, nurturing the rise of the computer and information technology, the 21st century will see biotechnology assume a dominant role in the international economy. Of fundamental importance to this process will be the ability to use genetic information to manipulate the building blocks of life. Indeed, reading the genetic code (the genotype) and understanding how that code is expressed in living organisms (the phenotype) will have an effect on biology as grofound as was the influence upon chemistry of the formulation of periodic table in the 19 century. [ 1] It is difficult to think of an industry today that does not owe its existence or current organization to some aspect of our ability to chemically transform the basic building blocks of our environment. The expected rise of biotechnology in the 21st century promises to give rise to similarly disruptive technologies that will spawn entirely new industries and change the way current businesses are structured [2], just as the explosive growth of information technology in the latter 20th century has restructured economies worldwide.



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