Hear Unilever, Nestle and Duane Morris talk candidly about their Open Innovation experiences

MRT and PDMA are offering a “Sneak Preview” of the upcoming CoDev conference in a FREE webinar on January 17. 

Moderated by conference chair, Cheryl Perkins, the panelists include the following CoDev faculty  members:

• George Wells, Director of Technology Transfer, Nestle Purina Petcare
• Roger Leech, Open Innovation Portfolio & Scouting Director, Unilever
• John Neclerio, Partner, Duane Morris LLP

For more  information on the content of the webinar, visit the codev website – click here.

 

Tech Scouting: Key Drivers of Success

Article #12:  Key Drivers of Success

While many factors contribute to the success of open innovation and technology scouting, these are the top twelve emphasized by experts and experienced scouts:

1. Choose entrepreneurial individuals to be on the scouting team. The ability to understand both technology and marketing helps.
2. Make sure your innovation strategy is clear before you begin scouting – don’t expect scouting to shape your strategy.
3. Cast a wide net in your search for opportunities – then winnow down to the best few based on customer need, growth potential and strategic fit.
4. Move fast to make decisions. Structure the evaluation process for quick early vetting to focus resources on quality ideas.
5. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a prospective partnership or to kill a project that isn’t adding value.
6. Craft clear joint agreements using common language for all essential terms; include expectations, goals, roles, contingencies and IP ownership. Remember win-lose is really lose-lose.
7. Be flexible and make adjustments (a 3 year project doesn’t mean a 3 year budget is assured).
8. Stay lean, keep a scarcity mentality.
9. Don’t forget the core in pursuit of next generation.
10. Create scale and run as fast as you can.
11. Treat partners and prospective partners openly and honestly.
12. Invest in the long term.

This article published in conjunction with MRT’s workshop series:
Technology Scouting to Accelerate Innovation – Implementing an External Sourcing Program
Next session June 4-5, 2012 in Cambridge, MA

To be on the mailing list to receive these articles (along with other special updates), sign up here.

Tech Scouting: Rewards and Incentives

Article #11:  Rewards and Incentives

One of the biggest challenges of open innovation is motivating your technologists to go outside for innovation. Traditionally organizations have rewarded R&D for patents and other internally-focused accomplishments.

For a technology scouting program to succeed, these reward systems must change. This is especially important as teams are often comprised of individuals that have other responsibilities as well.

At the recent Tech Scouting Summit, speakers agreed that rewarding patents is counter-productive unless you also reward going outside. Overall it is more effective to focus incentives and bonuses on revenue and profit.

They also concurred that the role of the scout should be recognized for its strategic importance and as an organizational stepping stone.

Examples:

• Kimberly-Clark Health Care offers scouts high visibility and exposure to corporate leaders.
•  Land O Lakes “Barrier-buster” award is also about visibility — includes a plaque and photo on wall of fame
•  Unilever has an “OI Award” tied to company objectives
•  Emerson Therm-o-Disc awards $500 for innovation accomplishments and publicizes in the company newsletter.

Open Innovation vs Team Player?

I set up a Google Alert for Open Innovation to try and keep track of OI news and happenings.  Mostly I get articles and blog posts, but sometimes some odd stuff comes through the filter.

In today’s alert I got a link to a Yahoo Answers page where someone has to give a presentation at work and is asking which would be better, a presentation on “open innovation benefits or how to be a good team player?”  I get the feeling that neither choice will have great results, call it a hunch.

If you really want to hear about the inside stories of Open Innovation from the companies with the most experience, the best place of course is at CoDev 2012.

Tech Scouting: Useful Metrics and Industry Examples

Article #10:  Useful Metrics and Industry Examples

Now that you have found and chosen the opportunities that best support your company’s innovation objectives, how do you monitor and measure success? As in any metrics program, your desired outcomes should guide what is measured along the way. While team and partner processes are important to measure, companies today are most concerned with impact on the bottom line.

For example, AstraZeneca has refocused its metrics to emphasize commercialization, i.e. how many drugs win approval to be sold. In the past, research progress was measured by the number of compounds entering development.

Similarly, Kimberly-Clark Health Care measures how many projects are actually done versus how many were evaluated. In terms of process metrics they also track the following:

• Concept Development Support
  # (or %) of features identified by our team that are presented to the customer
  # (or %) of features identified by our team that are selected for commercialization

• New Area Exploration
  # of go/no go decisions enabled by our team
  # of projects we place into our project bullpen for prioritization

• Existing Project Support
  # of technical problems solved
  # of external ideas utilized to resolve issues

Other measurements used by different companies include:

• Time to decision: How long does it take to vet specific leads—go/no go—phase by phase?
• Time to results: How long before an approved, funded project is launched in the market?
• Payback: When will a company see the first returns on its investment?
• Value and impact on the business: What does a project contribute to the company portfolio, brand, IP base or future business?
• Percent of revenues/percent of profits, short of original estimate
• Value of externally-sourced product revenue as a percentage of total sales

Some companies set specific financial goals: Avery Dennison looks at the number of new projects identified and launched with potential annual revenues of $50-100 million. Unilever’s minimum is $100 million. Fewer bigger deals are the ultimate objective.

Next week we look at how rewards and incentives are tied to Open Innovation goals and metrics.

Further reading

Metrics discussed at Tech Scouting workshops in 2008 and 2009 – click here

This article published in conjunction with MRT’s workshop series:
Technology Scouting to Accelerate Innovation – Implementing an External Sourcing Program
Next session June 4-5, 2012 in Cambridge, MA

To be on the mailing list to receive these articles (along with other special updates), sign up here.

2-for-1 MRT Workshops for Cyber Monday

Celebrate the holidays with great deals on product development training for you and your staff.

Sign up for any of the following MRT workshops and register a second person for absolutely FREE!  Just follow the link below and register two people for the workshop and you’ll pay for just one.

Hurry – our most generous offer of the year expires at 11:59pm on Cyber Monday, November 28, 2011.

Qualifying workshops:

• NEW! Valuation of Early Stage Technologies: Tools, Methods and Case Examples – March 6-7, 2012 in San Jose, CA.

• Second Generation Lean Product Development: Applying the Principles of Flow – March 21–22, 2012 in San Diego, CA

• Product & Technology Roadmapping for Future Growth: Linking Markets, Products and Technology – May 1-2, 2012 in Chicago, IL

Take advantage of these great savings to send more of your team for less and get them all on the same page back at the office.  There are no special codes to remember or hoops to jump through, just register yourself and a team member online and this deal will be automatically applied.

Special Bonus! This offer is already combined with our $300 early bird discounts for even bigger savings.  This is by far the best deal we’ve ever offered to our customers.

There is not a lot of time, so act now!  This offer expires at 11:59pm on Cyber Monday, November 28, 2011.

Tech Scouting: Negotiating for Success – Recommended Actions

Article #9:  Negotiating for Success: Recommended Actions

“Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.” Brad Trucksis, Associate Director of Global Business Development at Procter & Gamble made this point very clearly at the Tech Scouting Summit last week.

Win-win is the only acceptable option for a negotiation’s outcome. A win-lose outcome, in favor of your company, will ultimately translate into lose-lose, since the partner will lack incentive to perform optimally.  Make sure your partner is as happy as you are with the terms.

Another point made by speakers – and particularly by Lauren Foster of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office — a good agreement rarely gets looked at once it is made.  The strongest alliances are built on trust.

That said, how do you best ensure a win-win with your partners?