1.
Personalized Innovation Management, Sustainable Growth & Value Creation
Innovation,
Technologies,
Commercialization
Dr. Eugene Buff, CLP, RTTP

2.
Statistics
6 in 1 Million ideas or concepts becomes a successful business or successful
company
Bankruptcies occur for 60% of high tech companies that succeed in getting
venture capital
Mergers and liquidations occur in 30% of start-up companies.
10% of start-ups that succeed compensate for the other 90% of the companies
in the venture capitals investment portfolio.
Having a talented CEO greatly increases the chances of the success for the
startup.
Portfolios are returning 4 or 5% on an average in the venture business, versus
expectation of 100%
© Janet George, 2006

3.
Fighting the Product Development
Paradigm
Total Product Life Cycle
Birth to Death Expenditures
1000 Ideas 100 Trials 10 Products 1 Success
+
Sales Curve
Patent Filed
Licensees Profits
Sought
Idea
0 +
Reduction
to Practice
Shutdown Costs
Total Expenditure/Profit Curve
Pilot Plant
Marketing Starts
10+
Years
Up to
$100MM
1. Could we be more efficient?
2. Could we move faster?
3. Could we save (spend less!) money?

4.
A Technology = A Product
Technology – an applied science to solve a problem
Many steps required to make a product out of technology
-Further Development
-Validation research
-Prototype
-Scalability
-Regulatory approval
-Partnership
-Market Research
-Initial sales…
Can require MANY YEARS and extensive resources
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses

5.
Speed of Business
Moore’s Law – computing power roughly doubles every
18-24 months. Since the invention of integrated circuit,
1958 - ~27 times
Car speed illustration:
Start at 5 mph – double every minute
(in the 3rd minute at 20pmh you would cover 1,760 feet)
At the 27th cycle … 671 million miles per hour!!!
(in the 28th minute you would cover 11 million miles. At
that speed it would take just five minutes to get to Mars!)

6.
About Innovation
Innovation =/= Creativity
Creativity – generation of new ideas
Innovation =/= R&D
Research – creation of new knowledge (question is
known)
Development – application of knowledge (spec. is
known)

7.
Satisfycing, NOT Optimizing
I don’t Have To Be The Fastest, Just Faster Than You
Something fresh (new, original, improved)
Creates value
This is INNOVATION:
- It is NOT about new products, NOT about new processes
or new ideas...
- It IS about staying one step ahead of your competition.
“The probability does not work in real world; it is pay off that matters.”
Nassim Taleb. Antifragility.
A PROCESS!
vs EVENT – an invention ...

8.
Models of Innovation
Linear: Research – Development – Production –
Marketing.
Chain Link (Kline-Rosenberg):
Stephen JKline and Nathan
Rosenberg,“An Overviewof
Innovation,” The Positive Sum
Strategy: Harnessing
Technology forEconomic Growth,
Ralph Landau and Nathan
Rosenberg (eds.)(Washington,DC
National Academy
Press, 1986),p 290

9.
Reality Check

10.
Technology Transfer Road Map

11.
So what?

12.
Technology Is Not Enough!
} Great innovations could fail:
◦ microwave oven – first in 1947 (Raytheon)
◦ PDA – first in 1992
(Newton by Apple)
Need to Address Needs and Communicate Value
Good, Patentable Science is Not Always Commercially Relevant
Lack of Market is a Deal-killer

13.
Punch line:
} Commercialization is a game of “what
does he need” vs of “what have I got”!

14.
Blind Spot Story
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville
On 26 January 1857, he delivered his design in a
sealed envelope to the French Academy. On 25
March 1857, he received French patent
#17,897/31,470 for his invention – phonautograph.
Edison – phonograph, 1877

15.
Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now.
First time played back at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in 2008
Blind Spot Story (2)
http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scot
t.php
Original application?
Note taking

16.
One more point. Who is this man?
Kane Kramer

17.
Timing is important.

18.
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses
Marketing. Why it is important?
} All inventions/innovations are ‘genius’… Technical
people/ inventors can’t talk about them objectively.
Я (имя)…, изобретатель, г. N-cк.
У меня есть изобретение «…». Патент RU №1234567. Аналогов в мире нет.
Это лучшее изобретение 21 века в области механики. Моя технология вытеснит с рынка
все ныне используемые технологии, как двигатель внутреннего сгорания вытеснил с
рынка паровой двигатель….
Сейчас в мире нет пионерных изобретателей в области механики. Я один. К тому
же нет настоящих экспертов. Армия дипломированных специалистов, называемых
экспертами, на практике только для отчётности. Помните о роли личности в истории.
Через несколько лет меня признает Америка, а за ней другие страны лучшим
изобретателем 21 века. Мне присвоят разные премии и награды, но у меня не будет
прав на мои изобретения. Премии и награды это ничто по сравнению с правами на
изобретение.
Россия будет внедрять мою технологию самой последней…
Если мне в США предоставят Конструкторское Бюро и Экспериментальную Базу, то
через год я предоставлю для США Эффективную систему ... Я допускаю, что
переоцениваю свои способности. Время покажет.

19.
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses
Successful
project
Technology
• Identifiable assets - patents, trade secrets, know how
• Proof of concept - reduction to practice, prototypes
• Identifiable applications within the scope of our rights
Market
• A business proposition that meets a market
need
• Strong technology - market match
• Competitive advantage over alternative
technologies
• Technology in use: “Proven value”
• Large, growing markets for licensable uses
People
• A technology champion
• Prior business analyses from a
business and/or technology team
• Scientists to give industry
presentations
• Technical publications supporting the
concept
What’s Needed to “Sell”?

20.
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses
Formula for Success
} W – what – understand your technology
} W – why – what is the value proposition, why would
anybody care…
} W – where – “where” are the companies who care are –
markets, applications, value chain
} H – how – reaching out and delivering the three “W”
message

21.
What sells?
Three key dimensions:
Value proposition
? How does this technology outperforms current best-in-class?
? What are the key markets?
Development status / transferability
? What was the highest stage of development?
? Can you support the transfer with samples? Data? People?
Intellectual Property
? How broad, defensible, and detectable are the patent rights?
? What are the existing licenses / encumbrances?
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses

22.
Types of Intellectual Property
• Copyright
• Geographical indication
• Industrial design rights
• IP cores used in electronic design
• Moral rights
• Patent
• Personality rights
• Plant breeders' rights
• Plant variety protection
• Trade dress
• Trademark
• Trade secret
• Traditional knowledge
• Domain Name

23.
Patent
Requirements:
• Utility
• Novelty
• Inventorship
• Non-obviousness
• Possession (written description)
• Enabling disclosure
• Best mode

24.
Extracting Value
The United States Patent & Trademark Office estimates
that only 3% of patents ever return more money to the
owners than was invested in their development and
prosecution. The statistics are as follows:
For every 100 ideas:
5 are patentable
2.5 will become patents
.1875 will return a profit

25.
Commodity Trap
Manufacturing and business process knowledge are
widely distributed. Hard to differentiate products and
sustain the differentiation.
Manufacturing is moving to global. In the areas with
very low cost. Pressure to produce and sell on the basis
of cost, not value.
Shrinking product life.
“What cost $5 million in 2000 can now be achieved
for $5 thousand”.
H. Chesbrough ©

26.
Open Innovation – a new reality
Old model (“closed” innovation):
• Companies must generate their own ideas, then develop, manufacture, market,
distribute and service those ideas themselves.
• Spectacular successes of central R&D such as Bell Labs.
Open Innovation:
• Useful knowledge is widely disseminated, and ideas must be used with alacrity. If
not, they will be lost. Role of R&D extends far beyond the boundaries of the
enterprise.
• Companies must now harness outside ideas to advance their own businesses
while leveraging their internal ideas outside their current operations.
Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and
Profiting from Technology, Henry Chesbrough

27.
Disruptive Innovation

28.
Disruption Theory
Sustaining
•Better than existing
products in market,
independent of price
Incumbent (3 of
4)
Same product, same value prop,
same customer, same channel
Succeed
New Entrant Fail
Disruptive
• Compete against non-
consumption
• Lower cost and worse
Incumbent Fail w/o
autonomy
New Entrant Succeed
Disruption = A strategic choice
*Paraphrased from
Christensen & Raynor,
The Innovator’s Solution,
Harvard Business School
Press (2003)
✗
Practice

29.
Markets
Focus on large markets! It is as easy to create a
solution for large market as for the small one...
Find a niche. It is easier to enter and expand
from there if possible
Don’t be greedy = be realistic. 2% of large
market is usually better than 80% of a small
and irrelevant one.
Create dynamic models to adapt for change.

30.
Power of Collaboration in
Commercialization
“Art is I, Science is We”
Claude Bernard

31.
Innovation Ecosystems =
Collaborations and Interdependencies
Innovation Success!!!!!
Co-innovation
R&D, Product Development,
Execution
Value chain, development chain

32.
Make Deals & Build Up Businesses
Idea Without a Use
Idea With Intent (Business Plan)
Commercial Product/Service
Timeline of an Idea
Need help with transition
Moving Through Stages of
Technology Development

33.
Is There a Solution
Need personalized, individual approach to
businesses and technologies. No “one size fits
all”!
Can only come from experience
Craft, not an exact science
Repeatable, reproducible track record of success

34.
Mission Statement
To help businesses stay healthy and grow organically
– this is fundamentally different path.

35.
Value Add
Connectivity
Deep reach into corporate technical staffs
Access to key gatekeepers (tech transfer & tech acquisition)
Relationships with venture capital, Universities and SMEs
Confidentiality
Opportunity screening and initial discussions
Protect client name and application
Expertise
Evaluation and communication methods
Market and buy-side knowledge
Business formation and commercialization skills
External perspective
Unbiased evaluation and critical thinking

36.
Servicing Two Sides of
Open Innovation
Buy Side
Innovationmanagement
External Business
development
Technology Scouting
Training
Investment &/or
Acquisition Targets
Sell Side
Market Assessment
Strategy Advisement
Commercialization
Assistance
Value Proposition &
Market Validation
Facilitation of Licensing
and Partnerships

37.
Open Innovation Tool Box
We are a one-stop shop for all your strategic needs.
o Proprietary databases
o On-line portals and marketplaces
o IP experts
o Valuation experts
o Local and market specific search partners
o Subject matter experts from industry and
academia

38.
Contact Info
Eugene Buff, MD, PhD
Certified Licensing Professional (CLP)
Registered Technology Transfer Practitioner (RTTP)
Primary Care Innovation Consulting
UsTech Discovery LLC
E-mail: eugene.buff@gmail.com
Ph.: +1 617-331-1982
Skype: eugenebuff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenebuff