Thursday, December 16, 2010

A Balanced Scorecard Template for Tech Transfer Offices

It is generally accepted that establishing specific goals in conjunction with a process to measure an organization’s progress against those goals is a critical factor in achieving desired results. There are a variety of techniques that have been used over decades to establish, track, and report on organizational performance objectives. In the early 1990’s, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced a novel approach, the Balanced Scorecard, to supplement the traditional one-dimension set of financial figures that most organizations utilized.
 
The Balanced Scorecard is a methodology to define a holistic set of goals across an organization. Over the past few decades this model has been adapted by numerous enterprises across many industries. The foundation of this methodology is built on four categories or “perspectives” that Kaplan and Norton defined to track results. These categories include: 
  • Financial Perspective. The Financial perspective includes measures that indicate whether an organization is achieving key bottom-line results. For traditional commercial organizations, these metrics typically include profitability and revenue growth.
  • Customer Perspective. The Customer perspective includes measures that monitor the value proposition that an organization delivers to its target customers. Commercial organizations would typically enumerate goals that include market share, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.
  • Internal Process Perspective. The Internal Process perspective includes measures that track how effectively an organization is performing. Often times enterprises target what an organization is striving to excel in to support their customers. Commercial organizations typically focus on quality and efficiency initiatives.
  • Learning and Growth Perspective. The Learning and Growth perspective includes measures on internal organizational investments to improve their performance in the other three areas. Commercial organizations may focus in internal employee satisfaction, staff turnover, training, and improvements in their overall bench strength.  
While many of the leading examples of utilizing a Balanced Scorecard highlight global 2000 commercial companies, this tool is also just as effective within government and public service organizations; and non-profit entities; and academic institutions, including Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). The various perspectives that an organization will elect to monitor and measure are aligned with the overall vision, mission, and goals established by the enterprise.
 
In addition to being a widely accepted best practice for establishing and measuring progress towards enterprise goals, there are a number of benefits for using a Balanced Scorecard to increase the performance of your organization including:
  • Helps to focus and align an entire organization on what must be accomplished to ensure the overall success of the enterprise.
  • Translates overarching goals and objectives into tangible results that an organization aims to achieve over a set time period.
  • Provides enterprise management with a comprehensive yet succinct view of the overall operation.
  • Serves as a very effective communications vehicle to communicate performance results to all team members.
Every organization will likely have a unique set of performance indicators that are usually modeled from a set of industry-accepted metrics as well as being directly aligned with the goals and objectives of their institution. For TTOs, that would typically include metrics on deals, industry collaborations, patent filings, invention disclosures, and outreach initiatives. If your institution or enterprise is already following the Balanced Scorecard approach, it is advisable to use align your Balanced Scorecard with your institution while using more granular goals to focus on your organization’s specific contributions to the overall mission and goals of the institution.
 
Through our research for clients over the past decade, I have developed a set of standard metrics for TTOs and have adapted them to the Balanced Scorecard framework. Included below is a template for a TTO Balanced Scorecard.
 
 
Once you have identified your key performance indicators for your organization, it is critical to implement a process and define roles and responsibilities to capture the metrics, review the results, and to proactively develop a corrective action plan to address shortfalls with any of your key measures. It is also advisable to incorporate relevant performance goals from your Balanced Scorecard into each staff members’ annual performance reviews. Institutionalizing a process with appropriate accountabilities and follow-through is an important ingredient to deliver positive results on a consistent basis.
 
In summary, you can implement the Balanced Scorecard methodology in your TTO with the following steps: 
  1. Outline your plan to implement a Balanced Scorecard for your office.
  2. Conduct research on industry standard technology transfer key performance objectives and familiarize yourself with your current enterprise goals.
  3. Identify your organization’s performance indicators.
  4. Establish your annual target goals for each performance indicator.
  5. Implement a review, response, and communication process for your TTO Balanced Scorecard.
Have you implemented an annual goals and accomplishments reporting mechanism? Are you currently using a Balanced Scorecard approach for your TTO? If so, has it been effective in motivating and aligning your organization?
 
—By Jack Spain

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Staying on TOP of your IP Asset Management Database System Project: Part IV – Process

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth and final post in this series examining our lessons learned from managing IP Asset Management database system migration projects. 

As I noted in the first post in this series, there are three critical building blocks to position your organization to stay on TOP of your migration to a new IPAM solution:

  • Technology – Selecting the right technology and technology solution partners. 
  • Organization – Anticipating the impact to your organization and proactively developing and implementing a successful change management program. 
  • Process – Assembling the right project team and developing a practical project plan to position your organization for a successful implementation. 

In this posting I will elaborate on the “Process” component. This is another challenging element of any large project. Key aspects of this element include assembling a project team; empowering them and positioning them for success; and investing the time to develop a realistic project plan. Specific best practices relative to the Process building block include:

1. Understand that you will undoubtedly underestimate the resource and schedule requirements for all systems projects. It is also very easy to underestimate the extent of legacy data migration and system integration challenges – especially if there have been multiple generations / versions of your current software solution. This is generally not complex but requires attention to detail and careful follow-through.

2. Manage expectations for your project team to be accountable for the project beyond the initial implementation to ensure that all your key project goals are achieved. It is extremely difficult not to get distracted and return to “business as usual” (i.e. your normal day job) after the initial implementation of a major technology solution.

3. Ensure that your project team has accountability for all aspects of your system migration. Key roles to consider include:

a. Program Manager: Responsible for project schedule, technical architecture, software and hardware platforms selection, project communications, change management

b. Process Manager: Responsible for planning and updating your key operational processes in alignment with changes, constraints, and opportunities provided by your new IPAM solution

c. Data Manager: Oversee the legacy data migration into the new system and the new data standards that you will implement to take full advantage of your new system

4. Be proactive in your vendor communications with proactive communications to continue to align perceptions, expectations, goals, and objectives to ensure a success outcome for both parties.

How successful has your organization planning and executing systems implementations within your institution? Have you documented and taken action on your lessons learned? What lessons learned have surprised you?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Staying on TOP of your IP Asset Management Database System Project: Part III – Organization

Editor’s Note: This is the third post in a four-part series examining our lessons learned from managing IP Asset Management database system migration projects.
As I noted in the first post in this series, there are three critical building blocks to position your organization to stay on TOP of your migration to a new IPAM solution:
  • Technology – Selecting the right technology and technology solution partners.
  • Organization – Anticipating the impact to your organization and proactively developing and implementing a successful change management program.
  • Process – Assembling the right project team and developing a practical project plan to position your organization for a successful implementation.
In this posting I will elaborate on the “Organization” component. This is often the most challenging element with the greatest impact on the overall success of your project. Specific best practices relative to the Organization building block include:

1. It is imperative to be proactive and diligent to manage expectations and perceptions from your initial planning through the post-implementation phase of the project – especially if you are migrating from a custom, proprietary solution to a commercial software solution. This is especially true from a features, functions, and capabilities perspective. You need to ensure that the ultimate end-users have a realistic set of expectations regarding how and what the new system will do for them and that interacting with your new IPAM system will be a different experience.

2. Do not underestimate the change management impact on your organization and be careful NOT to introduce other organizational or process changes simultaneously if possible. Effective change management best practices include:

a. Maintaining a firm grasp of the current realities, challenges, and opportunities across your institution;

b. Assuring that the appropriate energy, priority, and focus are maintained on your migration project until the desired results and key milestones have been achieved;

c. Planning to ensure that you have assembled the right skills and talent on the project team to ensure that the organization will meet its overall goals (explored in more detail in next post);

d. Striving continuously to provide feedback and open communications;

e. Establishing the foundation to set and manage expectations for effective and reliable project execution; and

f. Striving to persevere to institutionalize the desired changes from your systems migration effort.

3. Carefully plan for just-in-time training for all staff members impacted from your systems migration. This can be challenging to orchestrate, but it is important to train your system users simultaneously with granting them access to your new system. If you train too early, it could potentially cost you a tremendous amount of time in support costs over the long term. If you train too late, you are potentially confronted with confronting negative impressions about your new IPAM system because they were not properly prepared to deal with the changes. Remember that first impressions can be extremely difficult to change.

4. If your system implementation is going to impact several organizations across your institution, engage key members from these organizations upfront as a spokesperson and member of your project evaluation and implementation team. They should be engaged and supportive and often bring a new and valuable perspective to your team.

How successful has your organization been in assessing and managing the impact of new systems implementation across your institution? What are your key lessons learned? Please check back in a few days for the next installment in this series.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Staying on TOP of your IP Asset Management Database System Project: Part II – Technology

Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a four-part series examining our lessons learned from managing IP Asset Management (IPAM) database system migration projects.
 
As I noted in the first post in this series, there are three critical building blocks to position your organization to stay on TOP of your migration to a new IPAM solution:
  • Technology – Selecting the right technology and technology solution partners.
  • Organization – Anticipating the impact to your organization and proactively developing and implementing a successful change management program.
  • Process – Assembling the right project team and developing a practical project plan to position your organization for a successful implementation.
In this posting I will elaborate on the “Technology” element. This is the quite often the easy part – but the one element where we tend to focus most of our time and energy. Assuming that you are not developing your own IPAM solution using in-house resources, I recommend that you do not get overly immersed in specific features and functions of a new system. It is more important to select a qualified strategic partner that will support you throughout the life cycle of your solution. Specific best practices relative to the Technology building block include: 
  1. Invest sufficient time to thoroughly understand and document your institutional / enterprise intellectual property management and integration requirements. Your requirements should be ranked and prioritized to assist you in the evaluation and selection process. You do not want to place any more emphasis than justified on features and functions that are desirable or “nice to have”, especially if they distract the focus on your core requirements.
  2. Develop an evaluation matrix or tool with weighted requirements where you and rate and rank key solution features along with the qualifications of your vendors.
  3. You should also invest a commensurable effort into evaluating your target solution vendors. Consider not only what the vendor is offering today, but examine their track record, the stability and effectiveness of their leadership team, company culture, market leadership, and ultimately the ability to support your organization on a long-term basis.
  4. It is also essential that you interview current customers as references for your top candidate solutions. Ideally, these are not just a unique set of “raving fans” – but a cross-section of clients that have similar requirements with your institution.
How successful has your organization been in identifying both the right technology solution and technology partner for your institution? What are your key lessons learned? Please check back in a few days for the next installment in this series.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Staying on TOP of your IP Asset Management Database System Project: Part I – Introduction

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a four-part series examining our lessons learned from managing IP Asset Management database system migration projects. This overview will be followed by posts that focus on the three critical elements of a successful systems implementation. Visit our blog each Monday to follow this series.

Making a decision to investigate and evaluate alternatives to your IP Asset Management (IPAM) database system is a very challenging and often underestimated endeavor. In my previous posting on
Utilizing an IP Management Database to Enhance Your Marketing Efforts, I provided the business case for utilizing a robust IPAM solution for your Technology Transfer Office (TTO). There are a number of drivers that might prompt your organization to consider migrating to a new solution at this time including:
  • Migrating to a Web-based IPAM solution that is more intuitive, is easier to access, maintain, and enhanceI
  • Migrating to a new IPAM solution that provides higher reliability, improved customer service, and/or is more cost effective
  • Migrating to a more robust IPAM solution that will scale to meet the increased volume of transactions that your office is managing and provide you with comprehensive reporting and management capabilities
  • Migrating to a more comprehensive IPAM solution that provides support across your entire Intellectual Property life cycle
When initiating a project to implement a new IPAM database solution, it is essential to stay on TOP of your mission by carefully planning for the following three critical areas to position you for success:
  • Technology – Selecting the right technology and technology solution partners.
  • Organization – Anticipating the impact to your organization and proactively developing and implementing a successful change management program.
  • Process – Assembling the right project team and developing a practical project plan to position your organization for a successful implementation.


In subsequent blog postings, I will elaborate on the key elements of Technology, Organization, and Process to consider prior to initiating the evaluation, selection, and implementation process of your new IPAM solution.

What challenges have you faced while migrating to a new IPAM solution?

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Formula for SMART Growth for Technology-based Firms

In my experience, I have identified the following characteristics of businesses that have been successful in emerging from start-up phase into a sustained growth stage with efficient, managed growth. These fundamental characteristics of successful growth businesses include:
  • Strategy-based
  • Market-based
  • Alignment-based
  • ROI-based
  • Technology Innovation-based
Additional success attributes include a placing a priority on the following building blocks (not necessarily in this sequence):
  1. Emphasis on accountability
  2. Emphasis on action-orientation
  3. Emphasis on cash flow
  4. Emphasis on client acquisition
  5. Emphasis on client service
  6. Emphasis on empowerment
  7. Emphasis on leadership
  8. Emphasis on listening
  9. Emphasis on metrics
  10. Emphasis on perseverance
  11. Emphasis on prioritization
  12. Emphasis on quality
  13. Emphasis on relationships
  14. Emphasis on results
  15. Emphasis on root cause analysis
While formalities like organization structure, policies, and procedures are necessary to some degree for any successful business, it is imperative that there is not too much focus on certain aspects of growing a technology business that will ultimately impede growth. Based on my experience, I recommend that leaders implement:
  1. Just enough communication
  2. Just enough governance
  3. Just enough information
  4. Just enough infrastructure
  5. Just enough oversight
  6. Just enough planning
  7. Just enough process
  8. Just enough resources
  9. Just enough structure
  10. Just enough technology
Of course, any experienced business leader recognizes that maintaining a consistent focus on each of these elements is a daunting task. I will provide additional details and guidelines on each of these best practices in future blog posts. Please contact me with questions and to share best practices from your own personal experiences in growing successful businesses.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Utilizing an IP Asset Management Database to Enhance Your Marketing Efforts – Part II

Editor’s Note: This is the second and final post in a two-part series examining the best practices that we have captured from utilizing an IP Asset Management (IPAM) database system to support our IP marketing and commercialization initiatives.

As I noted in my previous post on this topic, our experience with an IPAM database system over the past decade has provided us with the following set of best practices:
  1. Establishing and following clear, concise, and consistent classification schemes;
  2. Incorporating full-featured search capabilities;
  3. Integrating workflow management capabilities;
  4. Including reporting tools for staff productivity and efficient project tracking;
  5. Investing in proper training and mentoring for your staff; and
  6. Adhering to your institution’s technology guidelines.
This posting will address the final three best practices in this area.

4. Reporting and Project Management
 

Effective reporting capabilities assist your staff in increasing their personal productivity and should be a vital tool to assist your organization in achieving your specific goals and objectives. Well-designed reporting tools provide the ability to quickly and easily obtain status information on all aspects across your technology portfolio along with satisfying your management reporting requirements. Your reporting features should provide excellent visibility and transparency across your IPAM database solution to avoid a “black whole” scenario where you know the data is in there somewhere but you just cannot locate it no matter how hard you try.

A business analytics software tool can provide your organization with a strategic advantage when you use the tool to assist in identifying trends and mine additional opportunities for licensing and partnerships throughout your portfolio that is captured in your IPAM database. Powerful reporting tools should also provide you with the foundation for effective project management to ensure that you are maximizing your deal potential and minimizing the surprises that you have to react to.

5. Staff Training and Mentoring
 

Implementing a world-class IPAM database solution without proper training and support for your team will only result in frustrated and dissatisfied staff, inaccurate or incomplete information in the database, and negative impact on your organization’s productivity. Effective training is planned and delivered at the right time, with the right amount, at the right level, and in the right place. High-tech web-based, multimedia tools can be very efficient and cost effective for training option for your staff and should be accompanied by a high-touch connection that includes mentoring from your senior staff members and system experts.

6. Technology Guidelines
 

We encourage each organization to engage your information technology professionals in the planning and selection process to ensure compliance with your IT architecture, cyber security, technology, and product guidelines, standards, and procedures. Ideally, today your IPAM software solution should be web-based to facilitate access and should be supported by a standard commercial or open-source database along with development languages that are endorsed by your technology support organization. There are a number of installed (in-house) or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS or hosted) commercially available solutions today. If you are using or planning to use a commercial IPAM solution, you should request responses from your solution vendor to the following questions:
  • What is the support process and the depth and qualifications of your support organization?
  • What is the process to request enhancements and what is your track record for publishing new software releases?
  • Are you using a users’ group or steering committee that includes customers to prioritize new features?
  • Do you provide a forum with other IPAM system users to share best practices?
Successfully commercializing a vast and diverse portfolio of technologies is a fundamental and often daunting undertaking for all technology transfer offices. World-class organizations seek out and capitalize on best practices within their offices and across the industry. We firmly believe that properly utilizing your IPAM database solution – while having the discipline to adhere to your processes and procedures – will have a positive impact on the overall success of your organization’s technology commercialization initiatives.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Utilizing an IP Asset Management Database to Enhance Your Marketing Efforts – Part I

Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a two-part series examining the best practices that we have captured from utilizing an IP Asset Management (IPAM) database system to support our IP marketing and commercialization initiatives.

During our many years of hands-on experience in generating scores of licenses and successful partnership agreements for clients since 2001, Fuentek has relied on an intellectual property asset management (IPAM) database to support our core marketing process. We have found that this database, along with a collection of other best practices for marketing IP, has played a key role in our success in the commercialization of innovations across a diverse array of technology categories for universities, federal government labs, and commercial companies.

Maintaining an effective IP management database system positions your tech transfer organization to proactively monitor and manage your marketing initiatives and thereby get maximum value from your IP portfolio. A well-designed and successfully implemented IPAM database system facilitates communication, fosters collaboration, and is an invaluable tool to ensure consistent adherence to your licensing process.

Each of the commercial and proprietary IPAM database solutions currently available have their inherent advantages and disadvantages. However, we have found that the crucial factor to achieving maximum value from whatever database system you choose is discipline. The value ultimately delivered from your IPAM database solution depends upon the entire organization diligently adhering to approved procedures and entering your IP-related data into your database in a consistent fashion.

Our experience with an IPAM database system over the past decade has provided us with the following set of best practices:

  1. Establishing and following clear, concise, and consistent classification schemes;
  2. Incorporating full-featured search capabilities;
  3. Integrating workflow management capabilities;
  4. Including reporting tools for staff productivity and efficient project tracking;
  5. Investing in proper training and mentoring for your staff; and
  6. Adhering to your institution’s technology guidelines.
This posting will outline the first three best practices in this area.

1. Classification Schemes
 

We have found that it is very beneficial to establish—and have the discipline to maintain—standard attributes for each of the technologies within your IP portfolio. These standard taxonomies for categorizing and organizing your technologies are a key prerequisite for incorporating an effective search capability within your IPAM database solution. Our experience has proven that investing time up-front to appropriately classify your technology assets is a prudent investment. Ensuring easy access to all the elements within your technology portfolio enables your team to become more efficient while positioning your technology managers for more effective decision-making by fully capitalizing on your institutional knowledge captured in your database.

2. Comprehensive Search
 

Another critical feature within an IPAM database solution is a robust search engine that provides your staff with reliable result set with elements throughout your entire database, including all database fields and documents. Well-designed comprehensive search capabilities position your staff to mine information from your database and capitalize on lessons learned from your team’s earlier actions and decisions regarding similar technologies. Of course, the overall effectiveness of your search engine is directly related to the diligence and consistency of the attributes that you use to describe and categorize your technologies (i.e. IPAM best practice #1).

3. Integrated Workflow Management
 

Additional benefits can be obtained by integrating at least a rudimentary level of workflow management within your IPAM database system to provide the foundation for efficient collaboration and communications across your organization. Your workflow solution should factor in how you can most efficiently manage the data and documents to support your technology transfer initiatives. Successful workflow solutions promote staff accountability, efficiency, and timely results.

In my next blog posting, I will elaborate on the next three best practices for using an IPAM database to support your IP marketing efforts. Has your organization attempted to capture and institutional best practices in managing your IPAM database?

Monday, August 30, 2010

Applying the 4 P’s to get to “The Science of the Deal”: Tips on Platform

As I noted in a previous post, STS’s proven Deal-making 4 P’s can position your Technology Transfer Office (TTO) to more consistently and predictably execute licensing agreements for your institution. The Deal-making 4 P’s are:
  1. Planning
  2. People
  3. Process
  4. Platform
Let’s take a closer look at Platform. Your TTO can greatly improve efficiency and effectiveness by leveraging modern, low-cost, readily available technology solutions such as IP asset management database applications, calendaring and scheduling, instant messaging, websites, e-mail marketing, Web conferencing, blogs, wikis, microblogging, and other social media tools. It is important that the tools you deploy are intuitive and not overly complex, helping rather than hindering your staff in performing their jobs effectively. Your platform of technology solutions should also be as synergistic as possible to maximize the productivity of your TTO associates.

Regularly evaluate the return on investment (ROI) your organization is receiving from your technology solutions. Solutions should be evaluated in terms of the delivery of positive results (based on both objective and subjective criteria), as well as an examination of whether they are streamlining or impeding your key processes. Several questions to contemplate in this area include:

  • Has your office invested in technology solutions that support and encourage communication, collaboration, and teamwork throughout your office and across your institution?
  • Do your tools facilitate workflow and project management? Do you know where each project currently stands and how much time has been invested in it?
  • Do you have easy and intuitive access to your key databases, or have they become a “black hole” for your critical information? Can you retrieve the patent or marketing status in real time?
How does your organization go about rating the overall effectiveness of your chosen technology solutions?

Monday, August 23, 2010

Applying the 4 P’s to get to “The Science of the Deal”: Tips on Process

As I noted in a previous post, STS’s proven Deal-making 4 P’s can position your Technology Transfer Office (TTO) to more consistently and predictably execute licensing agreements for your institution. The Deal-making 4 P’s are:
  1. Planning
  2. People
  3. Process
  4. Platform
Let’s look at Process in more detail. STS proposes institutionalizing “just enough” process discipline throughout your TTO to improve your agility and efficiency, and to deliver consistent high-quality services within stated time and resource constraints. Process institutionalization requires a focused and conscious effort to define, document, communicate, and train your staff on key processes within your organization, such as a specific set of criteria that must be met for a start-up to license a technology or the license application forms used for all negotiations. Like the majority of management and leadership responsibilities, the concepts are rather straightforward but can be challenging to execute successfully.

While it is critical to design a well-conceived process, it is even more important to institutionalize the process to deliver actual results (i.e., licensing deals). Several questions to contemplate in this area include:

  • Have you developed standard templates to support your evaluation, assessment, marketing, and licensing processes?
  • Do you provide all potential licensees with the consistent instructions, application forms, and base license agreement templates (with no specific business terms) when they request a license?
  • Have you cultivated an internal culture that promotes feedback and continuous process improvement?
  • Do you proactively consider the organizational impact that various changes may have across your operation?
What procedures have worked for your organization to define, develop, implement, and institutionalize processes that improve the overall effectiveness of your organization? Leave a comment below, and check back next week for the last installment in this series.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Applying the 4 P’s to get to “The Science of the Deal”: Tips on People

As I noted in a previous post, STS’s proven Deal-making 4 P’s can position your Technology Transfer Office (TTO) to more consistently and predictably execute licensing agreements for your institution. The Deal-making 4 P’s are:
  1. Planning
  2. People
  3. Process
  4. Platform
As outlined in the first post of this series, managing the people in your organization is critically important and may often be your most challenging responsibility. It requires a considerable effort to attract, recruit, and retain experienced and qualified professionals for all positions across your organization. Additional processes that are essential to building and maintaining an effective and efficient team include your on-boarding process, establishing mentors for new staff members, and developing the right sourcing strategy for personnel to support your mission.

Each of these elements is critical to building an efficient and effective organization. For instance, you will not succeed just by hiring well-seasoned entrepreneurs if you don’t have a program in place to mentor them on the technology transfer goals and procedures specific to your organization. Several questions to contemplate in this area include:

  • What key competencies are you missing today (from technical knowledge to negotiating skills) and what will you need in 6 to 12 months as your R&D organization grows or changes?
  • How will you recruit associates with the appropriate skills and experience level, and what portion do you need fulltime versus on an as-needed basis?
  • What personnel investments are you making to develop key organizational relationships across your institution? Are these relationships strong or do you need a different personality as your liaison?
  • What investments are you making to improve your team’s ongoing capabilities and competencies in order to impact your goals?
How does your organization work on attracting, recruiting, and retaining key professionals to build a world-class TTO? Leave a comment below, and check back next week for the next installment in this series.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Applying the 4 P’s to get to “The Science of the Deal”: Tips on Planning

As I noted in my previous post, STS’s proven Deal-making 4 P’s can position your Technology Transfer Office (TTO) to more consistently and predictably execute licensing agreements for your institution. The Deal-making 4 P’s are: 
  1. Planning
  2. People
  3. Process
  4. Platform
Let’s look at Planning in more detail. Planning requires a conscious commitment to reserve and invest the time to review the projects, trends, and key metrics for your office. This is certainly easier said than done, but is essential to providing effective leadership for your TTO. Several questions to contemplate in this area include:

  • How do you keep your staff focused and not distracted by lower priority tasks and initiatives that prevent your organization from achieving stated goals (i.e., licensing deals)?
  • For the technologies you are actively marketing at this time, how many resources (time and funding) have you already expended and expect to spend before a deal is signed? Is the expected revenue stream from the deal greater than the cost?
  • Do your operational metrics reflect progress toward achieving your institutional and TTO goals, or are you just capturing and reporting on readily available metrics?
If you find that you are spending a disproportionate amount of time on activities that are not directly impacting your goals, you should consider re-evaluating the current set of goals to ensure they are appropriate for your organization, or re-distribute priorities and responsibilities to make sure those who should be driving your goals have the time and resources to do their jobs. Planning who should do what and for which projects is most important and will help your office focus its resources appropriately and achieve your goals more effectively. How is your organization implementing effective and proactive plans? Chime in with a comment below.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Applying the 4 P’s to get to “The Science of the Deal”

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a five-part series examining STS’s Deal-making 4 P’s. This overview will be followed by posts that focus on each “P” within this approach.
 

STS’s proven methodology of applying the Deal-making 4 P’s can help position your Technology Transfer Office (TTO) to more consistently and predictably execute licensing and partnership agreements for your institution. The 4 P’s can take your organization’s deal making from an art to a science, improving your overall success rate of transforming technology disclosures into deals. The Deal-making 4 P’s are:
  1. Planning. Effective planning includes establishing a strategy with supporting goals and plans that deliver the greatest return on investment (ROI) from limited resources. It is imperative to implement practices that position your organization to focus on delivering results in line with your institution’s goals.
  2. People. While it may be obvious that your goals should include attracting, recruiting, and retaining qualified professionals for positions within your TTO, the challenge of doing so can often be considerable. Additional key tactical and strategic details and procedures demand your attention, including your on-boarding process, establishing mentors for new staff members, and developing the right sourcing strategy for personnel to support your mission.
  3. Process. Institutionalizing “just enough” process discipline (the extent to which you define and follow specific steps for activities) across your TTO will enable your office to be agile and efficient, positioning your organization to deliver consistent high quality services within stated time and resource constraints. Process institutionalization requires a conscious effort to define, document, communicate, and train your staff on key activities within your organization, such as evaluating commercialization potential and required documentation from prospective licensees before an agreement is signed.
  4. Platform. Your TTO can achieve tremendous efficiency and effectiveness by taking advantage of modern, low-cost, widely available technology solutions. These tools include IP asset management database applications (from online invention disclosure submission to docket tracking to recording licenses), calendaring and scheduling, instant messaging, websites, e-mail marketing, Web conferencing, blogs, wikis, microblogging and other social media tools. It is important that the tools you deploy are intuitive and not overly complex and that they help rather than hinder your key professionals in performing their jobs effectively.
What steps does your organization take to improve the effectiveness of converting disclosures into licensing and partnership deals? Chime in with a comment below, and be sure to check back over the next few weeks to learn more about how STS implements the 4 P’s.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Presenting Marketing Concepts for Tech Transfer Professionals at the AUTM Eastern Region Meeting

Karen Hiser and I had the pleasure of presenting Tech Transfer Marketing Concepts and Marketing Social Media Strategies at the AUTM Eastern Region Meeting in Atlanta on June 8th. Both of our sessions were well attended and were extremely interactive, with the participants posing pertinent questions and sharing their personal experiences and challenges.
 

The Marketing Concepts session included:
  • Overview of the Fuentek screening methodology for technology commercialization decisions
  • Best practices and guidelines for marketing intellectual property (check out our many blog posts on this topic)
  • Details on implementing an iterative process for marketing a technology portfolio
  • Print and digital media tools for marketing technologies (check out these samples of such tools)
  • Effective communication techniques with researchers and with prospective licensees (more on these topics to come)
The most enjoyable aspect of this conference was the interactions that both Karen and I had with participants throughout the conference on the challenges and opportunities facing higher education Technology Transfer Offices in 2010 and beyond.

Is your Technology Transfer Office facing challenges securing licensing agreements for your patent portfolio?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Guidelines for Your TTO Blog, Microblog, and Other Social Media Tools

In my last posts, I discussed the value of social media tools such as blogs, with some extra discussion of microblogging, as an effective means of communication for Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Now I offer the following guidelines to position your organization to capitalize on the use of these two and other social media tools.
  • Plan. Establish a plan that links the use of blogs, microblogging, and other social media tools to specific goals, objectives, and challenges within your organization. Establish metrics (hard and soft) to monitor the effectiveness of your use of these tools and their impact on your goals.
  • Connect. Proactively expand and enhance your professional network on an ongoing basis. Tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo and even Facebook can assist you in identifying the right person at the right place at the right time that may be your next licensee or business partner. These tools are a natural extension of the relationships that you are continuously cultivating via professional associations and your internal interactions.
  • Integrate. Become an active (rather than a casual) participant and establish accountability for doing so. “Institutionalize” your use of these tools, so that daily disruptions do not cause you to constantly put off these tools until “tomorrow.” Establish a schedule each day when you or a member of your staff is tending to the care and feeding of your social media platforms.
  • Listen. Social media is extremely dynamic, with new trends, technologies, and applications emerging monthly. Observe the emergence of these new trends, capitalizing on new sources of information and professional relationships. And remember to listen to what others are blogging about that provide insights on new trends in technology commercialization and licensing of intellectual property.
  • Engage. Identify opportunities for you and your organization to deliver value to your subscribers. You should continually seek opportunities to maximize the value they return to your organization.
As you plan to leverage social media tools, think beyond the written word and your traditional communication methods. When feasible, take a multi-media approach, incorporating pictures, audio and video to represent your technology portfolio beyond a static Web site.

Social media tools are clearly not a fad and will continue to evolve and improve as a key communications vehicle for organizations across the globe. If you have not already embraced these tools, I encourage you to dig in and begin your planning process.

Are there any best practices that you can share from using social media tools to support your Technology Transfer Office?

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

More about Microblogging

In my prior post on the value of social media tools, I noted the potential synergy between blogging and microblogging. In this post, I will elaborate on the application and uses for microblogging and how this tool can benefit a Technology Transfer Office (TTO).

Earlier this year, it was reported that more than 50 million [Twitter] tweets per day were being generated. That’s 600 tweets per second. I characterize the more than 100 million registered Twitter users today as follows:

  • Public figures, including politicians, public servants, celebrities and sports figures. These individuals currently dominate the Top 100 lists and some have attracted millions of followers. I believe that their dominance of this medium will likely shift over time.
  • Media professionals across all sectors, including journalists, media outlets, and the trade press. The media at large has really embraced microblogging over the past 2 years. This category will continue to expand rapidly into the future, as it has provided an innovative new medium to share breaking news stories as well as editorial content on a timely and virtually continuous basis.
  • Messaging professionals, including consultants, professional speakers, and various subject matter experts. Microblogging has provided a cost effective megaphone for independent consultants and organizations with large and small advertising budgets to have a voice in a very crowded space.
  • Marketing professionals, both internal to an organization and the external service providers they hire to support them (i.e., media, public relations, e-mail marketing, and advertising agencies). This category includes forward-thinking TTOs that are creative and looking for innovative approaches to market their capabilities and intellectual property (IP) portfolios for technology commercialization and licensing.
Of course, there is also a sizable category of “Other” individuals with abundant opinions and perspectives for anyone willing to listen.

TTOs have the opportunity to capitalize on this new communications vehicle as another tool in their marketing toolbox to supplement their current IP marketing efforts.

Is your TTO experimenting with Twitter or other means of microblogging to promote your technology portfolio?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Social Media Tools Can Be Valuable for Tech Transfer Offices: Blogs and Microblogging

The task of developing a social media strategy for your organization may sound daunting. So much of the hype of social media tools appears to be focused on consumers or business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. After following this trend for the past several years, I am seeing many organizations beginning to analyze and even embrace social media tools for business-to-business applications (B2B).

There are an abundance of social media tools available today, but I am going to focus on two specific tools that can deliver real value to a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) – blogs and microblogging.

Blogs (or web logs) can be an effective vehicle for communications today in a time when information travels at the speed of the Internet. Blogs can be used by TTOs to:

  • Communicate valuable expertise and experiences with technology commercialization
  • Broadcast information on key intellectual property and licensing opportunities across your institution or enterprise
  • Share critical needs for collaboration and partnerships—an important component of Symbiotic Innovation
  • Improve overall awareness of your organization
While microblogging tools (dominated by Twitter today) have considerable limitations, they offer the potential to be an effective communications vehicle. Microblogging can be utilized to:
  • Announce new blog postings and other relevant announcements
  • Provide your organization with a communication tool to quickly and cost-effectively extend your reach to prospective licensees and partners
  • Expand and extend your current professional network of contacts
Since some TTOs are uncertain about whether they should be microblogging, I will elaborate on that particular social media tool in another post later this week. And next week, I will share my guidelines for effective blogging and microblogging.

What social media tools have you used to enhance your B2B communications?

Monday, May 17, 2010

Effective Communications with External Stakeholders

Establishing effective communications with potential licensees or prospective partners external to your institution or enterprise is a daunting task. Successfully getting someone’s attention, developing the business case for a constructive dialog, and establishing the proper protocol for effective interactions can be quite complex and time-consuming. My tips for effective communications with external associates include the following techniques.
  1. Empathy. It is worth the investment of your time to conduct background research on your prospective partner’s business including market strategy, financial condition, and recent news and events to increase your chances of conducting successful meetings and negotiation sessions. To the extent possible, seek multi-dimensional win-win-win agreements for strategic self-sustaining partnerships.
  2. Value Proposition. It is often wise to assume that your target contacts are overworked and paralyzed from information and assignment overload. It will work to your advantage to develop a succinct “elevator speech” on the value and benefits that your institution brings to the relationship. Be prepared to utilize multiple communication approaches that best fit the most appropriate communication style for your target audience.
  3. Communication. Attempt to speak in the language of your partner, being sensitive to the use of acronyms and the vernacular of your office, industry, or institution. Effective listing skills are quite often the most powerful proficiency that you can utilize for effective communications to establish new professional relationships.
  4. Investment. Results are typically commensurate with investments of time and resources. If you are negotiating or facilitating a big deal, prioritize, plan, and invest your time proportionately. Successful outcomes result from clearly defined deliverables, roles, and responsibilities while proactively managing expectations throughout the process.
  5. Metrics. It is important invest time to clearly define the appropriate criteria for success. Ideally, the criteria should be objective, rational, and relatively easy to measure. Once defined and agreed upon, monitor, track, and proactively communicate the results to key stakeholders.
Effective personal and professional relationships are a function of trust through consistent communications with integrity. Effective communications is the foundation to executing deals and developing new productive external relationships for your institution.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Effective Communications with Internal Stakeholders

Maintaining effective communications with key stakeholders within your institution or enterprise (i.e. inventors, attorneys, administrators, financial, or public relations personnel, etc.) sounds easy, but quite often is considerably more challenging and resource intensive than we expect. Many of us are working with colleagues who have too many demands placed on them with too few resources and too little time. My tips for effective communications include following techniques.

  1. Empathy. View your role as a “service provider” and think of your internal colleagues and associates as “customers” and “suppliers”. With this perspective, it is important to invest time to understand your customer’s goals, objectives, issues, and challenges which can be accomplished by exercising effective listing skills during your interactions.
  2. Communication. It is almost impossible to over-communicate today with the amount of information transmitted continuously across your organization. Be proactive in your communications and attempt to speak in the language of your customer (i.e. beware of acronyms and internal office or industry vernacular). During your interactions pay close attention that your colleagues are actually listening to you and acknowledging your dialog. Far too often our colleagues may be paralyzed from information and assignment overload.
  3. Understanding. Invest adequate time to ensure that you fully understand the needs and expectations from your customers. Identify the specific criteria for success for both parties and seek multi-dimensional win-win-win agreements. Always keep in mind that last minute changes are considerably more expensive than getting it right the first time or making the necessary course corrections early in the process.
  4. Commitment. Prioritize your projects and your time on a continuous basis. Remain attentive to key milestones and events and keep in mind that “no” is an acceptable answer if your current priorities do not permit you change direction or commit to additional actions (of course, most things are negotiable). Bottom line is that results are generally commensurate with investments in both time and resources.
  5. Relationships. It is quite advantageous to build relationships proactively. Your network of professional contacts can often be leveraged to your advantage to connect with key influencers and decision-makers across your institution. It is also important to remember that initial impressions are very difficult to change so initiating any new relationships in a positive manner will often set you off on a trajectory for success.
Effective personal and professional relationships are a function of trust through consistent communications with integrity. Effective communicators are often associated with delivering positive results. Maintaining this type of reputation will position you and your organization for successful working relationships across your institution.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Tips to Becoming an Effective TTO Change Agent

Managing change within any organization today is increasingly more challenging each year. Stakeholder expectations are increasing; cycle time expectations are collapsing for all institutional processes and transactions; geographic boundaries are collapsing as a result of globalization; institutional organizational strategies are increasingly dynamic; every element of an enterprise is becoming more complex; competition is becoming more intense each quarter in every commercial sector; and our physical world is transforming into a virtual digital workplace with more extensive connectivity.
 
Effective change leadership is one of the most challenging and rewarding opportunities for leaders. How do Tech Transfer Office (TTO) directors effectively lead their organization through changes in the institution’s leadership; reorganizations; institutional economic challenges; or legal disputes? How can you become a champion and lead your organization in the pursuit of objectives to align with a new set of imperatives from your institution or immediate management?
 
I recommend five critical imperatives to position a TTO director as an effective change leader: 
  1. Maintain a firm grasp of the current realities, challenges, and opportunities throughout the organization with proactive feedback loops and effective organizational controls.
  2. Ensure that the appropriate energy, priority, and focus are maintained on the change initiative until the desired results have been accomplished.
  3. Assemble the right skills and talent on the change team to ensure that your team will meet its overall goals.
  4. Set high expectations for and continuously strive to over-communicate.
  5. Establish the foundation to prepare your team to succeed with effective execution of your plan.
One of your most essential responsibilities as a leader is to maintain the appropriate focus on your change initiatives to ensure that your team is successful in achieving your goals. It is so easy and all too tempting to become distracted by the next issue to hit your desk, but effective leaders persevere to institutionalize the desired change.
 
Please share your lessons learned, challenges, and victories from guiding a change initiative within your institution.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Reflections from New Orleans at the AUTM 2010 Annual Meeting

Laura Schoppe (Fuentek president and founder) and I staffed an exhibitor booth at the 2010 annual meeting of AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers) in New Orleans from March 18th to 20th. The meeting included 1,650 attendees and more than 70 exhibitors. We engaged with hundreds of technology transfer professionals across the globe over three very full days.



The exhibit floor remained quite busy throughout the conference and provided both of us with new insights into the current challenges and opportunities for university tech transfer offices across several continents. The feedback on the plenary sessions, presentations, and panel sessions overall was positive. We have already initiated our planning for participation in the 2011 annual meeting in Las Vegas.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

IP Marketing Iterative Process: Getting the Deal

In recent posts on Marketing Intellectual Property, I have conveyed the merits of implementing an iterative marketing process; validating your decision to invest your resources in commercializing a technology; developing your marketing plan; executing your plan; and proactively scheduling checkpoints to regularly validate your plan. The final and most critical step is to ensure that you are attentive to the remaining tasks to position you to successfully execute a licensing agreement.

There are several key points to consider throughout this stage of the process.

  1. Understand the perspective of your licensee. You must ask the right questions and invest time to ensure that you understand what is included in the agreement for the licensee to position this deal for a successful win-win-win outcome (institution, inventors, and licensee). Will your technology provide the licensee with a strategic competitive advantage? It your technology synergistic or complementary to their existing commercial offerings, or does it provide the licensee with new market opportunities. Is the licensee anticipating that they will be granted exclusivity to your patents, or are they specifically looking for field of use or geographic rights? The answers to these questions provide the framework for a mutually-beneficial licensing agreement.
  2. Communicate the licensing process. It is imperative to clearly define, document, and communicate your licensing process for prospective licensees to improve the cycle time and the productivity for negotiating agreements. Publishing your expectations, licensing steps, application and agreement templates, and key contact information on your tech transfer website benefit all parties.
  3. Manage the licensing process. Proactively managing expectations regarding the time investment, key milestones in the licensing and approval process, along with financial commitment expectations will result in fewer surprises, debates, and disputes throughout the negotiation process. This is important for all internal and external stakeholders involved to avoid unnecessary delays. For many technologies, time-to-market is critical and delays in the licensing process can result in deals that do not get executed due to lost market opportunities from other emerging innovations. It is also important to continue to stay focused and not get distracted by other initiatives competing for your attention this close to the “finish line” of getting the deal.
Signing a licensing agreement is a very satisfying and rewarding experience and is often the culmination of a tremendous amount of hard work and planning over many months. Enjoy the moment and leverage your recent experiences as lessons learned for your next licensing deal. Remember that if your prospective licensee is not requesting exclusive access to your patents, you should also continue to support your marketing campaign in parallel with managing current deal opportunities.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

IP Marketing Iterative Process: Checkpoints for the Marketing Plan

In recent posts on Marketing Intellectual Property, I have described the merits of implementing an iterative marketing process; validating your decision to invest your resources in commercializing a technology; developing your marketing plan; and executing your plan. Another essential element of an effective iterative process is to incorporate timely checkpoints to test and validate your assumptions, reflect on the feedback that you have received, and communicate with your key stakeholders.

Pausing periodically to update your marketing plan based on the results you have achieved to-date positions you for greater success in commercializing your technologies and to proactively manage expectations with your management and the respective inventors. It is not uncommon for often unforeseen events to change the market landscape for a target innovation. For instance, consider the impact on:
  • the appeal of specific technologies after changes in political administrations (e.g. innovative green technology solutions)
  • the appeal of specific technologies after natural disasters (e.g. innovative geospatial solutions to assist relief efforts in Haiti and Chili)
  • the appeal of specific technologies after national security incidents (e.g. innovative airport security solutions)
  • the appeal of specific technologies after a major FDA product recall (e.g. innovative agricultural product screening solutions)
I recommend that you schedule a checkpoint every 30 to 90 days for each of the technologies that you are actively marketing to:
  1. Reevaluate the approach you are using to engage target licensees.
  2. Recalculate your anticipated return on investment from your marketing campaign.
  3. Reassess your target markets for commercializing subject technologies.
  4. Adjust your online marketing materials periodically to reflect frequently asked questions and additional insights you have gained.
  5. Proactively update key stakeholders on your progress and plans for the subject technologies.
Please share specific events that you have experienced that have had a remarkable impact on marketing innovations in your technology portfolio.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Virtual Workforce Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Laura Schoppe and I have posted several blog entries recently on the virtues of a virtual organization model, including posts on our recent NPR interview, Flex Options in the Workplace, and the benefits of a virtual team. Laura also wrote an article for Mobility Enterprise Magazine. The Fuentek virtual business model is the foundation of how we deliver consistent, high-quality, high-value services to our global clients. During the past nine years, we have recognized several key best practices and lessons learned.
 Best Practices for Leaders:
  1. Establish, maintain, and communicate clear and concise expectations and accountabilities for all staff members.
  2. Maintain a focus on results, not where and when staff members are working.
  3. Develop and maintain just enough process definition along with effective training and mentoring programs for staff members.
  4. Institute an effective screening, recruiting and hiring process for prospective job candidates.
  5. Communicate proactively and on a regular basis.
  6. Invest in web-based database, collaboration and communications tools.
Best Practices for Staff Members:
  1. Have the ability and desire to work independently without the abundance of social interactions available in traditional organizations.
  2. Be self-motivated and not dependent on continual guidance, communications, and reinforcement from a supervisor.
  3. Be dependable and dedicated, and consistently deliver high-quality services on time and within budget.
  4. Establish a fully functioning home office that includes business class technology, high-speed Internet, dedicated telephone and the ability to be isolated from household distractions.
  5. Focus on maintaining strong time management skills, and clearly compartmentalizing professional and personal responsibilities.
Lessons Learned:
  1. Managing a virtual team requires increased flexibility from both staff and leaders.
  2. The virtual organization model is more appropriate with seasoned, mature and experienced staff members.
  3. Effective and highly motivated staff members typically have a strong desire for independence and a flexible work schedule.
  4. Satisfaction for both staff and leaders requires effective and continuous feedback loops to avoid surprises.
  5. Leaders must invest in funding cost-effective face-to-face interactions periodically to strengthen communication, collaboration and build trust across the entire team.
Managing a virtual organization requires less time investment day-to-day from a leadership perspective, but it does require greater focus and intensity on how you effective manage your staff.

What have been your professional telecommuting and virtual workforce experiences?

Monday, February 1, 2010

IP Marketing Iterative Process: Executing the Marketing Plan

An effective, iterative IP marketing process should include a well-conceived plan that focuses on delivering an acceptable return on your resource investments. Once your plan is in place, the fun begins with Executing the Marketing Plan. This essential phase includes contacting the target licensees that you identified through your market research, and managing the interactions between the licensees, inventor, attorneys, and other key technology transfer office personnel. Key steps in this phase to support marketing your intellectual property include: 
  1. Contact prospective target licensees utilizing the best practices and methodologies that you have outlined in your marketing plan. Quite often this is a combination of telephone calls, email, conferences, and workshops.
  2. During each marketing campaign, you need to manage your schedule accordingly to ensure you are available to respond to questions and requests about the target technology on a timely basis.
  3. In order to efficiently vet prospective licensees and manage your time effectively, you should have a consistent process to capture and document your interactions. Ideally, you should utilize an IP management database system throughout the entire life cycle of the intellectual property asset. Depending on the anticipated commercial potential of the technology and the number of projects you are managing, it is extremely valuable to have a repository that provides you with the current status and state of each prospective licensee along with key metrics to measure the overall progress of your marketing campaign.
  4. Most Inventors are consumed with their research projects and do not have a lot of time available for a high volume of interactions with prospective licensees. It is important that you are conscious and mindful of the Inventor’s availability and effectively manage the quantity and quality of interactions with each Inventor.
  5. An effective marketing plan is iterative and periodically updated and realigned to reflect the questions and feedback from target licensees. You should update the marketing promotional materials representing your technology to capture the relevant feedback you receive throughout the execution phase.
  6. Obviously, the end goal of this phase of the marketing process is to facilitate development of licensing applications that have a reasonable likelihood of progressing into the Deal phase with the objective of executing a formal licensing agreement.
An essential skill to exercise throughout the execution phase is effective listening. You should be acutely listening to the responses and feedback from your target licensees and learning from how the Inventor responds to questions and challenges from interested parties. While your marketing plan should be an excellent roadmap to present your technologies to prospective licensees – it is also just as important to continuously refine your plan based on how the market responds to the novelty and potential commercial applications of your target technologies.