RAMI Accelerated Commercialisation
Research Seminar
19.5.2010 Wanha Satama
Iiro Salkari; Jari Kettunen; Ilari Kaarela; Magnus Simons
13/04/2015
Agenda
 Research topic and goals
 Case comparison
 Key challenges in forest cluster
 Potential solutions
 Final report structure
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Research topic and goals
Research topic
 While developing new technologies, choices, that have an influence
in their commercialization, are made.
 Technologies can be commercialized at different maturity stages for
different customer segments.
 How do these topics affect commercialization in different stages of
technology development?
 What are the special characteristics of the forest cluster that may
impact on commercialization?
Goals
 Models and methods that support accelerated commercialization at
different stages of technology development.
 Identifying the changes to existing value networks that successful
commercialization may require.
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General challenges of
innovation management
Identified
market
Technology generations
Identified
market
Technology
push
•Partners
•Partners
•Partners
•Organising
•Organising
•Organising
•Financing
•Financing
•Financing
•Making space
•Making space
•Making space
Market
pull
Selected,
initially targeted
market
Identified
market
Identified
market
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Case comparison, 1/2
Case
Hot embossing
Bio-latex
Fractionation
Technology
Printing of optical effects on normal
packaging and printing materials
Production of latex-like products
from wood-based materials, such
as hemicelluloses
Dividing wood material into two
separate fractions according to
fiber properties
Applications
Brand promotion: decorative effects
Brand protection: hidden codes that can
be made visible using laser illumination
Wood-based polymers for
dispersion and extrusion coating,
and non-woven materials
Fractionation as an integrated
part of a pulping factory
Customers
Brand owners operating their own
packaging line
Packaging service providers
Printing houses
Paperboard, plastic and
packaging companies aiming for
environmental sustainability
Pulping factories aiming for
higher selectivity in fiber
properties and/or
energy/chemical savings
Benefits
Ability to produce high quality effects on
various substrates using either no
coatings or environmentally friendly
coatings (no metals needed)
Reducing oil-dependency in
latex (and possibly plastic)
products
Reducing energy consumption in
mechanical pulping
Reducing chemical consumption
in chemical pulping
Allowing increased usage of
cheaper pine material
Phase
Industrial pilot possible in quite near
future
Start-up in preparation, potential
investors being contacted
Business model development underway
Further research on polymers
Improving physical properties
Still in the process of proving the
concept
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Case comparison, 2/2
Case
Hot embossing
Bio-latex
Fractionation
Open
questions
Market size
Allowable premium (cost/package)
Economic scale of production
Scope of offering, feasible business
model
Availability and price of
materials (hemicellulose)
Acceptable premium
Actual market value of
‘greenness’
Key challenges
A full-scale pilot is relatively expensive
(difficult to get started)
Customers for the technology not willing
to invest unless their customers signal
clear demand
Customers for the technology may
demand exclusivity
Brand owners do not want dependence
on one supplier
Difficulties in narrowing down to
a reasonable set of potential
applications
Setting the required levels of
physical properties and reaching
those properties
Expert knowledge is very
dispersed
Full process from raw materials
to final products difficult to grasp,
and even minute changes in the
process concept can turn to large
ones in the value chain
Finding suitable commercial
partners
Lessons
learned
Traditional market studies do not help
Need to demonstrate technology and
get a reference thru a full-scale pilot
Active marketing towards brand owners
essential
Impossible to predict how long it takes
to commit prospective customers
Lack of funding may significantly delay
the process
The commercialization would
affect many existing commercial
value chains, and all the involved
parties must be convinced of the
resulting benefits
Need to focus on potential
commercially feasible
applications early on
It is difficult to forecast how the
fractionation process would alter
the existing value chains –
separate customers for different
fibers?
raw
Rationale of the whole process
of fractionation
Significance of the savings in
energy and chemicals compared
to reductions in pulping process
yield
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Key challenges of the forest cluster, 1/2
 Volume business paradigm
 High volumes and operational efficiency alone count
 If it does not scale-up fast, it is not interesting
 Capital intensiveness
 Need to secure a high capacity factor, ROI
 R&D focus almost solely on the core process and equipment
 Expensive pilots
 Need for dedicated labs, facilities
 High threshold for testing new ideas and concepts
 Rigid value chain
 Must convince a number of interlinked market participants
 High costs and risks, and lack of trust discourage change
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Key challenges of the forest cluster, 2/2
 Efficiency focus
 People are not encouraged to ‘look around’
 “If it does not reduce costs, it is a cost item, not an investment”
 Growth in emerging markets
 Volume business paradigm works well in the emerging markets
 What are the true incentives for radical change?
 Silo thinking (Fordism)
 Production process determines the organization
 Expertise is fragmented, knowledge integration is challenging
 Research vs. markets
 The focus of R&D has been on the process, and researchers
have not been expected to explore new business opportunities
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Solutions, 1/2
 Business case for the whole value chain
 Things won't proceed unless all participants will find it
broadly beneficial to get involved
 Full scale industrial pilot
 Pilots are indispensable, but expensive
 The implementation and financing of a pilot should be
planned early on
 Small internal businesses must be allowed space to grow
 High volumes cannot be required in the short-term
 Internal venturing organizations with capable people
and a strong mandate and resources
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Solutions, 2/2
 Concurrent commercialization
 Technology and business development shall proceed in
parallel
 Experimental development and piloting around new product
and service ideas and concepts
 Short-term commercial interest cannot guide R&D work if the
build it competitive advantage on deep technological knowhow
 Challenging the strategy
 The investments decisions regarding technologies, products
and services should reflect the best available understanding
of one's opportunities in the market, not only the chosen
strategy
 Certain percentage of the firm's development funds should
be reserved to the exploration of 'new frontiers'
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Final report structure
 Defining the strategy
 Positioning
 Competitive advantage
 Implementing the strategy
 Portfolio management
 Resourcing
 Organizing and networking
 Challenging the strategy
Higher level of
abstraction
 Strategy
Strategies
Where do we want
to go/ be?
Business models
How are we going to
make money?
Process models
How to implement
the business models?
 Concept and business model
development
 Technology risk and fit
 Market risk and fit
 Market structure evaluation
 Innovation process
 Parallel activies
 Critical path?
Lower level of
abstraction
 Market / Value chain analysis
13/04/2015
VTT creates business
from technology
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