The New Environment for
Tech Commercialization
Kathleen Allen Ph.D.
Technology Commercialization
 What is it?
 Why do we do it?
 How can you make
it work for you?
Technological Change
Emerging Customer
Segments
New Customer Needs
Technological
Change
Entrepreneur
Unsatisfied Existing
Needs
New Methods of
Manufacture &
Distribution
Higher
Productivity &
Economic Growth
Today’s Technology Environment
Key Factors
The Importance of Speed
 Competitive advantage
 More profit potential from shortened
time to market
 Fewer surprises
The Lack of Scarcity
 Knowledge products at the core of
technology environment
 KP defy the law of scarcity
 No diminishing returns
 Network efforts and economy of scale
The New Product Dilemma
 Build new products
– Better
– Faster
– Cheaper
Types of Technology
The Starting Point:
Defining Innovation
 Invention v. innovation
 Sustaining v. disruptive
innovation (aka incremental v.
radical)
Characteristics of Disruptive Technology
 Less profitable in the early years
 Need mass market acceptance to
achieve full value
 Cheaper, smaller, simpler, more
convenient
 Display poor
performance
Disruptive Technologies: Looking for a
Problem
Primary Disruptive Technologies for
Next Decade
 Gene Therapy
 Nanotechnology
 Wireless
Why are Disruptive Technologies
Important?
Stats on the Best Product Development
Companies
Research of R.G. Cooper
 49.2 % of sales from new products
 49.2% of profits from new products
 3.5 ideas before achieving one winner
 ROI on successful new products is
96.9%
 Payback in 2.49 years
 Average market share = 47.3%
Why do concepts fail?
Not Understanding the Customer
No compelling story
What’s the Compelling Story?
 Why you?
 Why now?
 How do you plan to change the world?
AKA: How do you heal the pain?
The Technology
Commercialization Process
Bringing New Technology to Market
Patent Portfolio
Management
Discovery
Invention
Disclosure
Provisional
Patent Decision
Technical
Feasibility
Market
Feasibility
Concept
Investigation
Market
Launch
License
Start-up
Acquisition
Prototype/
Application
Development
Commercialization
Decision
R&D Relationships- Managing
Risk
F. Peter Boer (1999) The Valuation of Technology
Certainty
Opportunity
Finding &
Conceptual
Screening Ideas Research
Feasibility
Development
Early
Commercialization
Cost
Diversification
Summary
 What is it? Tech commercialization is a
parallel process of radical and
incremental innovation, the
determination of technical and business
feasibility, the creation of intellectual
assets, and the development of a plan
to enter the market.
 Why do it? To build a sustainable
company
E-Teams for Commercialization
Success
Marshall School of Business
School of Engineering
Keck School of Medicine
E-Teams
VR Systems
EngineeringIMSC
Feasibility
Analysis
•Market
•Technology
•Financial
Business - MBA
Technology Teams – Fall 2001
16 E-Teams
G-Ceptors-Caltech
Julie-Ann Pina
Melanie Corcoran
Smithsonian
Presentation
Virtual Visit -BioMed.
Jennifer Sullivan
Katlyn Cho
Hyoung Lim
VR Systems
- IMSC
VR Systems
David Groves
Greg Walbridge
Sung Hoon Hong
Microwave Bonding-Caltech
CCG-NASA
John Fischer
John Heckert
Gary Hersch
Yima-IMSC
Karen Corwin
Didi Yao
www.usc.edu/techalliance
Kathleen Allen Ph.D.
kallen@marshall.usc.edu
www.usc.edu/techalliance