Embracing
Madness
Conjuring Innovation in Our Community
Sue Wallace, PhD
General Manager
Radiation Oncology Systems
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The great proof of madness is
the disproportion of one’s
designs to one’s means.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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Sheer Mad(iso)ness
Imagine the WI Innovation Corridor
• A highly collaborative, multi-specialty melting pot
where ideas can collide, collude and emerge.
• Easy, quick access to feasibility funding and startup capital.
• Highly skilled talent pool to staff growing
companies with top performers.
• Attractive tax laws to sustain and retain medium
& large corporations, their jobs & their
employees.
• High healthy-living index where families can thrive
and receive first class health-care when needed.
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What is Innovation?
Does anybody really know?
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The process by which we
change the world.
Carl Bass
President & CEO Autodesk, Inc
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It Starts with A Clear Problem Statement
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Fun is a key ingredient
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“It's not that I'm so smart,
it's just that I stay with
problems longer.”
Albert Einstein
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Available tools influence thinking
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Perspective Matters
The NeRD™
Cardinal Health
Needle Recapping Device
• Facilitates OSHA compliant one-handed
needle recapping
• Provides stable, suction cup positioning
and accepts most needle brands and sizes
• Minimizes clutter and is easily
transportable due to its compact size
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Innovation is fundamentally
done by Individuals
Sue Wallace
General Manager, Philips Radiation Oncology
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So how do we create a
self-sustaining innovative ecosystem
and ensure the basic elements exist
to produce innovation fire? ……
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Innovation Fire
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Heat
Deep, Dynamic Customer Insight
Fuel
Collaboration
Oxygen
Motivation
What Goes Wrong
• Strategy Mistakes
Rejecting ideas that at first glance appear too small
Only considering new products, not services
Too many product extensions
• Process Mistakes
Tight planning, tight budgeting
• Structure Mistakes
Creating two classes of corporate citizens – those
who have all the fun (innovators) and those who
must make the money (mainstream business)
• Skills Mistakes
Assuming innovation teams should be led by the
best technical people.
Harvard Business Review, HBRs 10 Must Reads: The Essentials; 2011
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Remedies for Common Innovation Pitfalls
• Strategy
Support a few big bets for the future, but also
create a promising portfolio of mid-range ideas
and a broad base of early stage ideas &
incremental investments.
• Process
Add flexibility to planning
• Structure
Tighten the human connections between
innovators and others throughout the organization
• Skills
Identify innovation leaders with strong
interpersonal skills
Harvard Business Review, HBRs 10 Must Reads: The Essentials; 2011
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Great Lessons of Innovation
Organizational flexibility & great attention to relationships are key
• Not every innovation has to be a blockbuster
• Tight controls strangle innovation
• Expect deviations from the plan
• Game-changing innovations cut across established channels or combine
elements of existing capacity in new ways
• Even the most technical of innovations requires strong leaders with great
relationship and communication skills
• Innovators flourish in cultures that encourage collaboration
*Harvard Business Review, HBRs 10 Must Reads, The Essentials; 2011
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What are we already doing
to nurture technology collaborations
in Wisconsin?
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The UW System
Strong source of talent
• UW Madison grants
~3,000 STEM degrees each year
• 35% of Philips WI employees are
UW alumni
• Another 15% have taken advantage of
UW education programs
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UW System’s Strategic Framework
The UW System
Proven track record of securing public research funding
Veterinary Other
Medicine 3%
3%
CALS
13%
Education
4%
2013/14 UW-Madison
Federal Research Awards
In the Top 5 universities who bring
in Federal Research Dollars
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Medical
School
31%
Engineering
11%
Letters &
Science
18%
Graduate
School
17%
WARF - WI Alumni Research Foundation
The technology commercialization arm of UW Madison
•
•
•
•
6000
1900
1600
$2B
UW discoveries processed
Patents awarded for $800M in royalties
Licensing agreements worldwide
Endowment value
• The WARF Accelerator Program
 Speeds commercialization of UW–Madison discoveries
by providing targeted funding and expert advice from
seasoned business mentors known as Catalysts.
Carl E. Gulbrandsen
Managing Director
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D2P – Discovery to Product
For businesses with a Proof of Concept from UW
• Goal is to achieve commercialization
• 17 applicants selected in the first round to receive “igniter”
funds to help move from concept to commercialization.
• “Igniter” grants are funded from a State of Wisconsin
Economic Development Incentive Grant . Payments are
disbursed dependent on progress in each project.
• The goal is market de-risking rather than technical de-risking.
John Biondi
Director, Discovery to Product (D2P) Initiative
University of Wisconsin
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WEDC – WI Economic Development Corporation
Programs to help businesses drive growth & jobs
• Match Funding – Capital Catalyst; SBIR
• Micro-Grants – CTC (Center for Technology
commercialization)
• Tax Deferral on long-term capital gains
• Small business loans – SBA (Small Business Administation)
• Entrepreneurial Training - Delivered by SBDC (Small Business
Development Centers)
• QNBV - Qualified New Business Ventures
• Seed Accelerator
Lisa Johnson
Vice President, WEDC
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WTC – WI Technology Council
Focused on creating a high growth economy
• WIN (WI Innovation Network) Dedicated to fostering innovation
and entrepreneurship.
• Focused on the needs and
challenges faced by new and
growing technology-based
businesses in Wisconsin.
Tom Still
Executive Director
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Bioforward
Advancing Wisconsin’s position as a leading Life Science community
• Advocates for members both locally and nationally
• Delivers access to capital and resources for growth
• Attracts, develops and retains a talented workforce
• Facilitates effective education, collaboration and
networking
Wisconsin’s Independent Voice for Bioscience
Laura Bray
CEO, Bioforward
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Are we reaching enough people?
What more can we do?
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Come Together
Create forums for informal interaction at all levels of experience
• ‘MAD’ – Talks
• Meet – Ups for junior and mid-level multispecialty technical people
• “It’s Just Lunch” - dating for companies.
Invite a group of individuals from an
unrelated technical field to visit and discuss
an interesting topic
• “Tech Nites” - Work with local eateries and
pubs to promote specials for techno-geeks
• Science pubs???
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MAD
Sheer Mad(iso)ness
Imagine the WI Innovation Corridor
“Where new businesses
thrive and other businesses
want to move to.”
Chancellor Blank
University of Wisconsin
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