Leading and Sustaining Your Research Program - 2015
I. Your Research Program/Your Business Model
Feasibility
Business Model
Business Plan
Exercises
II. Communicating Your Research
Pitches and Pitch “Competition”
Storytelling and Messaging
III. Managing Your Research Team
Decision Theory
Leadership
Teamwork
IV. From Research to Industry
Marketing
Economic Impact
Resources (IGEM, Tech Transfer, etc.)
College of Business and Economics
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Accounting (B.S. & M.A.)
Economics
Finance
Information Systems
Management & Human
Resources
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Marketing
Operations Management
Executive MBA
Entrepreneurship
Experiential Education Focus
Entrepreneurship as Signature Program
George Tanner, Director
The Mission of Idaho Entrepreneurs
…is to support and build an entrepreneurial culture at
the University of Idaho to expand opportunity.
(Campus-wide focus)
… to facilitate student, faculty, and staff new venture
exploration and create a more entrepreneurial state
and University of Idaho.
… to help commercialize University of Idaho
Intellectual Property
• Startups
• Innovation
• Outreach (BTE, Extension, Legal Clinic, Incubators, …)
• Tech Transfer
Idaho Entrepreneurs Successes
• Competition as a Startup Funding Source
• $200,000 in 2014-15
• Top Honors at 3 Venues in 2014 and 2015
• Multiple Startups
• IGEM/Grants/Partnerships
• Enterprise Entrepreneurs: (Altered Ego, Hellhake,
Vivid Roots, MotoTrax)
• Innovative Ventures: (Tisquantam Fertilizer, Fast
Fermentation, MJ3, Rubicon, BioCement,
TimeStage, …)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TesNFI
JZr-U
Goal: Convert Innovation to Economic Value
• Team Building: Bringing Ideas and Entrepreneurs
Together
• Competition: to hone skills, build networks,
develop ideas into business models into business
plans, and secure seed funding for startups
• Grant Funding for some, bootstrapping for others,
Vandal Venture Fund & Idaho Entrepreneurs Gap
Fund for tech/science ideas
2015-2016
• Idaho Entrepreneurs’ Speaker Series
• The Idaho Pitch
• Business Plan Competitions
• Ideation Events: Science, Engineering, Natural
Resources, …
• Outreach: More robust outreach in multiple
directions, Think Space / Innovation Lab
Idaho Entrepreneurs is all about experiential
education, getting students out of the
classroom and faculty/staff out of their comfort
zones into the real world where they can
develop and test their own ideas and business
models.
Our focus is on Launch!
Biz for Scientists 2015
My Agenda
• Why?
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Feasibility
Business Models
Business Plans
Storytelling: Pitching an Idea
Can Science & Business Co-exist?
• Scientists deal in logic, detail, and accuracy.
• Entrepreneurs bluster, exaggerate, push boundaries, and
really believe the future they’re pitching will happen (soon!)
• Scientists are comfortable talking about technology trends
but try not to exaggerate and rely on a scientific basis for
their statements. You’re more conservative than E’s are!
• Entrepreneurs communicate their future with ‘users’ and
consumers in mind. An E’s perception is an E’s reality!
• Scientists do not feel comfortable talking about ‘users’.
They are thinking about the concrete, the science, the
results.
• Entrepreneurs have emotional attachment to their ventures
and can go down very unproductive pathways!
• Scientists have emotional attachment to their areas of
interest and can go down very unproductive pathways!
• Is it surprising then that these two
worldviews sometimes clash?
• Can the Scientist and the Entrepreneur
accept that they are different and value
each other’s contribution?
• Can a scientist become a business person,
become an entrepreneur?
What you do
• You guys do research and discovery in your
labs that proves something, that solves a
problem, and hopefully changes the state of
science or engineering or technology, and
moves things forward –
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maybe even to a commercial application!
• The rationale for scientists thinking about
business is well-founded and has been going
on for a long time.
Rationale for Biz for Scientists
• At a recent conference at Univ. of
Edinburgh, 50 MS & PhD’s learned how to
develop their biotech ideas into businesses
– and this is going on all over the place.
• Lean Startup / Business Models / Guided
Academic Entrepreneurship / BTE
• many examples of similar things…
• NSF funds 18,000 scientists and $7B/yr. but
most of the research stays in the lab.
• NSF I-Corps is attempting to change that by
fostering entrepreneurship that will lead to
the commercialization of technology that
has been supported previously by NSFfunded research. (maybe not the most efficient
way to do it but it’s a start)
Does Business & Entrepreneurship threaten The
University of Idaho’s Core Values?
• E-ship can reinforce a university's mission and strengths.
• Turning a research breakthrough into a business is a classic exercise
in cross-disciplinary thinking and collaboration--exactly the values
that great research universities support.
• E-ship requires subjecting ideas to rigorous challenge and being
open to ideas even if they are disruptive. (Sounds like Science, huh!)
• A purely academic institution is always at risk of becoming too rigid,
too dedicated to protecting the status quo rather than making new
discoveries that contribute to the public good.
• Entrepreneurship requires people to champion crazy ideas and to
keep innovating ahead of the competition.
• Entrepreneurs aren't searching for ultimate truths like you are, but
they bring an openness to new ideas and the market brings a unique
intellectual rigor to testing the validity of ideas.
To go a step farther,
• Universities are struggling with funding
from the public sector,
• Increased pressure to manage operating
expenses,
• so they are seeking additional commercial
applications from science
Maude (1997);
Shriner (nd)
Forms of Research
Basic
Research
Applied
Research
Development
for
Productive
Applications
University
Commercialization
Research
Some organizations are
trying to fill this gap
Influencing the Process of Product Innovation
• Business, Intellectual Property, Licensing,
and Entrepreneurship are hard!
• Knowledge Gaps
• Market Uncertainty
• Issues of Feasibility
Feasibility
• Too often, we launch new ideas without
thinking through what our market is.
• Preparing a feasibility study helps
determine if there is sufficient demand
and profit potential.
Overview of a Feasibility Study
• Description of the project (and problem it solves)
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Market feasibility
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Technical feasibility
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Financial/Economic feasibility
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Org/Managerial feasibility
• Results / Conclusion / Next Steps
www2.ca.uky.edu/cmspubsclass/files/adreum/marketanalysis.pp
t
Feasibility Study  Business Model  Business Plan
A feasibility study is NOT a business plan.
•Feasibility is an investigating function –
– “Is this idea/innovation/product/company viable?”
•A Business Plan is a planning function to take the
proposal from ‘Idea2Reality’
– “How do we do this?”
•A Business Model is something different from both;
– it’s the rationale for “how do we create and capture
value?”
A Feasibility Study leads to Business Model development
which may lead to a Business Plan. But it all starts
with an Idea!
www2.ca.uky.edu/cmspubsclass/files/adreum/marketanalysis.pp
t
Where do good ideas come from?
Dylan’s Idea
– The Pain
– Who has the Pain?
– The Solution: TekMarch
• But what about the market, the competition, the
key resources and activities, costs, partners, …???
Ideation Exercise
• A lot of good ideas come from an irritation. Think about a
problem, a pain that bothers you or something you study
or think about that affects people or the environment.
1. Describe the pain, the problem.
2. Who has the problem?
3. Do you have a solution?
Once we have an idea …
• Is it viable?
• Is it feasible?
• If so, is there a business model that works in
the marketplace where investment and sales
are the currency.
But even before that, we need to think about
why!
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
Searching for a Business Model
• Three Examples:
– RoboTrax
– BioCement Technologies
– TimeStage
Getting from Idea to Business Model
Defining Your Business Model
When management-types ask …
"So what's your business model?"
they really want an answer to a much more
direct and basic question:
"How do you plan to make money?"
Behind that question is a bunch of others
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Who's your target customer?
What customer problem do you solve?
What value does your business deliver?
How will you reach, acquire, and keep
customers?
How will you define and differentiate your
offering, your value proposition?
How will you generate revenue?
What's your cost structure?
What's your profit margin?
Business Models Defined
A business model describes the
rationale of how an organization
creates, delivers, and captures
value.
What is the business model for your
lab?
Visualizing Your Business Model
I. Customer Segments
• For whom are we creating value?
• Who are our most important
customers?
I. Customer Segments
• Customers are the heart of any business
model. Without profitable customers, you
won’t survive for long.
• An organization must make a conscious
decision about which segments to serve
and which to ignore.
• Once this decision is made, a business
model can be designed around a strong
understanding of specific customer needs.
Types of Customer Segments
• Mass Market: Business models focused on mass markets
don’t distinguish between Customer Segments.
• Niche Market: Business Models targeting niche markets
cater to specific, specialized Customer Segments.
• Segmented: Some business models differentiate between
market segments with slightly different needs and
problems.
• Diversified: An organization with a diversified business
model serves two unrelated Customer Segments with very
different needs and problems.
• Multi-sided Platforms (or multi-sided markets): Some
organizations serve two or more interdependent Customer
Segments.
Your Key Customer
• Who is your key ‘customer’?
• Can you imagine others up or
downstream from your
primary ‘customer’?
II. Value Propositions
• What value do we deliver to the
customer?
• Which one of our customer’s
problems or needs are we solving?
• What bundles of products/services
do we offer to each Customer
Segment?
Value Propositions (cont.)
• Each Value Proposition consists of a selected
bundle of products and/or services that caters to
the requirements of a specific Customer
Segment.
• In this sense, the Value Proposition is an
aggregation of benefits that a company offers
customers.
• Some value propositions may be innovative and
represent a new or disruptive offer. Others may
be similar to existing market offers, but with
added features and attributes.
Value Propositions
• Newness
– Cell Phones or ‘ethical
investment funds’
• Performance
– Computers or Cars
• ‘Getting the job done’
– Rolls Royce airplane engines
• Design
– Fashion, consumer products,
or architecture
• Brand or Status
– Rolex or latest snowboard
gear
• Price
– Southwest Air or ‘freemiums’
• Cost Reduction
• Risk Reduction
– Warranties, 3rd Parties. …
• Accessibility
– NetJets selling ‘time-share’
planes
• Convenience / Usability
– Apple sharing music across
devices
Example: TekMarch Value Proposition
TekMarch is an innovative solution to a problem
with marching band music. Our product allows
musicians to load parade and show music into their
cellphones through our app and then link it to the
TekMarch digital screen custom-mounted on their
instruments.
With TekMarch, the music is always in your pocket,
always easily accessible -- but the real value-added
is TekMarch’s ability to hear and keep up with the
music, eliminating the need to ever flip a page.
TekMarch keeps players on the beat!
Your Value Proposition
• What is your value proposition for
your lab or research?
• What is the ‘bundle’ of benefits you
offer to your customers?
III. Channels
• The Channels building block describes how a
company communicates with and reaches its
Customer Segments to deliver a Value
Proposition.
• Communication, distribution, and sales
Channels comprise a company’s interface
with customers.
• Channels are customer touch points that play
an important role in the customer experience.
Your Channels?
• How do you communicate your
product/results to your customer
segments to show that you deliver
your value proposition?
• What are your touch points, your
interface with ‘customers’?
IV. Customer Relationships
• What type of relationship does
each of our Customer Segments
expect us to establish and
maintain with them?
• How costly are they?
• How are they integrated with the
rest of our business model?
Categories of Customer Relationships
• Personal Assistance: human interaction via point of
sale, call centers, email, …
• Dedicated Personal Assistance: customer rep assigned
specifically to a customer.
• Self-service: no direct relationship. Company provides
the means for customers to help themselves.
• Automated Service: more sophisticated form of selfserve; automated services tailored to individuals.
• Communities: many firms utilize user communities to
help each other, interact, and expand knowledge base.
• Co-creation: Many now go beyond the traditional
customer-vendor relationship to co-create value with
customers. Amazon invites customer reviews; others
invite customers to design products; youtube solicits
content.
Your Relationships
• You identified your customers but
what kind of relationships do you
maintain with them?
• How do you communicate with them?
• How much information / product do
they want?
• How close do they want to be? Hightouch or more distant relationship?
V. Revenue Streams
• For what value are our customers
really willing to pay?
• For what do they currently pay?
• How are they currently paying?
• How would they prefer to pay?
• How much does each Revenue Stream
contribute to overall revenues?
Your Revenue Streams
• What are your revenue streams? One
or multiple streams?
• How secure are they?
• How do you find new ones? And what
will they need to give you more
funds? How do you ‘prove’ they
should invest more in your operation?
VI. Key Resources
• The Key Resources building block describes
the most important assets required to
make a business model work. Every
business requires Key Resources. They are
what we have to have.
• They allow an enterprise to create and
offer a value proposition, reach markets,
maintain relationships with Customer
Segments and earn revenues.
Key Resources (cont.)
• Key resources can be physical, financial,
intellectual, or human.
• Key Resources can be owned, leased, or
acquired from key partners.
• Different Key Resources are needed
depending on the type of business model.
Your Key Resources
• What are the key resources in your
operation?
– Physical
– Financial
– Intellectual
– Human
VII. Key Activities
• The Key Activities building block describes
the most important things a company must
do to make its business model work.
• Key Activities are required to create and
deliver a Value Proposition, reach markets,
maintain Customer Relationships, and earn
revenues.
Key Activities (cont.)
• Key Activities are different for different
business model types.
– For software maker Microsoft, Key Activities
include software development.
– For Walmart, Key Activities include supply
chain management.
– For consultant McKinsey, Key Activities include
problem solving.
Your Key Activities
• What are the key activities in your
lab/research/teaching? What is it you
do?
VIII. Key Partnerships
• The Key Partnerships building block
describes the network of suppliers and
partners that make the business model
work.
• Companies increasingly create alliances to
optimize their business models, reduce
risk, or acquire resources.
Your Key Partners
• Who are your partners? Who do you
need to make your research go? Who
supports your lab, your teaching, your
research?
• Who is critical to getting the funding,
the support, who runs interference,
who will take the blame and give you
the credit, … ?
IX. Cost Structure
• The Cost Structure describes all costs
incurred to operate a business model.
• Creating and delivering value, maintaining
Customer Relationships, and generating
revenue all drive costs.
• What are the most important costs in your
business model?
– These costs can be calculated relatively easily
after defining Key Resources, Key Activities,
and Key Partnerships.
Your Costs
• What are your key cost drivers?
• Can you manage them, minimize
costs, partner for some of them, coopt for them, …
• Do you have control over your costs?
Your Business Model Canvas
• Take an idea/problem and build a business
model canvas.
• www.canvanizer.com
Prototyping
Navigating Your Environment
Proving It
Knox Asthma Canvas
• http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/knoxfinal-presentation
Telling Your Story
It’s all about the story
• How do you turn your idea into a storytelling session?
• Nothing is more boring than all facts and
figures.
– Conference presentations
– TimeStage
• A recent example: Grid Defender
Your Canvas
• Tell your story!
Pitching an Idea (NanoTubes)
The Elevator Pitch
The Idaho Pitch
http://www.uidaho.edu/cbe/e
xperientiallearning/entreprene
urship-program/elevator-pitchcompetition
7 Elements of an Entrepreneur’s Pitch
7 Elements of an Entrepreneur’s Pitch
1. Pain Statement
2. Who has the Pain? (Target Market)
3. How do you solve it?
(Product/Service/Technology)
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7.
Who does it now? (Competition)
How will you make money? (Bus Model)
What resources do you want?
How do you create value? (what do you return?)
Your Pitch
• Using the seven steps, create a pitch
for your business idea.
Summary Business Plan
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7.
Executive Summary
Market/Industry Analysis
Product/Service Description
Revenue/Business Model
Competition
Management Team
Financials
An entrepreneur is someone who has
more ideas than resources!