Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer
Achieve Success By Taking a Business
Approach to Technology Transfer
Wesley D. Blakeslee
Executive Director
Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer
410-516-8300
wdb@jhu.edu
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What Does It Mean – A
Business Minded Approach
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Understanding that operating the
tech transfer office is running a
business
Adopting the attitudes, systems,
analyses and practices of successful
businesses
KNOW THE NUMBERS
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JHTT
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$5.1 Million Operating Budget
$6.6 Million Patent Spend
$12.2 Million Earnings1
$3.6 Million Patent Reimbursement
$4.1 Million Net Profit
1. Not including equity sales
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Writing About It Is Not Doing It
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SWOT analysis
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Business Plan
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Operations Manual
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Doing It
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Last 3 years created the best and
most useful data and financial
management system anywhere
Result: Financial and metric
budgeting and predictions have been
data-based and dead on last 2 years
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Understand Your Business and
Business Focus
Is it:
 Faculty Service
 Revenue Production
 Public Service – Advance
Technologies For Public Benefit
 Service /Accessibility to Industry
 Economic Development
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It’s All Of Those And Maybe
Others
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The Driving Force: Extraordinary
Results with Ordinary People
Peter Schutz
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So, What Do Businesses Do,
How Do They Operate?
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Common Business Focus
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Human Resources
Financials
Business Metrics
Data Mining And Analysis
Supply Chain
Branding
Marketing
Sales
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Human Resources
People – Your Most Important
Asset
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Old GE Slogan: "People are our
most important product"
"Good to Great"; Jim Collins: "The
Right People"
• Get the right people on the bus
• Get the wrong people off the bus
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Know Your People
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Strengths and weaknesses
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Desires, likes and dislikes
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Source of information
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Motivate Your People
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People don't care what you know,
they want to know how much you
care
Can't win with a team "busting
rocks" need your team "building a
temple"
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Incentive Compensation
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Very necessary at JHTT
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Keep the best people
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Attract new people
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Financials
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Income
Expenses
• Office operating expenses
• Patent costs
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Accounts Receivable
Licensee Obligations
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Financials – JHTT specific
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Patent backlog – 500 cases burning $$,
w/o active marketing or sales
• One effect of continuous understaffing
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Patent costs – reduced firms, negotiated
substantial fee reductions and $$ caps per
tasks
Created first class financial system for
accounts receivable, licensee obligations
due
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Business Metrics
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If you don't track it you can't
measure or predict it
If you can't measure or predict it you
can't improve it
If you don't track, measure or
predict it, you can't understand it
If you don't understand it you can't
sell it
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Business Metrics
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Upfront $$$
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Total Contract Value
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Age to License
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Conversion %
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# Licenses/Licensing Associate
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Data Mining and Analysis
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Upfront $$$ - Predict revenues
Total Contract Value – demonstrate long term
value of JHTT; return/$$
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Age to License – Patent decisions
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Conversion % - Potential licenses
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# Licenses/Licensing Associate – staffing needed
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Supply Chain
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Need to increase # of disclosures
• Metrics predict JHU should be about 1
disclosure per $3.25 – 3.5 Million in
research dollars
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Supply Chain
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Faculty Service
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Immediate response to Disclosure
Face to face w/in 4 weeks
Online Disclosure submission
Faculty portal access to invention-specific info
on line
• Programs, programs, programs
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Invention to Venture
Entrepreneur's Boot Camp
Company meetings and events
Vine and Venture series
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Branding
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Before – Internal:
• Hard to deal with
• Non-communicative/secretive
• Couldn't get technology out
• Questionable value added
• Process more trouble than it was worth
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Branding
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Before – External:
• Arrogant/Hard to deal with
• Non-responsive
• Inflexible
• Overpriced
• Time to close deal too long
• No understanding of business issues
• Not "in the game"
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Improving Branding
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Understanding
• Honest assessment
• Info from outsiders
• Understand the metrics
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Improving Branding
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Education
• Internal and external
• Metrics critical
• Highlight the good
• Recognize the bad
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Project the fix
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Improving Branding
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Services
• All constituent groups
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Delivery
• Walk the walk, not just talk the talk
• Face to face
• Tackle the specifics
• Practice
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Improving Branding – JHTT
Specifics
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First 6 months – continuous personal
presentations to
faculty/management
• "JHTT – not as bad as you thought"
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Increased staffing, re-organized
Fixed delay problem
Open books and activities
Sold the sizzle
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Improving Branding – JHTT
Specifics
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Conference Exhibits
• Bio
• AUTM
• AACR
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NCETT
LES
ASCO
Events
• Angel/Ventures
• Bioinvestors conference
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Public relations
• Articles
• Publications
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Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer
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Marketing
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Don't confuse marketing with sales –
though related they are different
activities for different purposes
Marketing means presenting your
organization or a particular
technology in a favorable light to
generate interest, increase value
Branding is the general part of
marketing
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Marketing – JHTT specifics
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Branding correction
Website upgrade
Marketing summaries
Searchable and analyzable "technology
available for licensing" spreadsheet –
created on demand through database
Automated "push" marketing
Technologies visible on numerous services
• Ibridge; Spark IP; Tech Transfer Online; others
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Sales
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Great Hairy Myth:
• You can't sell university technology companies buy it
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Like all myths a grain of truth
• If you do virtually nothing but be open,
you will do some business
• Some folks will find and buy some
things without initial contact from you
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Sales
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Truth: "Technology transfer is a
contact sport" Jane Muir, U. FL.
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Sales – JHTT Specifics
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Work in progress – seeking a sales
director
Sales Pipeline – Report of matters in
progress generated by data system
Understand customers and customer
product pipeline
Company focused meetings and programs
"Feet on the street"
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Industry Connections
Engineering Advisory
Board
Institute for Policy
Studies Advisory Board
Carey Business School
Partnership Program
NanoBioTechnology
Advisory Board
Brain Sciences Institute
Advisory Board
Global Health
Advisory Boards
Medicine Scientific
Advisory Board
Hopkins BioTech
Network
Brain Science Industry
Advisory Board
Institute for Cell
Engineering
The Art of the Deal:
Myth of Getting Your Way
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Tech Transfer is more than selling its deal making
One approach – getting what you
want
• "Getting your way is the gateway to
getting what you want"
- Jeffrey Gitomer, Little Green Book of Getting
Your Way
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The Art of the Deal: Getting
What You Need
You can't always get what you want -
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find you get what you
need!
-Rolling Stones
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The Art of the Deal: Give The
Other Side What They Need
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JHTT view – The Art of the Deal is
learning how to give the other side
what they need
"The more you give value, the more
you will get your way"
Jeffrey Gitomer , Little Green Book
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The Art of the Deal:
Giving Value
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Understand their business
• Read their materials
• Ask business questions
• Don't give up on finding a solution
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Biggest problem we have in our
industry is looking in, not out
• We understand our business, not theirs
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Value Proposition
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Secret to sales: Creating the value
proposition
• We seldom do it
• Mostly we don't know how
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How it’s done:
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Understand company's business
Know their product pipeline
Know their focus
Show them why they need our product
Demonstrate the value to them
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Value Proposition
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So What, Who Cares, Why You
- Wendy Kennedy
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Sales - Creating Opportunities
With Start-ups
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Changing Market For University
Biotechnology
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Big pharma have been reducing
in-house research programs, closing
labs
Big pharma looks to acquire later
stage technologies
More and more early development
being done by start-up and very
small biotech companies
Emphasis On Start-up
Companies
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Some universities traditionally more
inclined to start up companies
• Faculty tend to be interested in creating
a company and leaving the university
• Commercialism viewed positively, or at
least not negatively
• E.g. Stanford, MIT
Necessary In Face Of Changing
Biotech
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So, we started a specific program to
increase start-ups from JHU
technology
Always did some – 3 – 4 per year
but not initiated or by our efforts
FY 08 did 12, last year, FY09 did 10
Start-ups – JHTT specific
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Changed attitudes – programs and
publicity regarding benefits and
necessity
Created specific programs to engage
the angel and venture community
Engaged the entrepreneur
community
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Start-ups – JHTT specific
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Angel pitching events
Investor opportunity programs
Creating top 100 Maryland
entrepreneur list
"Speed dating" event
Close cooperation with our regional
players – universities and state
agencies
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Key Points
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Tech Transfer is a business
• Think like a business
• Know the numbers
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Understand your business –
Understand theirs
Brand, Market and Sell
Value Proposition
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Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer
Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer:
Building a World Class Office
QUESTIONS?
Wesley D. Blakeslee
Executive Director
Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer
410-516-8300
wdb@jhu.edu
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