This is a cross-post from my original LinkedIn article.
Commercialisation or monetisation of IP/R&D efforts is the ‘key’ word in the world of research. Unfortunately, it is often associated only with the long-term technology strategy of organisationS. It only remains as a lagging indicator for the success of the R&D investments. While many organisations have the NPI processes, which might start early in the research stages, they are so focused on one or few end products, that they often miss the possible progressive commercialisation scenarios.
Progressive commercialisation is a concept, that goes slightly beyond the traditional portfolio analysis, patent analysis or the whitespace analysis, but tries to act as a management framework looking at additional investment stream for the R&D activities. It is a process or framework of planning and managing R&D organisation, which brings in a balance between R&D freedom/creativity and commercialisation focus. It also provides a low-intensity avenue or in-house strategic experiments, away from the sheen and glitter of bigger strategy deployment divisions.
Progressive commercialisation is a concept of IP management framework, which allows both innovation and revenue generation at the same time.
Progressive commercialisation would be a good approach for the university research organisations or service based organisations. It also provides an opportunity to engage with apprentices and early grad students for fast POCs and quick concepts for commercialisation at a low cost, but with the advantage of skill development. I believe, Special breed of product/program/project managers would critical for the progressive commercialisation framework to work.
At Tata Elxsi, innov@TE framework incorporates a tailored approach to identify, manage and create solution accelerators. That’s one of the examples of early experimental adaptions of the concept, which focuses on faster go to market for customers.
There are many situations, in which organisations can deliberately avoid progressive commercialisation as a strategy for specific IP investments. However, for most scenarios, progressive commercialisation is worth considering.
I have left out details on the concept, maybe i have saved for another post. Thoughts are welcome.