Innovate or Perish: Managing the Enduring Technology Company in the Global Market

Multiple Commercialization Vehicles

Another key leverage element of an IAP portfolio approach is to identify, create, and exploit synergies in research efforts with an eye for downstream commercialization through multiple commercialization vehicles. These vehicles can represent the company’s own products, as well as licensing of the asset to a third party, assertion of the asset against an infringer, spinouts in which there is sufficient critical mass of assets, or even new application areas in which to exploit the innovation assets. The creative foundation of many innovation assets is competencies. For example, in a semiconductor company, these might range from expertise in characterizing semiconductor materials to specific device architectures to data streaming on and off the chip. All of these can individually be thought of as competencies. Going beyond these individual competencies and leveraging them into IAP focuses can add a layer of value that is inaccessible in terms of individual competencies alone. An IAP focus is really a leveraged aggregation of complementary competencies in service of a particular application or objective.

In this semiconductor example, the obvious IAP focus might be their extant product—an input/output chip set. Ideally, a company should be operating within its IAP focus. This intersection of competencies is the innovation “sweet spot,” where the company gets the most innovation leverage. However, a company can, and perhaps should, explore multiple ...