Consortium for Corporate Entrepreneurship · Consortium for Corporate Entrepreneurship Peter A. Koen, Ph.D. Associate Professor Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management Phone:

Consortium for CorporateEntrepreneurship

Peter A. Koen, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorWesley J. Howe School of Technology ManagementPhone: 201 216-5406Fax: 201 216-5385E-mail: [email protected] 28, 2001

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Mission

To significantly increase highlyprofitable products through focusedresearch in the “fuzzy front end” of

the innovation process

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Value

Determine “Best Practices” for the Front End of Innovation andKnowledge Creation for Breakthrough Products and ServicesCreate a real and virtual environment for continuous learning by andfor inventors to provide them with a broad repertoire of bothtechnical and business management techniques for achievingbreakthrough Products and Services

Creation of Inventors Communities of Practice “the Pioneers”Create Synergy and Learning from other consortium companiesPractices employed at the very “best” companies in the worldRecommendations from the best consultants and educators in the world

Understanding and creation (if necessary) of IT tools which betterenable breakthrough inventorsCreation of an Inventors “nexus” in East Coast corridor which willbetter help attract employees

Overall Mission: To increase the number, speed and successprobability of highly profitable products entering development

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Organizational Structure

VP level meetings 2X/yearwith invited speaker

Directors meetings 3-5X/year

Two tiered Organizational Structure

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Research Themes

Optimizing the Front End of InnovationWhat are the Best Practices?

Idea Generation for Highly Profitable ProductsCase Studies of Highly Profitable ProductsCase Studies of Market Attack Teams

Knowledge Creation and Flow in the Front End ofInnovation

What are the Best Practices (Using the KnowledgeCreation Framework)Inventors Communities of Practice (“The Pioneers”)

Support Research and Disseminate Learning toConsortium Companies in:

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Optimizing the Front End of Innovation

New Concept Development ModelProvides a common language and terminology necessary to optimizethe “Front End of Innovation”

ENGINE

OpportunityIdentification

OpportunityAnalysis

IdeaGeneration

andEnrichment

IdeaSelection

ConceptDefinition

To Stage Gate

ENGINE

CoreFront EndElements

InfluencingFactors

Koen, et. al., “Providing Clarity and a Common Language to the “Fuzzy Front End,” , Research-Technology Management,(March-April 2001): pp 46-55.

Koen, et. al., “Fuzzy-Front End: Effective Methods, Tools and Techniques,” in final review for inclusion in 2002 PDMA Handbook

Ajamian and Koen, “Technology Stage Gate: A Structured Process for Managing High Risk, Technology Projects,” in final reviewfor inclusion in 2002 PDMA Handbook

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Case Studies of Highly Profitable Products

Idea Generation is dependent on a 3-dimensional landscape

Technical Novelty

Mar

ketin

g

Novel

ty

KnowledgeFlow

Well knownmethodologies that"good" companiespractice with high

proficiency

Knowledge flow issuesbegin to hamper

development time

Solutions are fortuitousLong time to pay offKnowledge flow toscientist is criticalSuperb scientists

More case studies are being done to gain further insights anddevelop “optimum” practices

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Idea Generation Insights

Highly Profitable Projects:Require a “trigger” to get startedConstancy of PurposeRequire both product and executive championsGet started based on customer and technology trendanalysisAggressive GoalsUtilize early field trialsUtlize early partnering outside their area of corecompetenceHave SUPERB inventors combined with an element offortuitous discovery

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Trigger

ExamplesNew Competitor MovementFire in PlantCEO initiatives (ex: innovation initiative, fire in plant,lower revenue, holy grails, strategic intent, proposalrequests)

IssueHow to create more opportunities for triggers

Highly Profitable Projects typically get startedwith a Trigger

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Constancy of Purpose

Leadership needs to stay the course

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Champions

Product champions are need to move products across valleyof death if adequate bootlegged funds are availableProduct champions often champion the wrong projectBusiness executive champion needed for almost all projects

Idea

Concept andTechnology

Development

Valley ofDeath

Both Product and Executive Champions are needed

Markham, unpublished

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Customer and Technology Trends

Best Projects started with early customer andtechnology trend analysis before any specific

product concepts are developed

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Aggressive Goals

Customer and technology trend analysis led to theidentification of aggressive product and process

concepts

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Field Trials

Early Field Trials identified unanticipated problems

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Partnering

Early Partnering Outside the Companiesarea of Core Competence

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Superb Inventors

Technology solutions were often fortuitousFortuitous that they had the correct core competencefor the solution to the problemInventors effectively used local scientific network

SUPERB highly inventive individuals withconsistent track record of inventionidentified solution no one else saw

Best practices would have been topursue alternate scientific approaches

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Superb Inventors

Invention is an individual sport NOT a team sport

Analysis of 1,000 Honeywell patents indicated that 10 people wereresponsible for over 85% of the patents (Smith, Herbien and Morris, R-TJournal, 1999)

vs.

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Superb Inventors

Inadequate Knowledge Flow is a SIGNIFICANTimpendent to increasing the speed ofbreakthrough product development

Information/Knowledge

Flow

ElectronicData Bases

Data/Information/Knowledge

People

PaperSuperb Inventor(s)

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Market Attack Teams

Perform Case Studies on Market Attack TeamsNew Organizational/Team structure appears toemerging (Ex: GM, Kodak, Armstrong, P&G, 3M)

Selectmarkets &

needsScope &Goals

Selectconcepts to

focus on

Select bestconcepts

3M ExampleDedicated Teams Utilizing a 4

phase lead user process toidentify breakthrough products

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Research Themes

Optimizing the Front End of InnovationWhat are the Best Practices?

Idea Generation for Highly Profitable ProductsCase Studies of Highly Profitable ProductsCase studies of Market Attack Teams

Knowledge Creation and Flow in the Front End ofInnovation

What are the Best Practices (Using the KnowledgeCreation Framework)Inventors Communities of Practice (“The Pioneers”)

Support Research and Disseminate Learning toConsortium Companies in area of:

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Definitions

DataCollection of Facts

InformationCollection of organized data

May inspire vision, but can’t bring the vision into realityKnowledge

Information combined experience, context and reflectionsthat may be used to make decisions and take actionsIs a human act (i.e. a residue of thinking)Created in the presentBelongs and circulates between peopleBreakthrough knowledge occurs at the boundaries of theold

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Explicit Knowledge

Can be put on paper, formulated insentences and captured in drawings

Explicit knowledge may be transferredthrough language (word, graphics, etc.)

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Tacit Knowledge

Individual perception, rules of thumb,intuition

Examples–Learning to ride a bike–Putting together a high precision watch–Making sense of a seismic readout for

identifying a new oil field

Language is NOT the primary mechanismfor sharing of Tacit knowledge

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Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is transferred by“socialization”

Direct ObservationImitationExperimentationJoint Execution

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Technology BasedCommunities of

Practices

KnowledgeMapping

ProjectSnapshots

Gap

Importance

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All better enabled by the useof IT Tools and Collaborative

Environment

Knowledge Creation Framework

Shared FutureVision

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Technology Communities of Practice

Creates new knowledge within the communityConnects, acquires, exchanges and builds newknowledgeNew science occurs through the process ofbuilding upon internal and external knowledgecommunities

Breakthrough Knowledge Usually Occurs at theBoundaries of the Old” McDermott, 1999

Diversity

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Skill

Importance

Gap

Importance

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Knowledge Mapping

Technology Knowledge Strategy should be basedon Core Competencies and Capabilities of theOrganization

Core Competencies and capabilities are moreenduring than product and market knowledge

Where should Communities of Practice be focused?

Technology maps which define thecore capabilities, competencies and

gaps of the organization

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Shared Future Vision

“ Nothing happens until there is a vision”“Genuine energy, enthusiasm and preference occurs, evenin the face of setbacks, when people understand the visionof the future”“It is a process of continually focusing and refocusing onwhat one truly wants”

…….Senge, Peter, “The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of theLearning Organization,” Currency Doubleday, NY, 1994.

Where will the new products of the future come from?

Shared Vision of the Future“”Strategic Arenas”

Unmet (i.e. “holy grail”)and often unarticulated

customer needs

Areas ofBreakthrough

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Project Snapshots

Captures the current and past learning of theprojectsApproaches, insights and outcomes are capturedfrom experiences of:

What is working?Has workedWhat hasn’t?

“Collaborative” Project SnapshotsLiveLink (www.opentext.com)NetMeeting(www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeetingWebEx (www.webex.com)E-room (www.)

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IT Tools

IT Tools Better Enable Knowledge Creation

Intellectual PropertyAurigin (www.aurigin.com)MapIt (www.mnis.com)Delphion (www.delphion.com

Inventing ToolsTRIZ

Tech Optimizer (www.invention-machine.com)

Mind MappingTech Optimizer (www.invention-machine.com)Mindmanger(www.mindman.com)Innovator (www.us-mindmatter.com)

Initial Focus of IT Groupfrom Ethicon, ExxonMobil

and Rohm and Haas

Technology Search EnginesSemantic search engines

Co-Brain (www.invention-machine.com)Ex-Caliber(www.convera.com)

Co-citation Literature SearchingVx Insight

Visualization ToolsClearForest (www.clearforest.com)Spotfire (www.spotfire.com)

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Collaborative Environment

Collaborative Environments Better EnableKnowledge Creation

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Knowledge Creation

Is this the right framework?What are the Best Practices in each element?How do we make improvements at each of theConsortium companies?

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Inventors Communities of Practice

“The Pioneers”

Goal: Create a real and virtual environment forcontinuous learning by and for key inventors to

provide them with a broad repertoire of bothtechnical and business management techniques for

achieving breakthrough Products and Services

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Best Practices for Communities

Frequent MeetingsHighly Interactive Collaborative WebsiteCoordinators

Community CoordinatorInventor CoordinatorIT Coordinator

McDermott, R. Knowing in the Community: 10 Critical Success Factors in Building Communities ofPractice, HRIM Journal, March 2000.

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Inventors Community

ExxonMobil Ethicon Rohm and Hass

InventorCoordinator

IT Coordinator

Stevens

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Frequent MeetingsA 1 hour meeting will occur every 2 months with:

– World experts and thought leaders in knowledge creation– Nobel Prize winners throughout the world– Lead inventors from the most innovative companies in the world– Vendor presentation– At least one inventor “story” from one of the consortium

companies2 day knowledge creation symposium to be held every 4-6 monthsfor new participants in the community (Next one to be held onKnowledge Creation IT platforms)

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IT Meeting Overview

To learn about IT Tools for Knowledge Creation for BreakthroughProducts

Nobel Prize Winner in Science to discuss ITOverview and Theoretical Underpinning of SoftwareIT Tools (Tech-Optimizer, Mindmanager and Mindmatter)

To develop a set of Ideas, Actions and Recommendations for ITTools

Assessment of IT Tools from the perspective of actual users (at least 5users)Determination of What an “Ideal” IT Knowledge Creation softwareplatform would be (Cross-Company Groups)

Closed Symposium. Only open to inventors from Consortiumcompanies and “potential” Consortium companies.

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Highly Interactive Collaborative WebsiteWill contain a site for threaded discussionsA virtual place which will allow PC based videomeetingsContains articles, meeting notices, web sites, books,stories from inventors, etc. etc. all related toknowledge creation in the Front End of InnovationStreaming video from speakers

– All of the speaker presentations from all of thepresentations will be digitally taped and availableon the web site for people to view

MUST be ease to use and access with on-lineimmediate phone contact for help

– Easy to use software reduces the friction inconnecting with the community

Highly interactive and eclectic web site that will emphasizeEASE of USE and encourage people to people linkages

Issue: Need to negatecompany liability from

critical comments of users

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CoordinatorsCommunity Coordinator – P. KoenInventor at each Consortium Company(Position is part of their job responsibilities)MUST be well respected senior inventor in thecompany with great ability to link people. Notnecessarily the “best” inventorIT coordinator at each Consortium Company(Position is part of their job responsibilities)

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Conclusions

Optimizing the Front EndGreatest weakness of Front End is Engine, Opportunity Identification andTechnology Stage GateNew Concept Development Model provides a common language

Idea GenerationDependent on a 3 dimensional landscapeEight characteristics were found in highly profitable productsFocusing current effort on Market Attack Teams

Knowledge CreationIneffective knowledge creation is a SIGNIFICANT impediment to productimplementationFramework which describes knowledge creation was identified

Creation of a real and virtual environment for continuous learning byand for inventors to provide them with the best repertoire of the BESTtechnical and management techniques for achieving breakthroughs

Documents

Consortium for Corporate Entrepreneurship · Consortium for Corporate Entrepreneurship Peter A. Koen, Ph.D. Associate Professor Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management Phone: