Technology
Commercialization and Startups
Dr. Fisher was interviewed for the
Spring Edition 2010 of STC’s: Portal al Mercado, Door to the
Marketplace. See full text of his viewpoint:
http://stc.unm.edu/inventors/_images/STCNewsletter(Spring2010).pdf
(scroll to pages 8-9)
Here is an excerpt from that
article about his view of the challenges facing leadership and young
companies in technology:
Here is his viewpoint about the
challenges facing leadership and young companies in technology:
As a business advisor to
companies large and small, what do you see as the biggest challenges
for young companies today?
The challenges today are little
different than at any time in the past for young companies. One
difference, of course, is that the economic environment is as
difficult as it can get. New funding is much harder to come by.
Investors expect a faster and surer path from concept to execution,
and need more evidence of solid product and path to monetization.
So, it’s harder to get that funding and when you do, there is no
room for avoidable mistakes. You can make mistakes, that’s part of
the sheer nerve of trying the unproven, but you have to be able to
justify your plans, run a very tight organization, and operate with
constrained resources. The deals that investors make have to be
carefully made. Return on investment coming soon and predictably is
measured and weighed carefully. And, once the funding is in place,
there is a surplus of talent waiting for every position in every
young company and the line of competent candidates to fill them is
long. That is the landscape for the early entrepreneur and inventor
deciding how and when to begin or enter a start-up themselves.
I offer my usual words of caution,
but with added emphasis these days, to uninitiated inventors who
think they can be both the inventor and the CEO of their own
start-up: you are likely to get eaten alive. Having seen this happen
more than once, I can tell you it is not a pleasant experience. This
bears repeating because it is so tempting to do and the
lesson of failure so painful—it is a rare person who can wear both
hats. Carefully delineated roles and responsibilities are essential
for a company to succeed. Taking an idea and turning it into a
product and going to market is a tough business and the choices that
need to be made require excellent judgment and experience. Running a
business is just as complex a task as being an inventor and has its
own unique skill set
If an inventor or young company
wants to roll out a new idea, invention or product, I say go for
it. But, get mentorship, strong counsel, survey the market, do a
competitive analysis, use your early investment money wisely and be
ready to move quickly. And, by the way, you better have a very
tightly run ship with low conflict and no wasted effort. Remember
that the purpose of business is business, not the organization,
prestige and internal conflicts. There is no time, no tolerance and
no bandwidth for anything short of excellence.
I would not say that the current
economic environment is inviting, but if you are not feint of heart,
there is room for success. Be tough, be smart, and, for the
inventor, be even more careful. I say to young companies welcome to
the excitement of bringing great products into the marketplace in
tough times. The products have to be excellent and make sense and
the leadership of the company has to be as close to flawless as they
can get. There is little margin for error.
As a business advisor to
companies large and small, what do you see as the biggest challenges
for young companies today?
To run a company or govern a board
of a technology startup or take IP to market, leaders need clarity,
courage, humility, ability to delegate, and the ability to choose
the right people when hiring and then supporting them to do their
job. Create clear roles and responsibilities. Make sure that if
someone has a role that they also have sufficient authority to
execute that role.
Create a clear strategy and make sure that you and everyone else
knows what it means. Then comes the work of executing that strategy.
Strategy and execution have to be thought of as one and coupled.
Remember that the business of leadership is outcomes. That is how
you are measured. Always keep that in mind.
Make sure that every department in your company is in business with
you. Legal counsel or legal departments have to protect and point
out risk; the department has also to make sure it is a business
partner that can point out measured risk attendant with true
opportunity. HR must be capable shepherds of compensation,
promotions, development and must be certain to also be business
partners on the senior team. HR also has to help the company and the
CEO remember that the company is there to do business and not to
mistake the organization and its complexity for the business
itself! Finance has to make sure that their key constituents are
aware of the spend and the profit; their job is ensure “no
surprises”, but they too must remember that business is
entrepreneurial and profit is the goal. They have to be ready to
support another department head who follows the CEO and the Board’s
direction to take risk even when that business risk turns out to
create financial strain on the company. All of the department heads
have to work together with singular purpose to execute the company
strategy effectively.
And, at the uppermost level of the
company, the Board, strategy again is critical. There has to be
absolute clarity between the Board and the CEO about the strategic
intent of the company. Expectations and timing, execution and
measurement, performance and profitability have all to be aligned or
a train wreck can be just around the bend.
Risk and opportunity management are
the paired and paramount drivers that have to be watched and
managed. Good strategy execution means that everyone from the board,
the CEO and everyone in the company knows exactly how their job and
daily work relate to the targeted outcomes of their company. You put
that all together and companies excel.
And, when your IP is in the areas
of medical device and pharmaceutical products the ante is raised.
There is added complexity for these companies because there are
cultural and historical values in these fields that become part of
the driving force of decision making and balance of authority.
Also, regulatory bodies and patent issues and challenges are
particularly important in relation to the inventions that we
support.
You always have to remember that
you have multiple stakeholders and know who they are, what they need
and what you need to be doing in their behalf. The company has to
come first. Keep that in mind and you’ll be way ahead of the game.
That’s where hard work and integrity come together. Everyone
involved has to think that way and that is both challenging and
essential.
There are no short cuts here, but
when businesses start with a sound concept, good leadership and well
executed strategy, I see important ideas come to fruition,
significant partnerships formed, products with value brought to the
marketplace, profitability and great places to work created. Not
everyone gets this right, but skill plus judgment, integrity and
clear line of site to your goal and perseverance can get you very
far. You have to mount quite an effort to do this well, but the
accomplishment can be very worthwhile and the value generated
significant.