Acquiring External Technology to Drive Innovation

Looking Outside to Accelerate Growth and Build Value

Innovation in products, services, and business processes is critical to satisfying customers and staying ahead of the competition. Innovation often requires new technology. We’ll show you how to recognize when outside technology is needed and give you the tools to manage the acquisition process.

Successful businesses increasingly go beyond their corporate boundaries to acquire technology from others to drive and augment their own internal innovation processes. External technology sourcing, sometimes called ‘technology scouting,’ is becoming an important tool for new product development.

Attend Acquiring External Technology to Drive Innovation to get the framework to determine your external technology opportunities. You’ll get proven tools to: find, evaluate, acquire, and manage the resulting relationships to integrate external technology into your company’s internal innovation processes.

Key questions addressed

	How do we accelerate our innovative efforts with limited technical resources?
	How do we balance internal and external development efforts?
	Where do we go and how do we find what we’re looking for?
	How do we integrate our internal and external development efforts into a coherent, innovative strategy?
	How do we manage the increased risk that appears to be an inherent part of external technology sourcing?
	How do we protect resulting innovative technologies, especially in light of proposed changes in intellectual property law?

This course focuses on a practical approach for technical scouting:

	Identifying external technologies to accelerate your company’s innovation processes
	Finding and evaluating sources of external technology
	Structuring deals and relationships to bring external technology into your company
	Managing the resulting external relationships
	Making external technology acquisition part of your business processes and culture

Key Topics

Accelerating Innovation Through External Technology
	Becoming more innovative by moving to an ‘open innovation’ business model
	Accelerating the product development cycle using limited technical resources
	Managing risks and controlling costs: getting more bang for your money through ‘synthetic vertical integration’
	External technology acquisition and technology scouting—different names for the same external development tool

Balancing External and Internal Development Efforts
	Using the WFGMSM model of technology acquisition: determining What you need; Finding it; Getting it; Managing relationships
	Developing extensive networks of relationships for technology scouting
	Developing a comprehensive technology strategy that involves acquisition, cross-supply, and co-development

Determining Your External Technology Acquisition Goals
	Candidate criteria: seeking value, filling gaps, managing complexity, addressing competitors, reducing costs, and hedging your bets (the portfolio concept)
	Incorporating technology roadmaps
	Determining future technical requirements: technology forecasting, anticipating customer needs, and new project requirements
	Establishing priorities among technology acquisition needs
	Weighing incremental improvement versus breakthrough technologies
	Developing a portfolio of external relationships

Finding What You’re Looking for
	Looking in other companies—successful approaches
	Searching in start-up companies—a special case
	Working with university faculty and tech transfer offices
	Dealing with the individual inventor
	Going global: problems and considerations

Structuring the Deal
	Transitioning from one-on-one arrangements to alliance networks
	Moving from cost and supply chain management to more strategic integrated external networks
	Considering the open innovation model
	Keys to successful deals: matching business objectives and style, using ‘reverse flow’ to enhance the process, and swapping personnel
	Variations on the simple acquisition model: gaining revenue from unexploited internal developments (out-licensing), creating co-development relationships, and bartering and cross-licensing

Integrating External Technology Sourcing Into Your Business Processes and Managing Resulting Relationships
	Using the external technology sourcing concept to overcome traditional corporate boundaries
	Incorporating externally driven innovation into existing business processes
	Institutionalizing external sourcing: developing new products, creating new ventures, and licensing and sublicensing
	Overcoming the ‘not invented here’ factor
	Making it work: top management involvement
	The difference between conventional R&D outsourcing and technology scouting
	Risk management

Impact of Intellectual Property Law on External Technology Sourcing
	Structuring relationships with intellectual property in mind
	Understanding the role of patent and copyright in enhancing/impeding external innovation acquisition
	Protecting trade secrets
	Assessing the impact of IP law on external sourcing: international patent complications and proposed changes in U.S. intellectual property law

Case Study Workshop
As a participant, you will work through a case study illustrating many of the issues that arise in external innovation acquisition. Each group will develop term sheets for a proposed deal structure. The case outcome and process will be discussed at length in class.

Who Should Attend
This course is designed for senior executives and managers in engineering, R&D, business development, marketing, product planning, strategic planning, and general management.

Special Feature
Participants are invited to attend a dinner the first evening of the course, providing an opportunity to share information and ideas with the instructor and other participants.

Instructor: Ora Smith
Fee: 2008 - $2495
Credits: 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
Dates: August 14-15, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm 1st Day; 8:00am - 4:30pm 2nd Day
Dinner: 5:00pm 1st Day
Program Coordinator: Delores Lee, 626.395.4043

Acquiring External Technology to Drive Innovation - pdf brochure

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