As the enigmatic film character Willy Wonka said, “A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” (Wonka also said, “Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple,” in a twist on Thomas Edison’s anecdote, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration,” but I digress.)
Let’s get back to reality. We were discussing how one can maximize technology innovation efforts to create sustainable competitive advantage (that is, significant long-term growth, as opposed to short-term windfalls) through an effective IP strategy. We may be the “music makers” and the “dreamers of dreams,” but that’s not going to hold water at the shareholder’s meeting, or get us to meet our business targets.
Innovation needs a vehicle in order to maneuver, secure, leverage, exploit, exclude, commercialize, control, capitalize, and monetize. Carefully configured, that vehicle is intellectual property. Without IP, innovation is like a ship without a rudder – its sails flapping in the breeze of the downwind of the competition. Harnessing innovation means enabling it to diffuse into markets, and even create new ones. If the competition is riding on your coattails, you will be dragged down into price and standards wars, diluting the value proposition of a differentiated offering.
The marriage of innovation management culture, balanced structure, technology innovation focus, and “earned luck” (to quote Intel’s prolific, former CEO Andy Grove) is no clearer than in its embodiment in a well-executed IP strategy intimately linked to the corporate business strategy. The harmonization of the technical, legal, and business aspects into a unified enactment strategy forms an interlocking platform which can create substantial barriers to entry and substitution, as well as create an ecosystem that enables one to leverage the bargaining power of suppliers and customers – reinforcing powerful lock-in effects.
Wonka had a witticism for almost everything, at one point quipping, “You should never doubt what no one is sure about.” IP does not really create opportunities, it safeguards them – whether they will materialize or not depends on a host of factors with their own odds of success. But, if unexpected opportunities do present themselves, with a bit of earned luck and a well-thought-out legal strategy (or set of IP vehicles) in place, your ROI can soar. So, what are you waiting for? “We have so much time, and so little to see. Wait a minute! Strike that, reverse it.”
