Growing Technology Transfer in Universities

31st August 2009

By partnering with an established university technology transfer office, new entrants can get a boost up the experience curve, avoid pitfalls and minimise growing pains.

In 1972 Larry Greiner published a ‘Stages of Growth Model’ in which he described a series of evolutionary stages of organisational growth punctuated by periods of revolutionary change or crisis.  Subsequently, other economic researchers have built upon these models, which are widely accepted as useful tools in understanding the pitfalls and pains faced by growing firms.

Through working closely with other university operations throughout the world Isis has developed its own stages of growing technology transfer offices.

‘What’, ‘who’ and ‘how’ in the Isis model describe respectively the principle activities, staff backgrounds and systems/processes in use at each stage.  The measures describe the dominant indicators used at each stage to assess performance and progress.

Growing Technology Transfer

In the first stage of establishing a technology transfer office a great deal of emphasis is placed on internal marketing to research staff by technology conversant project managers.  At this stage management systems are often ad-hoc and success is measured in the recording of disclosures or patent filings.

During the second stage of maturity emphasis shifts to external marketing utilising the skills of more sales orientated project managers.  Business plans are written, licence deals signed and investment leads to the creation of spinout companies.

Finally, a fully formed technology transfer operation employs specialists to deal with ongoing licensee management and assisting spinouts to achieve continued growth or exits.

At each stage transition there exists the opportunity for a crisis that can be avoided by good pre-planning (or partnering with a more experienced office).  For example, by recruiting commercially adept project managers from the outset problems can be avoided between stages 1 and 2 where patent filings fail to produce the expected levels of licence deals.  Similarly, by establishing the right management systems and recruiting appropriate spinout specialists the transition from promising new technology to hard returns can be accelerated.

To learn more about our stages of growth model or how the Isis Enterprise “Technology Transfer Partnership” package can help your organisation get a boost up the experience curve please contact Isis Enterprise.

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