Nine years ago, when the Australian Institute for Commercialisation (AIC) was first created, we were quickly forced to ask ourselves how we could add value to our own market – those entrepreneurs, researchers, or businesses seeking to commercialise their ideas. It took time to understand the real market needs, and to develop and commercialise our own products and services. In some we failed, but in others we succeeded.
What is the test of success?
For us, as a not-for-profit company, success of our own products and services has been measured through various key performance indicators, such as the number of our customers, our customers’ success, and degree of our product uptake. However, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, perhaps our success can best be measured by the degree to which other governments and innovation groups are now offering the services that we first pioneered and innovated ourselves. These include our flagship TechFast program, which is a “demand-pull” commercialisation service that helps SMEs to establish collaborative relationships with research organisations or others in an open innovation model, and our TechClinics, which help businesses to enter or even establish new value chains to take products to market in collaboration with others.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Coaching SMEs to Innovate | InnovationManagement
Author:Rowan Gilmore
