This is the fifth and last in a series of posts where I would like to share my experiences and key learnings from the past 1 ½ years, where I have worked within the global tech community to bridge the gap between the tech community and mid to large-sized corporations.
In this post I would like to focus on the resources available within the tech community and ask the corporate innovator community how they wish they could utilize the innovation assets available within the tech community either locally or globally.
Some attributes of our network as it relates to the local Greater Atlanta Tech Community:
- 125K+ Total Network Members
- 100+ Universities & Institutes
- 3.6K+ Startup Members
Attributes for the Global TechConnectHub.com Network are:
- 1.5M+ Total Network Members
- 450+ Universities, Institutes, and Organizations
- 12.9K+ Accelerator Members
- 15.8K+ Venture Capital Members
- 9K+ Startup Members
- 43+ Startup-rich Tech Communities
I have the following question for the corporate innovators currently attempting to access innovation outside their organization:
How would you like to be able to utilize tech community assets to create value for your organization?
We would like to help you get a real return on your investment from both time and dollars being invested into innovation projects targeted towards the tech community globally.
We are open to running experiments with you to learn and grow your external innovation programs and to deliver value back to your business’s bottom line.
Drop us a line at https://techconnecthub.com/contact/ and if you are in the Greater Atlanta area we would be happy to show you around the community.
For more information visit https://techconnecthub.com/
This is the fourth in a series of posts where I would like to share my experiences and key learnings from the past 1 ½ years, where I have worked within the global tech community to bridge the gap between the tech community and mid to large-sized corporations.
In this post I will continue to describe how clients have engaged the TechConnectHub.com (TCH) tech community along with some of the key takeaways from our experiences to date.
When attempting to solve high value business problems by reaching out to the tech community, it is important for the seeking corporation to have a clear vision of what a successful outcome looks like. Equally important is for the corporation to have a pathway for the potential solution to be taken up by the organization.
I would like to refer to the chart above in making several comments about solution seeking. As indicated in the third post, the tech community can provide access to knowledge, talent, and technology solutions. For tough business challenges, it is usually not a “one & done” event, but rather a journey in partnership with the tech community utilizing knowledge, talent, and technology solutions over a sustained period.
Since the engagement is over an extended period some keys to a successful outcome include:
- Relationship building skills
- Partnership best practices
- Robust project management frameworks
- Established local presence/access point near the tech community resources with which you are partnering
It is important to note that each organization’s journey into the tech community is unique and is dependent upon many factors including:
- Organizational culture
- Business model and operating strategy
- Internal processes to support external innovation
What we have found is that organizations which enter the tech community with a business need will end up connecting across knowledge, talent, and potential solutions in order to create an opportunity roadmap. We have observed that there are multiple ways to create value for the corporation and simple actions such as educating executives on a technology which is new to the organization can result in the organization making better and quicker business decisions with a higher level of confidence.
No matter where your organization is in its innovation journey, we can help you complete the journey. We are here whether you need help to define business needs, craft innovation challenges, create opportunity roadmaps, organize community engagements, scout for technologies, see new talent, or receive innovation coaching.
Keep an eye out for my next blog post where I would like to start a dialog on how corporate innovators can create value from the tech community resources available in our network.
If you would like to get in touch with me, I can be reached via LinkedIn or through our website.
This is the third in a series of posts where I would like to share my experiences and key learnings from the past 1 ½ years, where I have worked within the global tech community to bridge the gap between the tech community and mid to large-sized corporations.
In this post I would like to provide some information on how clients have engaged the TechConnectHub.com (TCH) tech community along with some of the key takeaways from our experiences to date.
I like to use the to describe the interaction of corporate innovators with the tech community. By design, both groups are not directly compatible since they are focused on different objectives and have different cultures and values. This divide is even more magnified when talking about Fortune 500 organizations with global footprints and well established mega brands. Even when everything goes right, if you don’t provide a certain level of effort into keeping the interactions focused the two sides will quickly drift apart/separate.
While many corporations have a desire to connect & work with resources in the tech community, a majority (80+%) are not adequately prepared to successfully engage. Most simply sit within the community or on the periphery and watch the ebb and flow of activity. Around 15% of the corporations have both the desire to connect & work as well as the ability to directly engage the tech community through sponsorships, speaking engagements, and mentoring opportunities. Only about 5% of corporations have what it takes to connect & successfully work on projects within the tech community. This includes having dedicated budgets for external engagements and internal resources/time to work with and manage resources in the tech community.
This is major part of the reason why we focus upfront on identifying the business needs of corporations that can be addressed by the innovation assets of the tech community. The business needs are then translated into innovation challenges which speak to the tech community in a way that will generate a desire to engage in a dialog of “What’s Possible”. The corporation also needs to see the value created in connecting with the tech community and the potential pathway for the value to be captured by the corporation by the end of the engagement. We call this the Opportunity Roadmap. What we have seen from dozens of engagements is that corporations don’t necessarily need to partner with a start-up to create value and identify solutions to high priority business needs. As indicated in the pie-chart above, only 19% of the engagements led to a need to create a project with a startup. Equally important outcomes were identifying knowledge to help the corporation make better business decisions, accessing new talent for the organization, and receiving access to research that is new to the organization.
More on this as a part of my next post.
If you would like to get in touch with me, I can be reached via LinkedIn or through our website.
This is the second in a series of posts where I would like to share my experiences and key learnings from the past 1 ½ years, where I have worked within the global tech community to bridge the gap between the tech community and mid to large-sized corporations.
In this post I would like to provide some information on the TechConnectHub.com (TCH) tech community, including some of the modes that have been utilized to tap into the innovation assets of both the local tech community in Greater Atlanta, as well as on a global level.
One of amazing attributes of the TCH tech community is the breadth of knowledge and talent that can be accessed. The bulk of the membership is academics (professors, students), researchers, entrepreneurs, and startups. There are of course corporate innovators, venture capitalists, private equity, and members in the legal profession, however, they are a very small percentage of the overall network.
An important aspect of the tech community is that it is very dynamic and constantly evolving. Take a segment like students which could be at the undergraduate, graduate, or post-doctoral level. On the surface the percentage may seem relatively steady, however, individual students are graduating and moving into jobs with startups or large corporations constantly. Also, the skill sets of the students who are typically on the cutting edge of technology are evolving over time. Since the student population does not have the publishing record or patent history of more seasoned professionals, it can be harder for corporations to identify needed talent and harder yet to acquire. This is especially true when the students are more interested in going the startup route versus a more traditional route such as working for a large corporation. Professors, on the other hand, are the more consistent part of our network, and typically have a good handle on their local ecosystem of students and entrepreneurs.
At a high level, the TCH Network covers a broad range of science, technology, engineering & mathematics disciplines. As with most STEM based networks, the traditional areas like chemistry, material science, mechanical and electrical engineering are well represented. In addition, there is a high concentration of members in high-tech areas such as 3D print manufacturing, Augmented / Virtual Reality, Automotive, Blockchain, Connect Health-Home-Car, Cyber Security, Internet of Things, Machine Learning / AI, NanoTechnology, Natural Language Technologies, Robotics, Smart Devices, Apps and Data, UAV’s (Drones), Virtual Personal Assistants, and Wearable Tech.
The global TCH Network covers 43+ startup rich cities, 450+ universities, institutes, and organizations, with 1.5+ million network members. For our home base in the Greater Atlanta Tech Community, the TCH Network covers over 100 universities and research institutions, 125K+ network members, 3.6K+ startup members and an Advanced Vehicle Technology Accelerator.
In my next blog post, I will be discussing how the tech community is currently being utilized.
If you would like to get in touch with me, I can be reached via LinkedIn or through our website.
This is the first in a series of posts where I would like to share my experiences and key learnings from the past 1 ½ years, where I have worked within the global tech community to bridge the gap between the tech community and mid to large-sized corporations.
At the end of this series of posts I will have a few questions for the corporate innovators in my network in the hopes of initiating a dialog on how to improve the value that corporations get when reaching beyond their organization for knowledge, talent, and potential solutions to pressing business problems.
To set the stage for this series of posts, I thought I would relay some background on how I found myself embedded in the Greater Atlanta Tech Community and working with corporations and individuals from around the globe in over 43 startup rich cities. From my humble beginnings as a graduate with a Ph.D. in Physical Inorganic Chemistry working at a Fortune 50 corporation as a bench chemist, I could not have imagined the path I would take over the next three decades.
My first ten years in industry were spent in an R&D organization within an operating division focused on commercializing new technologies for key global brands. After ten years, I was provided with a unique opportunity for a broadening assignment in the innovation area, which ultimately led to a series of innovation roles across 4 major corporations over a 20-year period.
A major theme across all the innovation roles was the rewiring of internal innovation processes to accommodate external innovations, as well as the ability to spin-out internal innovations that may not be the right fit but could still provide value to the corporation.
A couple key tenets across all the corporations I’ve worked for are:
- Create the ability to utilize knowledge and talent regardless of whether it is internal or external to the organization
- Manage the blending of resources to solve high-value business problems that can be addressed by the scientific & technical community world-wide
- Control intellectual property to ensure freedom to operate any innovations that are a part of the programs being developed
With the above as background, 1.5 years ago I became a business partner in a local technology start-up called TechConnectHub.com. Our business is focused on helping corporate clients to define high-value business problems that can be addressed by tech community resources. We scout for technology solutions, locate subject matter experts, identify interns with critical skills, make connections to relevant startups, and work diligently on our client’s behalf to discover and capture real Return On Investment.
We do this by focusing corporate innovation services on defining key business challenges, creating exciting community engagement events, and providing unique ways to interact with tech communities across the globe in an accelerator space setting.
These are indeed exciting times and the pace of innovation will only increase as artificial intelligence, block-chain, machine learning, and Internet of Things transform the way we work and live.
Keep an eye out for my next post in which I will discuss attributes of the tech community and set the stage for future posts about key takeaways from projects being run at the interface between corporations and the tech community.
If you would like to get in touch with me, I can be reached via LinkedIn or through our website.
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