Application Of Opportunity Lenses

Sample opportunity map attached.

The last step is to create an opportunity map demonstrating the lenses, using the Sample Opportunity Map as a guide. The opportunity map plots opportunities over time (X-axis) compared to potential impact on the business (Y-axis) divided in three primary sections:

1. In the business—incremental.
2. On the business—new offering or value proposition.
3. Out of the business—redefines the business or category.

• Written communication: Must be free of errors, scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the business profession.
• APA formatting: Your essay should be formatted according to APA (6th edition) style and formatting.
• Length: Minimum of 2,400 words, Times New Roman, 12-point font.
• Structure: Please include the following sections using APA headings (no abstract required):
  1. Introduction.
  2. Body headings as appropriate.
  3. Conclusions.
• SafeAssign: You will be submitting your paper through SafeAssign.
• References: A minimum of five PRJ or PJ references (in addition to the required course readings).
• Writing Feedback Tool: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click on the linked resources for helpful writing information.

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  COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN COMPANIES and universities are critical drivers of the innovation economy. These relationships have long been a mainstay of corporate research and devel-

  opment (R&D) — from creating the knowledge foundations for the next generation of solutions, to

  serving as an extended “workbench” to solve short-term, incremental problems, to providing a flow of

  newly minted talent. As many corporations look to open innovation to augment their internal R&D

  efforts, universities have become essential partners. Indeed, companies now look to universities to

  anchor an increasingly broad set of innova-

  tion activities, especially those grounded in

  engaging with regional innovation ecosys-

  tems. Silicon Valley, Kendall Square in

  Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Block 71 in

  Singapore are among the most visible inno-

  vation ecosystems where universities are

  essential stakeholders in an innovation com-

  munity that also includes corporations,

  government entities, venture investors, and

  entrepreneurs. Thus, in addition to serving

  as sources of people and ideas for corpora-

  tions, universit y collaborations are an

  important mechanism for corporations

  seeking to open up new avenues of engage-

  ment with a broader innovation ecosystem.

  Following corporate giants like General

  Electric, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, and IBM,

  which have collaborated with universities for

  years, a variety of younger companies in-

  cluding Amazon, Facebook, Google, and

  Uber are using universities as a key part of

  Developing Successful Strategic Partnerships With Universities

  I N N O VA T I O N

  For many companies, universities have become essential innovation partners. However, companies often struggle to establish and run university partnerships effectively. BY LARS FRØLUND, FIONA MURRAY, AND MAX RIEDEL

  THE LEADING QUESTION How can companies improve their partner- ships with universities?

  FINDINGS �Universities offer a wide and at times bewildering array of modes of engagement.

  �Articulate strategic goals for partner- ships and then choose collabora- tion structures that align with those goals.

  �Identify key perfor- mance indicators to evaluate the partnerships.

  WINTER 2018 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 71

   

   

  72 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW WINTER 2018 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU

  I N N O VA T I O N

  their early-stage innovation and new ventures

  strategy.1 Even smaller, more regionally oriented

  companies in diverse sectors such as mining and au-

  tomotive have come to believe that universities are

  key ecosystem stakeholders in supporting and shap-

  ing their regional economies. For example, IQE plc,

  a compound semiconductor company based in

  Cardiff, U.K., supports a regional innovation eco-

  system through its collaborative relationship with

  Cardiff University. The partners have developed a

  translational research facility to train scientists and

  technicians in compound semiconductor technol-

  ogies and support an R&D facility to help U.K.

  businesses exploit advances in these technologies.

  Such collaborations between corporations and uni-

  versities foster the innovation ecosystem.

  While the aspirations of university-industry

  partnerships can be easily described, many compa-

  nies find it challenging to establish and run these

  partnerships effectively, even when key financial

  resources and human capital are available. The

  challenge is amplified in an ecosystem where the

  various stakeholders, all with their own ambitions,

  need to be properly aligned to achieve impact. In

  our research, we have found that both corporations

  and universities confront a general level of frustra-

  tion and a mismatch in culture and governance

  when they collaborate. (See “About the Research.”)

  Although many factors contribute to the frus-

  tration, the core reason is that university culture —

  characterized by high autonomy and distributed

  governance — maps poorly to corporate culture.

  Universities offer companies a wide and at times

  bewildering array of faculty, programs, and other

  modes of engagement. Even when the formats for

  interaction are established, there is often a pro-

  found mismatch in the expectations and goals for

  joint engagement.

  Given both the promise and the challenge of

  university-industry interactions today, it’s impor-

  t a n t to ex p l ore t h e f a c tor s t h a t m a ke su ch

  collaborations successful. We have found that a sys-

  tematic approach to university partnerships within

  innovation ecosystems requires both companies

  and universities to be well prepared before the en-

  gagement even begins. In particular, companies

  need to move from an ad hoc to a strategic ap-

  proach to partnerships with universities.

  From Ad Hoc to Strategic Partnerships In an ad hoc approach, university collaborations are

  first and foremost established by individual re-

  searchers or engineers in the company and focus on

  specific R&D needs identified by those individuals.

  This means that collaboration partners are likely

  chosen based on personal experience and the net-

  works of the researchers and engineers in the

  company. The rationale for university partner selec-

  tion is familiarity between individual researchers,

  not between the two organizations as a whole.

  Although this may mean that many potentially valu-

  able aspects of a university partnership are ignored,

  such approaches create what has been described as

  an “extended workbench.”2 Such collaborations,

  though small, are often agile. From the perspective

  of the corporation, the university collaboration is

  limited to the specific project (typically within a

  business unit), and thus there is no centralized or-

  ganization. From the university’s perspective,

  individual researchers and their students gain a

  source of funding, insight into relevant problems,

  and opportunities to access novel assets or partners.

  Ad hoc approaches often lead to a large number

  of collaborations (sometimes numbering in the

  hundreds) with little synergy. Each agreement is

  negotiated individually, which tends to put a heavy

  workload on legal departments, leading to delays.

  In addition, opportunities for broader engagement

  and impact are lost. Consequently, large companies

  and many leading universities have shown interest

  in more strategic programs.

  As companies enter into strategic agreements

  with universities, they have begun to organize their

  relationships with universities into tiers. “Top-tier”

  relationships are no longer simply based on per-

  sonal connections between an academic and a

  corporate researcher. Increasingly, companies se-

  lect universities based on their expertise in an area

  of strategic importance and their familiarity to the

  company. In fact, companies have started to use

  company-wide master research agreements to cre-

  ate transparency in their collaboration activities,