This targeted email is addressed to those SBIR-involved firms having
technical capability relevant to ONE of the several areas of collaboration
interest indicated by Novartis and that
will be addressed in some detail at a specially convened, by-invitation and
by-selection event September 21-22. 2011.
Area of specific focus for this email: Smoking cessation
Full listing of areas of technical interest below with detail on all
aspects of this project on the event site.
http://www.inknowvation.com/novartis-inknowvation-at-work
Full access to, and usage of the site requires Site Registration
http://www.inknowvation.com/novartis-inknowvation-at-work/registration
Location:
By careful design, all inknowvation@work®
events – which feature a single large corporation in the role of Tech Seeker
- are held close by a primary facility of the featured firm; in this instance
in Parsippany NJ. A major benefit of that event siting
always means that, because they can do other business during that trip,
participation usually engages a range of Senior Corporate Management and others
who would not normally get to meet with several quality SBIR firms and to get a
sense for how they would usefully engage that wealth of talent on a systematic
basis to mutual benefit .
Event participation bonus: Not only do you normally get to meet
these persons and often to spend serious time with them but that support and
subsequent buy-in to the approach of enabling SBIR collaboration(s) have
several times already proved valuable downstream at both the individual deal
and overall level.
_____________________
Not your area of expertise?
By careful mining of our sophisticated SBIR-STTR relational databases, the
effort is to ensure that only small firms with capabilities relevant to
this particular area are in receipt of this email.
That said,
- despite
our best approaches to weeding out terms which have cross-technology usage
with entirely different meanings and to doing manual clean of the
subsequent email listings, a few non-relevant connections will have been
made and a very small number of firms whose work is actually in very
different space will see this email.
- Additionally,
in firms with several employees (and SBIR active PIs) in our systems -
even with bios on many of you - the fact is that the level of
skills-relevant detail we have available on particular people is less than
ideal. Our systems do not always easily support identification of
the explicit person(s) having the relevant expertise who should be
on the receipt list.
We apologize therefore if you are not the one whose expertise addresses the
subject area of Smoking Cessation.
If however, we got it right, and you – the company or the person - has
expertise potentially relevant to the designated task to hand, let us actively
encourage you to go to the event site to find out what this is all about.
_______________________________________
Needs-driven approach = high rate of deal-flow
- Post
event contact out of almost every inknowvation@work®
event to date: almost 60%
- Relationships
established: 25-30% of those small firms who were on the final
invitation list and event participant.
That said, not all are major deals. In fact - based on considerable
experience of which deals work out - we actively encouraged a first-time
working relationship in particular to be lower-risk and staged. Both
parties need time to build the trust and respect factors that underpin most
viable, ongoing relationships – which is often what we, you and they are
looking for.
At a minimum, ASSETs involved small firms report creating useful points of
contact with the large firms which proved valuable subsequently.
It’s about meeting a real need:
In strong contrast to most showcase-type events in which SBIR awardees
participate, all components of the ASSETs®
approach begin from the technical needs and business interest of the larger
firm – whom we designate the Tech Seeker. These needs MUST be
real. Tire kicking and window shopping is explicitly not allowed.
>From that set of requirments, what we do is always
- grounded
in getting the right people in the room – representing the large and the
small firm alike – serious about doing business
- and,
to ensure lots of in-depth interaction, keeping the entire effort smaller
scale. Typically, not only are there are almost as many personnel
representing the featured large firms as there are small firm players in
the room.
When was the last time that defined an SBIR event in which you (were required
to) participate?
Getting to a deal:
Initiated by long-time SBIR advocate Ann Eskesen to support achievement of
in-use condition of developed technologies of SBIR involved firms, the premise
is always that if small firms involved and making presentation
- not
only are provided useful insight pre-event into the areas of
technology collaboration interest of the particular large firms to whom
they are talking
- but
also that they have been pre-selected to meet senior management of
that corporation and to make that presentation because what they
bring to the table is directly relevant to those areas
- that
there is useful and ample opportunity pre-, during and post-event for
structured and relevant information exchange and interaction
- AND
that those participating from the large firm in their role as Tech Seeker
have decision-making authority
that the odds that common ground will be found and deals made are likely
to be quite good.
This is particularly true of the very targeted inknowvation@work®
- a sophisticated technology-matching process culminating in a 1.5 day
event that is always held close by a primary facility of the particular large
corporation that is featured.
_________________
Other targeted email processed on a by-topic basis are in preparation.
Novartis OTC Areas of Collaboration focus for
September 21-22, 2011 event, in Parsippany, NJ:
Therapeutic space
- Allergy,
cold and cough
- Pain
and analgesics
- Gastrointestinal
and digestive health
- Dermatological
and skincare
- Smoking
cessation
- Sleep
and insomnia
- Cardiovascular
health and lowered cholesterol
Broad impact areas of focus
- Drug
delivery
- Rx
to OTC switch
____________
Ann Eskesen
Innovation Development Institute
45 Beach Bluff Avenue Suite 300
Swampscott, MA 01907-1542
_____
Voice: (781) 595-2920
Email: ann.eskesen@inknowvation.com
Web: http://www.inknowvation.com