Shifting Your TTO from Market Push to Market Pull: Finding the White Space
Originally presented November, 2009

Many tech transfer offices are stuck in reactive mode. They dutifully receive invention disclosures from faculty, assess them for commercial potential, file patents and provisionals, and seek licensees. This reactive strategy, while understandable given staff shortages and time constraints, does not even attempt to address one very critical factor in successful research commercialization efforts: WHAT DOES THE MARKET WANT.

Recognizing this, a growing number of TTOs have moved away from traditional and reactive "market push" strategies toward a more proactive "market pull" approach. Rather than passively hoping that technologies with appeal to industry will cross their desks, they are actively engaging with innovation seekers in corporations and government agencies to determine their most pressing needs - and then feeding that information back to their research labs. By listening to their markets, and building strong relationships with industry, they are smoothing a path to licensing revenues and assuring that more of their research dollars result in products that companies WANT AND NEED.

The concept isn't hard to grasp, but execution can be difficult. It involves not only a shift in strategy and thinking, but also delicate negotiations with researchers who may balk at being "dictated to" about their research focus. In addition, it involves tough legwork in building a "listening" process in the form of strong industry relationships. But the end result can significantly increase your research funding and licensing revenues while cementing long-term corporate partnerships.

That's why Technology Transfer Tactics' Distance Learning Division has recruited one of the nation's leaders in market pull strategy, Lina Ramos of EMERGING GROWTH Enterprise, to give you practical strategies on determining the IP and innovation needs of industry and putting your researchers to work on meeting those needs.

Shifting Your TTO from Market Push
to Market Pull: Finding the White Space

Here's what you'll learn in this dynamic program:

• What specific ongoing tactics can be used to measure the pulse of industry partners and the marketplace itself to guide research efforts?
• What internal communication strategies need to be used to gain the trust of and form alliances with researchers towards a "pull" strategy?
• How to target the right industry contacts
• Strategies for marketing your ability to meet industry needs and overcome negative perceptions of TTO responsiveness
• What assurances or contractual agreements can be used to ensure the market demand you are trying to meet doesn't disappear once you have spent millions trying to meet the need expressed?
• And much more...

Your Expert Speaker:

Lina Ramos is a seasoned entrepreneur with 18 years of experience in technology and life science financing and commercialization. She has held P&L responsibility in private ventures, spin-out divisions and multiple product lines and services in the USA and internationally.

As the Founder and President of Emerging Growth Enterprise, Ms. Ramos leads the firm's private sector, university and government lab collaboration practice. Highlights of direct technology transfer activities include market feasibility studies; financing strategy; business planning; strategic partner identification/development and M&A strategy to advance commercialization. University highlights include technology transfer and/or new venture commercialization at: Stanford University's Bioengineering/BioDesign; University of California San Diego - California Institute for Communications and Information Technology (CAL-IT2); CSUSB Commercialization program (OTTC); University of Southern California - Alfred E. Mann Institute. Government lab highlights include commercialization opportunity identification, strategy and/or spinouts for National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL); Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland; United States Army Medical Research Institute for infectious diseases (USAMRIID); US Navy; Center for Disease Control - National institutes for Occupational Safety (CDC-NIOSH)

Prior to founding Emerging Growth Enterprise, Ms. Ramos began her post-MBA career began at Procter & Gamble, Spain, where she assumed a business role in the post-acquisition of Cosmetics and Fragrances. Ms. Ramos was later promoted to the broader health & beauty care franchise. As the General Director with full P&L responsibility, Ms. Ramos also ran Monsanto Company's Nutrition Division, a spin-out of Monsanto's GD Searle Pharmaceutical division. Upon returning to the United states she was promoted to Executive Director, reporting directly to the CEO of Monsanto Company and was responsible for strategic growth initiatives including the monetization of IP through the genomics business team and the integration team for mergers and acquisitions.

Ms. Ramos earned her MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and marketing from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.

Who Should Listen
Technology transfer managers and professionals, sponsored research managers, corporate and industry liaisons, administrators and deans, research commercialization directors, licensing specialists, start-up managers, researchers and entrepreneurs, university research VPs, IP consultants, and others with an interest in adopting a market pull strategy.