Mark P. Rice
Mark P. Rice is the co-founder and director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and an associate professor in the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also serves as the Director of the Lally Radical Innovation Research Project, a longitudinal study of the management of twelve breakthrough innovation projects in ten large R&D intensive firms. Rice is co-author of Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts, published in October 2000, which highlights the insights from this study.
Rice served as Assistant Dean and then Associate Dean between 1993 and 1998, and for the previous five years as director of the Rensselaer Incubator Program. He has been a director and chairman of the National Business Incubation Association, which honored him in 1998 with its Founder´s Award. With Dr. Jana Matthews, he has co-authored and co-edited Growing New Ventures -- Creating New Jobs: Principles and Practices of Successful Business Incubation. Dr. Rice holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Rice delivered these comments to the recent Executive Briefing session held by yet2.com in Amsterdam.
Grabbing Lightning without Getting Burned: Capturing Radical Innovation in the Fuzzy Front End
If you know the origin of my university, then you´ll know why I´m so excited to be here in Amsterdam to discuss this topic with you today. RPI is the oldest engineering university in the United States. It was founded in 1824 by Steven van Rensselaer, who at that time was the largest landowner in the northeastern part of the United States. His vision was to educate the sons and daughters of farmers and tradespeople in the application of science to the common purposes of life. The Rensselaer experiment was truly a radical innovation in higher education.
Into the "Valley of Death"
Few breakthrough ideas emerge from the reservoir of technical knowledge, and cross the "valley of death." The first valley is capturing radical innovations in the fuzzy front end.
Increasing the Flow and Capture of Good Ideas
There are two goals: increase the flow rate and quality of ideas, and increase the capture rate of those ideas. But what is a good idea? Radical innovation requires the generation of truly novel ideas.
Hunters and Gatherers
The inventor may not be the best person to recognize the business opportunity presented by the invention. Firms need "opportunity recognizers" who can envision the connection between product and customer. Recognizers fall into two groups: hunters and gatherers.
Evaluating a Radical Innovation
What questions do you asks in the initial evaluation of radical innovation? They´re mostly focused on technology evaluation; long run profit is assumed to be significant. The output of the process is how to proceed with the effort through several options.
Funding the Radical Innovation
Funding can be an important distraction from the development of a radical innovation. Traditional internal sources of funding are inappropriate. External funding often plays a critical role in expanding and accelerating projects.
Grabbing the Lightning
"Grabbing the lightning" is important as a source of long-term competitive advantage. Hunters and gatherers both play their parts. Senior management always plays a critical role, leading the organization towards a vision that manages both the traditional business and in developing radical innovations that can change the nature of that business.
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