New Concept Announced for Accelerating Entrepreneurial Business Growth
Innovative approach reverses conventional wisdom and yields rapid results for promising early-stage businesses.
Richardson, TX (PRWEB) September 14, 2006 -- In a soon-to-be-published White Paper, Pragmaxis LLC Managing Director Peter Balbus describes a new and innovative concept for accelerating entrepreneurial business growth based on his work with the University of Texas at Dallas.
Conventional wisdom holds that innovation must follow an “inside out” approach where internally-developed inventions and discoveries are nurtured and incubated prior to being externally commercialized, and that these activities are an integral component of the economic lifeline of a region. The new concept employs a novel and distinctive initiative to accelerate the development of entrepreneurial ventures through an approach that Dr. Da Hsuan Feng, Vice President of Research and Economic Development for the University of Texas at Dallas has coined "outside-in".
University-supported entrepreneurial activities most often focus on commercializing intellectual property developed internally by university faculty and staff, through tech transfer or spin-outs -- the traditional inside-out approach. While this approach is a necessary and important capability for research universities to develop and should be nurtured, historically it has yielded surprisingly low probabilities of success and economic returns.
The "outside-in" approach, in comparison, focuses on external business ventures with well-defined business concepts and intellectual property. These fledgling ventures are accelerated through their next phases of growth by a combination of university and external resources. The outside-in approach emphasizes the formation of strong, well-connected global business and scientific advisory boards comprising a strategic mix of seasoned business, scientific and technology leaders whose involvement brings credibility, knowledgeable perspective and invaluable contacts to the venture. These advisory boards have been successful in opening doors at senior levels in strategic partner and customer organization – something these ventures would likely never have been able to do on their own. By embracing early-stage ventures and providing resources without charging exorbitant fees or demanding unreasonable equity stakes, the "outside-in" approach also creates a "warm and welcoming" feeling for entrepreneurs working with universities.
An example of the kind of venture that this approach has been successfully applied to is a wireless communication company that developed and patented a system for addressing the cabin communication needs of airlines in a post 9/11 world. The system offers secure communications that can handle both emergency situations and provide a superior level of customer service. A global business and advisory board was appointed for this company, whose senior management were subsequently invited to engage in a full day of strategic discussions with a major European aircraft manufacturer with positive results.
Another venture, whose core product is an advanced tablet PC-based data capture system has been significantly helped in its progression as a possible strategic partner with a $2 billion global solutions integration firm.
Benefits to Local Economies
The "outside-in" approach fills a large void in the current entrepreneurial ecosystem found in many business communities in the U.S. and abroad. While high-risk incubators, state technology funding and even VC-backed startups attract a great deal of public attention, their actual success rates have been less than satisfactory in terms of generating quality jobs and incremental tax revenues. Too much emphasis is typically placed on determining pre-liquidity valuations and validating markets (which often don't exist yet) and not enough emphasis is placed on how the venture will gain access to strategic partners and key customers.
In comparison, "outside-in" focuses on new ventures that have already met the challenge of developing commercializeable technologies or viable services -- and often already have their initial customers. These factors alone increase the odds of success for these ventures, and enable the "outside-in" services to focus on developing channels to market and accelerating customer growth with higher chances for long-term viability and job creation.
About Pragmaxis LLC
Pragmaxis LLC is a management consulting firm that specializes in assisting executives in defining and operationalizing top-line growth initiatives, open innovation programs and technology commercialization strategies. The firm helps senior executives understand how their industries are likely to change in the next 3-5 years and what steps they should implement today to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in the future. Industries served include manufacturing, logistics and distribution, consumer packaged goods, financial services, high-tech, electronics and telecommunications.
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