Dr. Abdul Kalam speaks, writes and works having a live vision at the back of his mind "Be India a Developed Nation". The action plan to realise this blue print of mind into reality must have on the top of its itinerary ‘the technology’. Grooming ‘technology’ from seed upto a fruit bearing tree is an art, science and a specialised enterprise in itself.
Like in other businesses, finance is an important element here too. However, the key to success lies in assessing where, when and how to facilitate entry for money in the process of technological project realization. The author has a wide exposure to the whole tree of ‘technological growth process’ in various capacities – a grass root scientist, technocrat, industrial consultant and writer. It is with this backdrop that he enumerates the basic ingredients involved in making a technology idea grow into a full business, by ensuring the entry of financial sources at pre-assessed stages.
A vision is a picture of what is possible or what is desired in a longer-term future. It could be of one individual in origin or it could be a collective in its conception. The Technology Vision 2020 was a massive national exercise implemented by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) during the years 1994 and 1995 and was released to the nation through a form of 25 documents on 2nd August, 1996 by the then Prime Minister. It resulted due to the tireless efforts of 500 persons with inputs from about 5000 persons from different fields of India.
A brief presentation of the findings of vision exercise along with several other linked factors such as the concept of developed India, economic issues, social issues and also certain implementational issues, have been brought out in a book "India 2020" by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam along with the author.
Further elaboration starting with the vision and also dealing with several aspects of important interconnected policies and procedures as well as the processes of science and technology and human dimensions, have been brought out by the author in a book ‘Empowering Indians’ (revised reprint 2002 with a foreward by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam).
These two books contain substantive information about the details of the vision and also the various possibilities of implementation. The book referred to in Ref.2 has also described some of the projects in which TIFAC is involved in attempting to realise the vision into action as a major demonstrative exercise.
Much more can be seen in the TIFAC website: www.tifac.org. in , which is continually updated. Several other parameters such as technology capabilities, organisational capabilities, project management market research, etc. are also important in realising the vision. Therefore this paper briefly addresses the role of technology financing.
Technology idea to business: The essential steps
Often many persons including scientists and technologists tend to believe that a scientific or technological idea if pursued with sufficient funding and support, would automatically result in a commercial operation. Many also tend to think that basic research to technology to commerce is a straight forward linear process given enough time and money.
In actual life, science and technology are distinct elements though interwined. Technology and technological skills and knowledge are not automatic input-output derivatives of basic scientific research. These are discussed in some detail in Ref.2 citing a number of quotes and references from scholars. In actual practice, technology is complex and tacit (i.e. embodied in persons and organisations) .
There are many different strands of technology in a single product or service. Therefore, having an excellence in one technological element alone does not assure a commercial product, let alone a commercial success. Based on the experiences of TIFAC and also of Technology Development Board (TDB), Prof. VS Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India often emphasises in a number of meetings and speeches that while financing is an important component, technology development does not take place merely by stepping up finance.
There are many other prior activities which need to be done if technology development can mature into a good business activity. It is precisely in this area where TIFAC has done considerable amount of work during the past 14 years. In the subsequent paragraphs the author will try to compress a few important issues relating to converting of technological ideas into business operations.
Let us refer to Fig.1. The x-axis of the Figure is time. The quantity of time will depend upon the product or service under consideration. For a completely new area time at the right hand end i.e., the time for "produce and supply to market", could even be 7 years. In a number of cases in industry it would be of the order of ½ - 3 years for incremental innovations.
In fact, a good business strategy should be to have a number of technologically induced innovative products with different cycle times for realisation, so that in the overall, the technology development (which requires financing) will be continuously giving financial outputs through delivery to market, thus not becoming a drain on the overall to the company. This may be called "technology development diversification strategy".
If a company does not have even a plan of having a few innovations in the existing product line or otherwise every 2 to 3 years, it is very unlikely the company can be successful in a present day competitive business world. It is necessary for a company or an entrepreneuer to look ahead in time as to what would be the status a few years from now. This looking ahead will help in initiating actions right now. This is where the role of technology financing starts.
Having identified a few product or service segments for the coming few years, the question (before the company or entrepreneur) comes as to what we will do now. How do we reaslise the desired change in the existing product line or process or even in terms of introducing new products/services. Often this process of looking ahead and deciding action for today, is an iterative process.
A technological idea or a business idea could give some idea as to what a future product can be. Then cycling back whether one should have different options, one would modify the product idea or service idea and finally arrive at a few target end results from a time equal to plus x years (i.e. in the near term future).
Having done this the technology development or business development starts. That is where the problem also starts. Invariably for such items which are innovative at the given point of time (in the present) there will be a relatively high degree of business and market uncertainty as well as product and technical uncertainties and perceived technology risks.
If these are very low at given point of time (in the present) there will be a relatively high degree of business and market uncertainty as well as product and technical uncertainties and perceived technology risks. If these are very low at given point of time (now) that means the product and services are already well established in market and therefore there is no great innovation involved. Actions relating to such products will be mainly issues like cutting costs or by trying some other business strategies. In such cases normally the competitor will also be doing the same and one cannot sustain long with such non-innovative actions.
Like in other businesses, finance is an important element here too. However, the key to success lies in assessing where, when and how to facilitate entry for money in the process of technological project realization. The author has a wide exposure to the whole tree of ‘technological growth process’ in various capacities – a grass root scientist, technocrat, industrial consultant and writer. It is with this backdrop that he enumerates the basic ingredients involved in making a technology idea grow into a full business, by ensuring the entry of financial sources at pre-assessed stages.
A vision is a picture of what is possible or what is desired in a longer-term future. It could be of one individual in origin or it could be a collective in its conception. The Technology Vision 2020 was a massive national exercise implemented by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) during the years 1994 and 1995 and was released to the nation through a form of 25 documents on 2nd August, 1996 by the then Prime Minister. It resulted due to the tireless efforts of 500 persons with inputs from about 5000 persons from different fields of India.
A brief presentation of the findings of vision exercise along with several other linked factors such as the concept of developed India, economic issues, social issues and also certain implementational issues, have been brought out in a book "India 2020" by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam along with the author.
Further elaboration starting with the vision and also dealing with several aspects of important interconnected policies and procedures as well as the processes of science and technology and human dimensions, have been brought out by the author in a book ‘Empowering Indians’ (revised reprint 2002 with a foreward by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam).
These two books contain substantive information about the details of the vision and also the various possibilities of implementation. The book referred to in Ref.2 has also described some of the projects in which TIFAC is involved in attempting to realise the vision into action as a major demonstrative exercise.
Much more can be seen in the TIFAC website: www.tifac.org. in , which is continually updated. Several other parameters such as technology capabilities, organisational capabilities, project management market research, etc. are also important in realising the vision. Therefore this paper briefly addresses the role of technology financing.
Often many persons including scientists and technologists tend to believe that a scientific or technological idea if pursued with sufficient funding and support, would automatically result in a commercial operation. Many also tend to think that basic research to technology to commerce is a straight forward linear process given enough time and money.
In actual life, science and technology are distinct elements though interwined. Technology and technological skills and knowledge are not automatic input-output derivatives of basic scientific research. These are discussed in some detail in Ref.2 citing a number of quotes and references from scholars. In actual practice, technology is complex and tacit (i.e. embodied in persons and organisations) .
There are many different strands of technology in a single product or service. Therefore, having an excellence in one technological element alone does not assure a commercial product, let alone a commercial success. Based on the experiences of TIFAC and also of Technology Development Board (TDB), Prof. VS Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India often emphasises in a number of meetings and speeches that while financing is an important component, technology development does not take place merely by stepping up finance.
There are many other prior activities which need to be done if technology development can mature into a good business activity. It is precisely in this area where TIFAC has done considerable amount of work during the past 14 years. In the subsequent paragraphs the author will try to compress a few important issues relating to converting of technological ideas into business operations.
In actual life, science and technology are distinct elements though intertwined. Technology and technological skills and knowledge are not automatic input-output derivatives of basic scientific research
Let us refer to Fig.1. The x-axis of the Figure is time. The quantity of time will depend upon the product or service under consideration. For a completely new area time at the right hand end i.e., the time for "produce and supply to market", could even be 7 years. In a number of cases in industry it would be of the order of ½ - 3 years for incremental innovations.
In fact, a good business strategy should be to have a number of technologically induced innovative products with different cycle times for realisation, so that in the overall, the technology development (which requires financing) will be continuously giving financial outputs through delivery to market, thus not becoming a drain on the overall to the company. This may be called "technology development diversification strategy".
If a company does not have even a plan of having a few innovations in the existing product line or otherwise every 2 to 3 years, it is very unlikely the company can be successful in a present day competitive business world. It is necessary for a company or an entrepreneuer to look ahead in time as to what would be the status a few years from now. This looking ahead will help in initiating actions right now. This is where the role of technology financing starts.
Having identified a few product or service segments for the coming few years, the question (before the company or entrepreneur) comes as to what we will do now. How do we reaslise the desired change in the existing product line or process or even in terms of introducing new products/services. Often this process of looking ahead and deciding action for today, is an iterative process.
A technological idea or a business idea could give some idea as to what a future product can be. Then cycling back whether one should have different options, one would modify the product idea or service idea and finally arrive at a few target end results from a time equal to plus x years (i.e. in the near term future).
Having done this the technology development or business development starts. That is where the problem also starts. Invariably for such items which are innovative at the given point of time (in the present) there will be a relatively high degree of business and market uncertainty as well as product and technical uncertainties and perceived technology risks.
If these are very low at given point of time (in the present) there will be a relatively high degree of business and market uncertainty as well as product and technical uncertainties and perceived technology risks. If these are very low at given point of time (now) that means the product and services are already well established in market and therefore there is no great innovation involved. Actions relating to such products will be mainly issues like cutting costs or by trying some other business strategies. In such cases normally the competitor will also be doing the same and one cannot sustain long with such non-innovative actions.
