INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER Waldemar Książczak

1. INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER Waldemar Książczak

2. What are the key changes in national and world economies caused by globalization? Globalization – definition: “free flow of goods, services, labor, capital and knowledge between countries”.Main demographic trends affecting global economy:According to the UN, the Europe population will decrease by 70 million, which equals to 10%. At the same time, the population of Asia will increase by 1,300 million and that of Africa by just over a billion.

3. Changes in companies' strategies. On the global labor market entrepreneurs move work places to where production is cheaper and more effective. In Poland this leads to a surge of direct investments even though the privatization has been stalled. On the global labor market entrepreneurs move to where their qualifications bring them better money. According to different estimates, approximately 5% professionally active people have left Poland.

4. The primary objective of the Lisbon strategy is to make the European economy the most competitive economy in the world by 2010. The strategy focuses on four issues: • innovation (knowledge-based economy), • liberalization (telecommunication, energy, transport and financial markets), • entrepreneurship (establishing and running business ventures made easier), • social cohesion (shaping new active welfare state)

5. Which parts of Polish economic strategy need to be changed so that globalization will improve Polish standard of living? • Over the years there has not been any common vision of Poland nor a good leader to inspire Poles to transform this vision into practice; • with the best computer programmers we have been lagging behind with e-administration (Poland is third from bottom in this field in Europe).‏

6. The speed of implementing innovations and improving effectiveness has increased. Victory in the increasingly more competitive world's economy does not only mean moving forward. You also have to be faster than everybody else. The Polish key to success in the 21st century lies in the ability to take advantage of knowledge. The country's economic power will be the strength of minds, not hands and machines.

7. STRATEGIC RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGICAL AREAS FOR POLAND • Info (knowledge software and decision support engineering, local intelligence networks, optoelectronics), • Techno (new materials and technologies, nano technologies, specialist system design), • Bio (biotechnology and bioengineering, biological progress in agriculture, environment protection, new products and medical techniques), • Basics (computing science and building scientific databases, physics of solid substance, chemistry).

8. PRO-INNOVATION ACTIVITIES INCLUDED IN REGIONAL INNOVATION STRTEGY • key issues related to innovativeness: • evolution of companies towards knowledge-oriented economy, • effective system of economy-science cooperation in the region, • pro-innovation business surrounding.

9. RIS PILOT PROJECTS • Regional Innovation Center (RCI)‏ • Toruń Technological park (TPT)‏ • Bydgoszcz Industrial and Technological Park • Tool Design and Plastics Processing Technology Center • INFOBINET • Regional Technical and Agricultural Laboratories – Innovation Development Centers • UMK Entrepreneurship Development Incubator • creating a Research and Implementation Fund and a speed capital fund

10. NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN TRADITIONAL BRANCHES E.G. BUILDING INDUSTRY • The high-tech sector and knowledge-consuming services play a huge role in changing traditional industry branches. • The key factor of innovation and competitiveness in traditional fields is design.

11. CONDITIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH TECHNOLOGIES • High-tech and knowledge-consuming business services are a key part of the innovation system because of their own attractiveness and their role in encouraging innovation in others. • For high-tech development, functional channels of knowledge transfer between scientific institutions and industry are necessary. High-tech companies are dependent on academic achievements to a greater extent than other companies. Many such companies have their roots in educational institutions. This dependence on academic environment and business related services leads to a concentration of high-tech and knowledge-consuming industry branches near academic centers. This means that most of these companies form clusters.

12. HIGH TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATION • To be called high-tech branches or products must comply with qualitative and quantitative criteria in a given period of time and place. A popular quantitative criterion is the level of money spent on research and development activities in relation to the value of production. • The term innovativeness is more universal and independent of particular conditions. Innovation means implementing inventions of different technological level in different products and processes.

13. DEFINING INNOVATIVENESS • P. Drucker : “Innovation is entrepreneurs' peculiar tool to turn changes into an opportunity to establish a new business activity or to offer new services”. According to him it's an economical term rather than social or technical. • J. Schumpeter: “Innovation is making fundamental or radical changes to transform a new idea or invention into a new product or process”. • G.S. Altshuller: “Innovation is a complex phenomenon and a number of skills, a different method of organization, synthesis and expressing knowledge, perceiving the world and creating new ideologies, perspectives, reactions and products”.

14. Types of innovations • Product innovation – applies to products and processes – these are all kinds of changes aimed at improving the products already manufactured by a company or extending its assortment. • Process innovation (technological) – changes to production processes and methods of reaching the end user. • Systemic innovation – creating new solutions in information and communication technologies leading to changes in information flow.

15. Let the few who are still waiting with implementing innovations be warned by , Gary Hamel: “Somewhere in a garage far far away, an entrepreneur is casting a bullet with your company's name on it. You've got one option now – shoot first. You have to outdo innovators in innovation.”

16. Three conditions for successful innovation according to P.F. Drucker: • Innovation is work which requires knowledge as well as tremendous creativity. • To be successful, innovators have to take advantage of their strong points and be emotionally tuned in to any opportunity for innovation. • Innovation always has to be close to the market, be market-oriented and market inspired.

17. INNOVATION PROCESS OUTLINE • Step 1 Market analysis consisting of an analysis of current and future customers' needs as well as actual and potential competitive edge. • Step 2 Assessment of technical and organizational knowledge. Location of potential sources of innovations. • Step 3 Formation of project tasks. • Step 4 Building a team to perform the task, choosing team members, its structure and leader. • Step 5 Elaborating a realization plan (business plan). Schedule, costs and outcomes. • Step 6 Decision to accept (reject) the project. • Step 7 Preparing a technical plan with a detailed allotment of tasks • Step 8 Technical and economical assessment, allocating financial resources. • Step 9 Realization. Technical tests. Promotion. • Step 10 Project finish. Implementation. • Step 11 Evaluation of results, conclusions.

18. COMPANY STRATEGY • Acc. to A.D. Chandler: Strategy is a process of determining company's long-term objectives and priorities as well as adopting a certain course of action and allocating resources required to complete the project • Acc. to J. Penc: Strategy is a set of particular decisions and an idea how to solve particular problems by means of particular actions, designed to help achieve the company's goals.

19. OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES • Pioneering strategy. It allows companies to enter the market earlier that the competition and thus achieve long-term benefits such as: a greater share of the market and opportunity to impose higher prices, earlier contact with customers, establishing new industrial standards, creating brands (Pampers – meaning all diapers, Windows – an operating system, Karscher – a pressure cleaner). • Imitative strategy. Through its own creative attitude, learning from other's errors and a pioneer's experiences a company takes full advantage of their success.

20. TYPOLOGY OF INNOVATION STRATEGIES • offensive • defensive • purchasing licences • avoidance • market creation • independent • hiring highly qualified staff • company buyout

21. TECHNOLOGICAL STRATEGY • In the process of designing a technological strategy it may come in handy to answer the following questions: • What is the scope and frequency of technical activities? When can they be performed? • Will the scheduled changes apply to product innovation, process innovation or both? • Will the company adopt a pioneering or imitative strategy? • What will be the primary source of innovation (company's own or from the surrounding entities?)‏ • What is the feasible and economically justified level of expenditure for particular innovations (financial sources – outside, inside)? • To what extent should company's own research capabilities be developed? • What will be the consequences of innovation and technology transfer for the organization of B+R services, changes to production management and supply system? • How will the company protect its intellectual and inventive property?

22. Porter's types of competitive strategies: • Cost-leadership strategy • Product variation strategy • Price concentration and competitiveness strategy • Concentration and competitiveness through product variation strategy

23. WHAT ARE INNOVATION SOURCES? • SOURCES OF INTERNAL INFORMATION ON INNOVATION • Staff • Customers • Own research • SOURCES OF EXTERNAL INFORMATION ON INNOVATION • New technology databases • Fairs • Conferences and seminars • Technology transfer canters • Research and development centers • Scientific – technological parks • Competition • Educational institutions

24. CONDITIONS DEFINING A CREATIVE TEAM • Team atmosphere is informal and relaxing • Mostly direct discussions with all team members participating. • Team has a clear goal and all members are aware of it. • Team members listen to each other's ideas. • All potential conflicts are constructive. • Decisions are always reached based on a consensus. • Team members are productive, generate many ideas and are not afraid to share with each other. • Soft management style. • Team controls the realization of their goals.

25. ERROR AS A SOURCE OF INNOVATION • An important factor in organization's creative thinking is letting mistakes happen. • At the same time , one has to remember the rule that as little as 5% of proposed solutions are worth implementing and only 0,5% are really ground breaking.

26. TECHNOLOGICAL AUDIT • Thorough overview of company's technological capabilities and potential. • Technological audit is a deeper assessment of: • technological capabilities, • procedures, • researched company's needs.

27. TECHNOLOGICAL AUDIT • Allows: • identification of company's base key technology • assessment whether technologies possessed are fully taken advantage of, • assessment whether company's current strategy will result in competitive advantage on the market, • recognition of weak and strong points of company's technology, • improvement of weak and support for strong points in company's technology. • Technological audit helps to determine: • company's expectations related to acquisition of new technologies, • company's potential for international cooperation for development of new technologies, • planned directions of development, • company's market position and its functional conditions, • basic data on company's condition.

28. In particular, technological audit has to facilitate analysis of company's characteristics and needs related to innovation from different points of reference, such as: • product/market positioning to ensure company's permanent growth and competitive edge, • technological areas requiring attention: automatic equipment, information technology, chemicals, packaging materials... • general problems requiring pioneering solutions: productivity, quality, energy, environment protection, flexibility... • measures of technological transfer such as: trainings, technical support, cooperation, financing, intellectual property protection... • sources and channels of innovation to be used as well as relations to be developed: customers, suppliers, technical and technological centers...

29. NEXT STEPS IN TECHNOLOGICAL AUDIT • Becoming aware of the need of technological audit. • Choosing a company or expert to perform technological audit. • Expert's first visit: • - discussion on audit procedures and its benefits, • - presenting and discussing subsequent actions. • Gathering basic data and preliminary analyses (company, market)‏ • Brief general diagnosis. Questionnaire poll within company aimed at: • - gathering general information on company, • - sketching technological profile of company, • - performing SWOT analysis, • - identifying technological areas for further analysis. • Expert's data analysis – a report containing a preliminary analysis.

30. Presentation of preliminary diagnosis for company's board. • - discussion and verification of results. • - determining topics to be further analyzed in assistance with other experts. Further analysis may focus on the following issues: production activities, B+R, quality, product development, human resources management... • Additional visits, interviews with branch managers. • Technological audit final report. • Presentation of report for company's board in order to: • - discuss highlighted issues, • - discuss proposed solutions, identify alternative solutions, • - discuss final activities, • - agree on monitoring system for implementation plan.

31. BRAINSTORMING • Seven conditions of successful brainstorming (Tom Kelly's “The art of Innovation”): • Clearly defined problem. A successful session begins from a clear definition of a given problem. It can be for example a good question. • Game rules. During a session let us not start from criticizing ideas nor discussing them. • Number ideas. • Build and jump. Session dynamics is characterized by repeating phases of energy build-up: at first slowly, then stronger until it wanes. The leader should act in the third phase when energy disappears. • Space reminds. The coming ideas should be noted so that everybody can see them. • Stretch your mind. A word game as a short warm-up to reset the team's minds and put them on a more dynamic mode. Another activity is to assign the team homework related to the session topic. • Take care of the visual aspect. Good visual materials (sketches, charts, psychological maps, stick models).

32. BRAINSTORMING • Six mistakes detrimental to brainstorming sessions: • The boss is first to talk. If this is the case, it usually means setting boundaries to the discussion. This equals to restricting creativity of the session. • Everybody has their turn. Everybody should be able to speak when they want to. • Only experts. You can invite many different employees to take part in meetings. • Let's go somewhere. A brainstorming session in a ski resort or by the seaside may be unproductive. • No fooling around. Quite the opposite. Fun at work may help to solve problems. • Put down everything. Taking notes activates wrong areas of the brain. We are not at an academic lecture.