Technology commercialisation isn't easy!  We know

 Technology Commercialisation = 99% Perspiration + 1% Inspiration

Even then nothing is guaranteed.  There are many countless hours of systematic testing and trails, to get the solution "right".  The RISKS ARE HIGH - much higher than most optimistic technology developers would readily admit.  There is the technical risk that the solution might not work effectively and even if it does, it may not be commercially viable.  The financial risk is that all or most of the capital investment could be lost before you get your return on investment.  Having said how hard it is there is also an IMMENSE JOY in seeing your idea become a reality - an act of creation.  However, the technology development journey never ends if you want to remain at the leading edge, things are always changing, always evolving, there is always the next generation of the product (goods or services) to develop.  In this dynamic, innovative environment a lot of information needed to make informed commercial decisions simply isn't available.  That is when technology developers start to make MANY ASSUMPTIONS which are inherent to the risks.  At Winner Partnership we take a risk management approach to technology commercialisation which allows us to identify and rate a risk so that it can be either eliminated or reduced (mitigated).  We look at the whole business through a cross functional feasibility method.

Technology Commercialisation Business Solutions

The solutions we have created for technology commercialisation companies are for the common challengers we see them facing.  We use our expertise in accounting, tax, financial planning and business advice to tailor these solutions.  If any of these solutions appeal to you, contact us to discuss in more detail via the form below.

Strategic Business Plan

In any business there is always so much to do - the work never ends.  It is easy to get trapped in the "busyness" of business.  Far too many businesses are so eager to get on with it that they don't stop to think strategically what we should do, that is going to provide us with the most effective return for our time and money.  Click here to find out more.

Market Research

By nature most technology commercialisation businesses tend to be more "product centric", focusing on the goods or services being developed rather than "customer centric" and finding out/ knowing what the end user needs and wants.  Not knowing what your target market needs and wants and not delivering that in your product could mean the difference between success and failure.  It saves a lot of time and money to do this during the product development process rather than once the product has been developed.  Click here to find out more. 

Industry Benchmarks

Another source of secondary market research is industry benchmarks.  We are able to compare your business to businesses in your industry using our Business Benchmarking Tool.  We can compare your businesses performance on factors such as profitability, productivity, financial ratios, salary and how your expenses compare to the benchmark companies.  We can also use our Financial Management Tool to do "What if" and "Goal Seek" Analysis.

Target Market Segments

The most difficult thing when developing a new product is getting clear on your market.  Your target market.  Often as is quoted in trade journals as to the size of a particular marketplace is an unambiguous figure - too large to comprehend.  I think the mistake is assuming you can capture a certain % of that marketplace.  The truth of the matter is not every customer is right for you.  Take a shotgun approach and hope that something sticks.  This leads to a wasteful use of company resources.  Better to take a more targeted approach.  When it is not your money - don't care really how you spend it.  If you are a shareholder you want the maximum return for your marketing investment.  Any business regardless of a new business or a mature business needs to get its brand identity right.  Alignment selling - what you offer, how you offer it, who you are and to whom you offer it is aligned.  Primary and Secondary research 

Competitor Analysis

Most businesses offering similar products (goods or services) think they are competitors but they may not be.  They have to define exactly what they do and who they do it for to determine if they are direct or substitute competitors or not.  Each business has a unique background and strengths/ weaknesses.  A business needs to promote to a market segments where its strengths and uniqueness will be valued.

Their product offering may be better suited to a particular target market then others.  Strength of the competitors.  You clients may or may not understand the marketplace - if they don't it is your responsibility to educate them about how you differentiate yourself from others.  Direct or substitute competitors.  Your customers may or may not care about.  What you do and how that is different from other providers. 

For a technology company that has an innovative product you want to communicate what you do that is new and how it is better than competitors.  For this you need to define who your competitors are - as the market is dynamic this is always changing hence you need to be current with your intelligence.  Patent protection/ intellectual property.  Trade mark, copyright. 

Focus Groups - Customer Advisory Boards 

How you do it

Frustrations - reverse the frustrations.  Software provider, bugs in the system, support, customising features.  Top 5 to 10 frustrations.  Primary research is expensive but it can be done.  Determine the objectives of the research.  What information you want to know.  Design the questionnaire - that will give you that answer.  Select the audience you want to survey.  Do the survey - phone, email, focus groups etc.  Survey your existing clients in a Customer Advisory Board to find out what you do well and what you could improve.  Just right customers.  Capacity - who you can service without a significant drop in quality. 

Positioning Workshop

Who you are

We know when we look at customers that have been with a business for some time - it is those that value who the provider is and what they stand for.  This is not so important in a transactional business .  Brand values - these are apparent in who they are.  Without going to their website or reading a profile, just by being a customer you or I can tell what their core values are.  Innovation.  Quality.  Design.  Apple - who they are.  Culture of the business.  What they stand for.  What is important for them.  http://www.apple.com/procurement/  Alignment - not just with customers but also with suppliers. 

People such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computers and the late Kerry Packer of Publishing & Broadcasting Limited (PBL) had this uncanny ability. 

Positioning Workshop - Story - in the marketing and business context is a clear, concise and compelling explanation of an idea, technology, or product in terms that customers and investors can appreciate.  Emotionally engaging - what's in your name.  Why you started the business?  What was the bigger purpose of the business?  Storyboard - tool that maps the storyline for an idea or technology.  The idea behind your business. 

Start up/ Close down/ Buy/ Sell Businesses

Starting up a technology commercialisation business requires the "right" structure (eg. sole trader, partnership, joint venture, private company, trading cooperative, trading trust etc).  Factors to consider when choosing an ownership structure include:
Liability - different structures have unlimited/ limited liability.
Control - different structures offer different amounts of control.
Resources - some structures allow you to combine your resources.
Taxation - different tax rates apply to different structures.
Costs - different structures have different establishment and maintenance costs.
Regulation - Some structures are more heavily regulated then others.
Confidentiality - some structures require public disclose of certain information.

In a technology company matters are often complicated when the owners/ investors/ shareholder are different from the directors/ managers/ controllers of the business and which again might be different from the intellectual property/ asset owner(s).  We can advice on the best structure and the agreements you require (eg. shareholders or partnership agreement etc) to set up and run your business the way you want.  For complex matters we can refer you to one of our legal partners.

For legal entities (eg. companies & trusts) which require a constitution (charter) or deed we can provide these documents in a neatly bound folder, outlining all the shareholders/ directors or trustee/ beneficiaries.  We will also register the entity with the relevant regulatory authorities (eg. ASIC and ATO) and provide you with an Australian Business Number and Goods & Services Tax (GST) registration.

Closing down an existing business is not always an easy thing to do.  If it has been a trading business it most likely has assets or liabilities that we need to decide what to do with and in a way which minimises any tax liabilities.  We can also deregister a company with ASIC and the ATO.  We can also help you close down a trust according to the trust deeds.

Buying a business

Make sure you know what you are buying. 

Selling a business .  Finding the right buyer.  Preparing a business for sale.  

Commercial Feasibility Evaluation

Just because you have a business idea doesn't mean that it is technically and commercially feasible.  Or just because you can get something to work technically doesn't mean it is commercially viable.  Price of technology products drop over time.  Margins higher but volume not that high as more adaptors volume increase but generally margins decrease.  Affect commercial viability.  Why you?  Why your product?  Why now?  Commercial Feasibility Evaluation. 

System Documentation

One of the biggest challengers of a technology development company is that things are always CHANGING for a growing business.  If things in the business are changing "too fast" it can seem out of control and chaotic.  Processes and systems quickly exceed their capacity, become overwhelmed and redundant.  The cash flow of a fast growing business is also stretched to its limits requiring the money to be invested back into the business for new premises, new staff, new equipment etc.  Often there is a driven urgency by technology developers to needs to be compromise between maintaining management control and developing the technology fast enough to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.  Endless growth without consolidation is not sustainable in any system. 

Growth consolidation - just like the natural seasons - growth/ consolidation.  Growth (spring) - Mature (summer) - Harvest (autumn) - Consolidation (winter).  New staff members are always joining.  companies that are growing - realising more of their full potential.  Growing companies.  Claim   Scalable systems. 

Even who you target and market to especially if you have a new product is mostly to early adopters - people who are most likely to see the benefits of your solution and take it on. 

Technology - what is different about what you do?  Often this is a technology companies IP - their core differentiator.  What makes you different and better.   

Who are the right customers for you?  Lead customers are is an early stage customer who is willing to work with the technology developer to help define and shape the technology and the product (good or service) into a commercially viable offering.  Finished product for commercial customers. 

Path to market - distribution channel.  Channel partners - get your product out their easily. 

Payback Scenario - modelling to work out how long before you recover your business investment - intrinsically linked to pricing. 

Addressable market - what portion of the available market can realistically be expected to attract. 

Reduce the Time to Market -

Value proposition - expressed from the audience perspective. 

Estimating market demand - Sales forecasting - bottom up from the units or volume over a given period usually 12 months.  Estimated from adding up potential customer sales or top down addressable market size and the and the portion of that market you expect to capture.  Can't predict what competitors are doing.

Competitive Radar

Quality & Price -

Key Benefit/ Key Differentiator/ target Segment. 

Direct & Substitute competitors. 

The challenge for a growing company is everything is always changing - systems are becoming redundant as the form no longer servers/ supports the new desired function.  Recruiting to find the right staff.  Better to do it right or to do it fast?  Speed to market can sometimes be a competitive advantage. 

Product driven or customer driven.  Sometimes the customer doesn't know what they really want and what they really need - until they use the product.  Assumptions are dangerous.  Secondary data is generally unreliable.  Broad terms - they valuable data is often commercially sensitive and jealously guarded.  Focus groups - may be a smaller subset but you will find out more depth of information about the customers choices.  This is much harder to do for a product that is yet to be developed. 

Just coming up with the idea is not good enough to guarantee a commercial success.  Targeting the "wrong" customer mostly spawn from the believe that any customer is a good customer as long as they are willing to pay.  We say not every customer is right.  High propensity prospect - higher probability that they will buy.  Key Leverage Chart - How important it is for you to be maximising your conversion rate for new customers.  Pareto Analysis - 80/ 20 rule. 

Estimating market demand - full of assumptions.  Assumptions are dangerous.  Best and worst case scenario. 

Protecting it internationally.  Patents can be an expensive and time consuming exercise. 

Sometimes it is valuable to know what the trends are in technology in your area of research.  Patents can offer an invaluable insight into other commercially valuable technology that people are protecting.  Patents give you a view into the future of what technologies lay just beyond the horizon.

Marketing - nothing is certain.  Often if it is a new product (goods/ service) then their isn't a defined potential

Difficulty in determining the feasibility of a new product development.  Thesis - was a risk management approach to technology commercialisation.  Uncertainty.  Ever since I had a vacation scholarship at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research I have felt that the scientist that came up with the brilliant ideas really lacked the commercial aptitude to make their dream a reality.  I wanted to be that bridge.  Chasm between scientist and business. 

Strategic Business Planning, Market Research, Intellectual Property Strategies and Proven Technology activities.  Competitors - direct and substitute competitors.  Patent searches to look at technology trends. 

High technical risk.

Working Prototype

Tunnel vision - so focused on the technology fail to see the big picture.  Think if they build it they will come. 

Often the key person in their business and the business is often a major asset and income stream for their families. 

Cross functional approach allows you to take a wholistic view of your business.  It is my business experience that the place where you don't look is where the risk of something going wrong can occur from.  Mitigate or eliminate the risk where possible. 

We know how difficult it is to turn an idea into reality.  We know

We know to really do something new and innovative and go where none have previoulsy ventures takes courage.  Financial risk.  New Product Development.  Competition to get grants.  no guarantee of a return.

New Product Development - Line extensions or New/ New.

Tax minimisation - Annual Tax Returns.  R&D Tax Concession. 

Advisory Board -

Commercial Feasibility Evaluation - cross functional - we look at things like -

Corporate - Vision and Values.  Goals and Objectives. 

Management Skills Development

As "technical" people the management team doesn't often get a chance to - cross functional approach to improve every area of your business over 24 months - Winner Connections - work with your peers.  Learn from each other. 

Technical people often lack the skills in marketing and sales and financial management.  Other areas just as managing people are important however Money Maker - marketing and sales skills.  Money Manager - financial management skills - develop your competency over time with real business decisions to the point where you become relatively self sufficient.  Problem with brain dump and short courses.  Doesn't prepare you for the "reality" of your business - they are not available to go back to ask questions and clarify things.  What to do with your taxes, paying wages, shareholder agreements, capital raising - getting new shareholders - how you deal with that - what structure should you have to limit and capital gains issues in the future. 

Business Finance

with security to

Leases (Asset finance) Plant and Equipment so you don't have to tie up your capital. 

Financial Planning

 - Are you a Key Person in your business?  What will happen to your family and your business if something went "wrong" with you?  Do you have sufficient insurance and protection. 

Super Fund - this is in a lot of ways your super fund.  We can advise you on investment options especially for things like buying your office - business premises in you