Why Technology Scouting is Vitally Important 

Procter & Gamble’s CEO Alan G. Lafley is often quoted as saying "half the company's ideas must come from the outside." Indeed, P&G is a leader in external technology and innovation scouting, and it is paying off handsomely. In one respect Lafley was restating an important insight voiced by Thomas Edison about a century ago: “Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.”

Why? Going outside can both speed up and improve technical development, free up scarce internal resources for other high-impact activities, and lead to greater innovation.

The key is being open (versus threatened) and knowing where to look, how to qualify, and how to apply new externally-developed technologies for rapid commercialization – at a profit to your firm.

Rather than relying on ad hoc and sometimes haphazard approaches to technology sourcing, many firms are adopting formal Technology Scouting programs to provide a structured, focused approach to identifying and acquiring new technology.

If your company is seeking to accelerate or improve its technical development, take advantage of this session in which Dr. Jay Paap –will draw on his 30 plus years of work experience to provide real world examples of both effective – and less effective – sourcing initiatives.

The Objective of this Workshop

The purpose of this interactive workshop is to give you proven tools and planning frameworks that you can immediately use to help accelerate your development efforts and promote a more innovative product portfolio. Our goal is to help you develop the skills that will allow you to effectively leverage your internal technical capabilities by selectively going outside to acquire or develop the technologies required to meet your strategic objectives.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Metrics for Technology Scouting: Recent Workshop Demonstrates Growing Need to Measure Success by Jay Paap, Paap Associates
(requires brief registration on the FastTrack website)

Jay Paap is President of Paap Associates, serves on the faculties of the Industrial Relations Center at Cal Tech and the Executive Program at The Sloan School (MIT), is a Fellow of The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, and a PDMA Certified New Product Development Professional. He received his Ph.D. from MIT’s Sloan School of Management with concentrations in technology management and organization design.

Dr. Paap has been active in the management of technology for 35 years, and has consulted with industrial and governmental organizations for over 30 years. Prior to founding Paap Associates, Jay was Partner at Data and Strategies Group, Principal at Ampersand Ventures, Director of Corporate Consulting at Venture Economics, and Associate Director of the Technology Management Group at Pugh-Roberts Associates. Before entering consulting, Jay was an officer in the US Air Force, responsible for developing and deploying advanced electronics equipment.

In 1992 he founded and ran the Commercialization Roundtable in which senior business development managers from major companies met every two or three months through 1995 to share experiences on corporate venturing and develop best practices concerning how major corporations can effectively commercialize new technology based concepts and businesses. Among the members of the Roundtable were AT&T, Digital, Dow, DuPont, GTE, IBM, MCC, Motorola, and Xerox.

For more information on Jay Paap, click here.
 

Who Should Attend

This session is recommended for anyone responsible for planning and executing a firm’s technology and product development effort: senior and middle level managers from Marketing, R&D, Engineering, Operations, Planning, New Product Development, and Business Development.

Testimonials

"Best [workshop] I've been to in years."

Rich Marando
Director Technology and Innovation
Dana Corporation Structural Solutions Group

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"This is a valuable tool for corporate planning and an essential competition tool. In two days, an exceptional amount of valuable material was presented and explained."

Len Jenkins,
VP Technology Development
Crown Technology

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"Excellent job of [providing] insights on how a technology scout can contribute. "

Tom Mildenhall
Technology Scout
Kimberly-Clark

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"Session provided key elements of tech scouting and outsourcing needed in our R&D program."

Mike Goettel
Engineering Manager
Blount Inc.
 

Note: Limited Attendance:
This workshop is limited to 35 attendees to ensure an optimal learning experience for all participants. We recommend early registration as seats will potentially sell out.

Fee:
$1995/person. Fee includes program materials, luncheons, continental breakfasts, networking reception and refreshment breaks.

Team Discounts:
Groups of 3 or more may deduct $100 per person. Groups of 6 or more, please call 800-338-2223 for special pricing.

Schedule:
On day one, registration/continental breakfast begins at 8:00am and the day ends with a reception at 6:00pm; on day two, breakfast is available at 7:30am, session begins at 8:30am and concludes at 4:30pm. See the course agenda for specifics.

Location & Hotel Accommodations:
The session will be held at the

Royal Sonesta Hotel
40 Edwin Land Boulevard
Cambridge, MA 02142

For reservations please call 617-806-4200. A limited block of rooms is available. Please reserve early and be sure to mention that you will be attending "Management Roundtable's Technology Scouting Workshop."

No-Risk Guarantee:
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed – money-back or credit. If you’re not satisfied with the quality of this program, let us know in writing and we’ll refund your registration fee.

Cancellations/Substitutions:
You may send a substitute attendee in your place at any time with no penalty (please inform us in advance, if possible). Cancellations made within 5 business days are subject to a $200 administration fee or the full fee can be credited towards a future purchase. No-shows are liable for the full fee.

Workshop Attire:
We recommend "business casual" and suggest that you also dress in layers when possible to remain comfortable—event facilities are notorious for temperature fluctuations.