Tapping Into Innovation

Two years ago, we were tasked with finding out whether corporations were building purpose-built nano research facilities at the same pace as universities were. Dozens of calls were made to corporations, thought leaders, equipment suppliers, architecture and engineering firms and other targets. We concluded that what was happening in the universities bore no resemblance to the way corporations did nano-scale material research. For the most part, companies work with research universities or national labs on basic research- they utilize their equipment, their eminent scholars, their best graduate students. When something shows promise or a solution is imminent, the companies bring the project back in-house for commercialization. The disaggregation of corporations from the capital equipment (scanning or transmission electron microscopes, plasma etchers, oxidation & diffusions furnaces, optical or EUV lithography, etc) that does the heavy lifting is a fairly new phenomenon. Because of the high cost of this equipment, business models have evolved that rely on collaboration to control costs, extend current technologies, and commercial new ones. This pragmatic approach has paid off for corporations.


Proctor and Gamble has embraced disaggregation to the point where they not only don’t need the R&D equipment, they don’t need to own the product development engineer. P&G’s connect + develop initiative has taken the practice of accessing externally developed intellectual property for one’s own business and allowing one’s internally developed assets and know-how to be used by others to a new level. P&G is using MillionBrains in addition to their own portal.

This sort of pragmatic, cost-effective, “coopertition,” will deliver innovation without the cost of R&D equipment or basic product development experts. P&G, a global consumer products company, will continue to delight customers by tapping into innovative idea wherever they might be found.