Market forces in commercialization

One of the positive trends that we’ve seen lately is an increased recognition of the fundamental role of market forces in commercialization.

It wasn’t long ago that you could attend conferences or read research papers on commercialization and the discussion would revolve around lofty concepts like receptor capacity and technology transfer — with no acknowledgment that commercialization at its core is about products and the customers who will want to buy them. Perhaps these market-based topics were thought to be too crass for such dignified conversation.

Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. Within Communitech and among our partners at MaRS and OCRI and elsewhere, we are all acutely aware that for commercialization to be successful, innovations have to be embedded within products that meet real market needs, solving problems for actual customers. And the interaction with the market doesn’t begin when the research is finished. Commercializable research isn’t performed in a market vacuum.

Today, when commercialization is discussed, we spend a lot more time talking about market forces — and a whole lot more time considering the needs of entrepreneurs and the vital role they play.

We have more strides to make down that path. There are still some remnants of the old way of thinking when it was thought that we could just push all this research stuff into the business world and watch the magic happen.

But policy makers in Ontario have made significant progress in adopting a more market-driven approach to commercialization. Recent initiatives such as the Ontario Research Commercialization Program have shown a greater appreciation for the need to support an entrepreneurial culture and the process of bringing innovative products to market.

It’s a trend that will help all of organizations, and our innovation industries as we work toward improving economic growth and prosperity across Ontario.

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Tags: commercialization, communitech, entrepreneurship, iain klugman, MaRS, ocri, partnerships