TheThreePercent

This is the sixth in the series on managing collaborative innovation. Click here for the Beginning of the Series

The first step in establishing effective ways of sharing intent is to have good practices for managing it internally to begin with. It is crucial that firms start handling their emerging intentions as rigorously as they handle their inventions. Today’s intellectual property management systems collect and track invention disclosures from initial discovery through patenting and licensing. They now have a new job to do. Where a scientist is trained and required to file invention disclosures, there must also be training and requirements for employees to lodge and track intent. But because intentions are much more dynamic and intangible than inventions, managing them requires creative methods.

A typical invention disclosure first identifies all individuals that contributed to the idea. These are the inventors. Then it requires the inventors to provide an abstract, make claims, describe the assembly or process, and identify all cases of its communication to others. So an invention is composed of several elements, starting with the inventors themselves.

Intentions are also composed of elements, starting with champions. Champions are the ones who complete the statement, “Given the chance, I intend to…” Champions develop a level of dedication toward their intention, which is best described in terms of how much they would give up to pursue it. Nearly all intentions compete for time and attention. Therefore, champions at the very least give up focus on other matters to pursue a specific intention.

In addition to champions, there are stakeholders – supporters and resistors. Stakeholders have something to gain or lose when champions pursue an intention, but they don’t necessarily have to take action or make sacrifices as champions do. Whether stakeholders are active or passive, a well-formed intention identifies as many as possible.

Intentions have one of two types of goals: to overcome a problem or to capture an opportunity. An intention may simply be to capture a new market or overcome a competitive disadvantage. The champions may also be the inventors listed on an associated patent, if they intend to use the technology strategically.

Stephen Fodor, inventor of the gene chip, did more than simply invent a revolutionary technology for analyzing gene expression. He also formed an intention to start a company that made and sold gene chip machines. He founded Affymetrix as a spinout of Affymax, the company he was working for at the time. Like Adobe, he evolved a business model through smart collaboration that today combines scientific equipment manufacturing with a consumables business. But he might have formed a different intention that would have led to a business that didn’t sell machines or consumables but rather sold a gene analysis service. Or he might have simply sold the IP to someone else (as many universities try to do) or elected to build the offering within Affymax instead of spinning out. Each of these different business models spring from different intentions.

It’s worth noting that an invention does not always come with an associated intention. A colleague recently filed his 129th invention disclosure at his company. The technology was potentially useful in a wide range of applications. But his intentions stopped with the filing, the monetary reward he received from his company for each patent, and the respect of his peers – at least those who only had 128 filings. It was an invention without an intention. And it sits on the shelf today.

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[Click here for entry #7.]