One Foot In A Science Lab, The Other In Big Business

ENTREPRENEURIAL SCIENCE: New Links Between Corporations, Universities, And Government Robert F. Johnston and Christopher G. Edwards; Greenwood Press; Westport, Conn.; 157 pages; $37.95 Government policy makers often argue that the reason for United States industries’ failure to sustain their top standing in the world marketplace lies not in the absence of exciting new technologies developed in our research laboratories, but rather in the sluggish rate of technology transfer from those laboratories to our major industries. In this thought-provoking volume, the authors attempt to lead the readers into a vision of the year 2000, when a new order enhances technology transition. The mechanism for this new order is a generation of highly innovative entrepreneurial companies with one foot in the universities and the other in the board rooms of multinational corporations. To some readers this will sound naive and unrealistic; to others it will sound like the biotechnology industry that already exists. The influence of biotechnology is not accidental. The authors are both old hands in the biotechnology industry and have drawn heavily from their experiences. Robert Johnston is president of Johnston Associates, a venture capital firm that has been instrumental in the founding of several biotech companies; and Christopher Edwards was the founding editor of BIO/TECHNOLOGY, a publication devoted to the commercial side of biotechnology. The first half of the book is a catalog of the experiences that various universities, as well as state and corporate entities, have had in attempting to enhance technology transfer. It is a useful compilation of experiences and flashes of philosophy. For the university administrator struggling to establish the. best system for a particular campus, the review may be useful. Reading this section, however, does not provide any substantial insight into why some approaches work better than others. The most thought-provoking and challenging portion of the book is buried in the center under the heading “The Technology Transfer Specialists.” This chapter paints the picture of a new breed of administrator, comfortable in the university and in business. The authors provide a picture of someone who not only is able to negotiate licensing agreements for university-owned patents but is capable of identifying those research developments on the campus with commercial potential early in their conception. The transfer specialist would become a matchmaker between the scientist and a potential investor or organization in sponsoring the appropriate development; the specialist would be instrumental in bridging the chasm between the financial community and its desire for short-term financial return and academic investigators who emphasize the long view rather than the development of the first generation of a product. For those venture firms that like to support startup companies, this interfacing individual would be extremely valuable. But where should this person work? The university would certainly value the service, but most campuses could hardly afford it, and only the most affluent of the venture firms would be willing to establish such a position. However, universities with large endowments that they wish to invest in commercializing their own work should take this suggestion very seriously. In the final chapter, the authors sum up the future with some advice. They propose that the competitive position of the U.S. can be strengthened by a concerted effort to promote entrepreneurial science and by the development of more small entrepreneurial firms like those found in the biotech industry, which they view as a good model for all high-tech sectors. However, it is not universally accepted that the key to competitiveness in the world markets lies in new small businesses. When the rest of the competitors are large, centralized megacorporations with capital to invest in developing new markets, it can easily be argued that only our large corporations have the power to compete on an equal footing. The challenge, then, is to find better mechanisms for introducing new technology into the corporate world. Establishment of the Johnston and Edwards technology transfer specialist might be seen as the first step in a broader process. The next logical step, as they intimate, is for the large U.S. companies to devote part of their resources to being venture capitalists, starting up what amounts to new research departments in the form of entrepreneurial firms and then adsorbing the new products when they are ready for mass-market introduction. All in all, this book makes for interesting reading for university administrators, government technology transfer officials, and corporate long-range planners David T. Kingsbury until mid-October was assistant director for the biological, behavioral, and social sciences at the National Science Foundation.

One Foot In A Science Lab, The Other In Big Business

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