Commercialization of Technology: Examples in Chemical Sensors

It takes a special and concerted effort to get technology successfully into the marketplace. Commercialization of technology requires a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach.  Not only is the science and engineering important from basic understanding to manufacturing design, but also market and sales efforts have to be integrated with the team’s management, financing, and organizational skills. You can start this conversation anywhere you wish, but knowledge of the customer need you are solving is critical and this requires serious research to understand the details well enough to design a successful product. Figure 1 illustrates the central position of technology in solving the customer problems, but highlights the overall goal of knowing the customer need.  How your product will fill this need is of primary importance in getting to realize the commercial potential of any technology. It is not so important for your technology to solve many needs or be placed in many markets:  just one substantive solution to one important need is required for success.  If you attempt to write a detailed engineering description of the hardware and software needed to solve your application, you quickly find out what information you still need. The way to resolve your questions is to talk to the marketing group and, often better, to talk to the customer and convince yourself and the rest of the team that the specific product you describe works. While Figure 1 illustrates a nanosensor example that can start a dialog with different markets like safety, process control, medical or environmental and can be useful for solving problems therein, it also show some of the complexities of commercialization. That is to say, there are myriad questions to answer to design a product that will be successful in even one of the above applications.

There are of course many factors to consider besides technology and market when bridging the gap from a technical idea to successful monetization of the technology. Figure 2 illustrates seven different areas that may be important in a startup venture.  In the USA, there are a myriad of ways that each of these elements play out in the commercialization scenario.  For example, it is sometimes possible to get patent protection and then sell the invention and then not get involved in many of the other details of commercialization like finding distribution for your product or service idea.  In the end, realizing the connection of your idea and technological developments can be very rewarding intellectually, personally, and financially.