| College
of Engineering Home Page > Announcements > Tang
Lecture Series > Kenan Sahin
"Business
Opportunities in the
Innovation Backlog"
 February 25, 2005
Dr.
Kenan Sahin
Founder and President of TIAX LLC, a product and technology
development firm
The rate of inventions
and innovations remains strong, but a large number of worthwhile
ideas are shelved every year - a costly backlog to the United States
and global economies with enormous consequences. On February 25,
2005, Dr. Kenan Sahin, founder
and President of TIAX LLC and a former School of Management faculty
member at UMass Amherst gave his lecture on "Business
Opportunities in the Innovation Backlog" with ideas for decreasing
the backlog and getting more products to market. His
lecture was part of the ongoing Tang Endowment Lecture Series in
the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst.
Abstract: While many feel innovation has slowed along with the
economy, in reality, the flow of ideas, inventions, and innovations
has remained strong and unabated over the past few years. The solutions
to many problems, the treatments for many illnesses, and the pathways
to new industries have likely already been invented in universities,
research hospitals, and corporate laboratories around the country.
But the mechanisms for commercially delivering these innovations have
eroded. Instead of being brought to market, they are being warehoused
or shelved. Unfortunately, innovations are "perishable goods" and
therefore lose their viability with the passage of time. As the supply
continues to exceed the absorption rates, the innovation-to-implementation
process is becoming out of sync and we are facing a growing innovation
backlog with serious consequences for the United States and global
workforce and economies. Unless we act quickly, it will be difficult
and costly to resynchronize the flow with many innovations already
obsolete and non restartable and a huge potential value will disappear.
One obvious consequence of the innovation backlog is the fact that so many potential
solutions to today's problems will not make it to the market where they can have
an impact. But there are other considerations as well. As the national and global
economy sputters, many of the drivers that could aid in a large-scale recovery
are being overlooked. Developing strategies and models to loosen the backlog
could lead to significant new job creation.
A few companies stand out as having developed viable strategies for commercializing
their innovations and they provide a model for a "facilitating" entity that
should be encouraged nationally to fully unlock the value of the innovation backlog.
This model isn't new - it was first launched more than one hundred years ago
- but few entities are currently practicing it.
Think of universities, research hospitals, and large corporate labs as innovation
sources. They can be characterized as R&d (big research and small development)
organizations. Most companies, with their marketing and production arms, would
be d&D (small development, big delivery) enterprises. The lack of a strong
connection between these groups is partly responsible for today's innovation
backlog. Therefore, we need more "linkage" companies to bridge the gap.
These are rD&d organizations. They have some research capability in order
to link to the sources of innovation, and a delivery component that helps get
products to market, but their main activity is in developing innovations for
market.
Dr.
Kenan Sahin is the founder and President of TIAX LLC, a leading collaborative
product and technology development firm that accelerates innovation
to help clients achieve growth and create an impact in the market - and
in people's lives. TIAX was formed in April 2002 from the Technology
and Innovation business of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and continues to
operate at Acorn Park in Cambridge, Mass., with over 50 laboratories
and more than 200 engineers and scientists.
Dr. Sahin's role as President of TIAX caps an already prolific career
as academic, technologist, and entrepreneur. Most recently,
he was chosen by the World Economic Forum as one of its 40 Technology
Pioneers for 2003 and received the New England Business and Technology's
first "Circle of Excellence" award in 2004.
Dr. Sahin received his bachelor's degree from MIT in 1963 and his
Ph.D. from MIT in 1969 and then served on the faculties of MIT, Harvard,
and the University of Massachusetts Amherst until 1985. During his
distinguished academic career, he published articles in numerous professional
publications. He also received several teaching awards and obtained
U.S. and international patents.
In 1982, Dr. Sahin founded Kenan Systems with a $1,000 personal investment.
The company went on to become a world leader in telecommunications
software, employing more than 800 people and with offices in a dozen
countries. Both Kenan Systems and Dr. Sahin received numerous awards,
including the Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year
in 1998.
|
