entrepreneurship

Difficulties in Innovation & Technology Transfer Prof. Kam-Fai WONG Associate Dean (External Affairs) & Director, Centre for Innovation and Technology Faculty of Engineering The Chinese University of Hong Kong International Conference on Industrial Technology Innovation, August 21-22 2008, Taipei. PART I: Innovation & Technology in HK Innovation and Technology in Hong Kong • People: 8 Universities, 5 with engineering faculties, e.g. CUHK, around 25,000 students (50% PG) • Money: R&D investment, 0.7% GDP (versus Finland 3.2%, Taiwan 2.9%, Singapore 2.8%, USA 2.6%, China 1.5%) • Funding: Innovation Technology Commission, US$2.2 billion endowment (approved 2007) • Facilities: Science Park and CyberPort • Research Institutes: ASTRI, 6 x R&D centres (Logistics, Textiles, Nano-tech, ICT, Automotive Parts and Accessories, Chinese Medicine) PART II: University’s Endeavour Centre for Innovation and Technology CUHK CUHKF Limited INL Limited (100%) Wisers Information Limited (51%) Academic Unit Faculty of Engineering CINTEC Applied R&D Industrial Liaison Office • Identify research innovations and prototypes that have excellent market potentials for development into products • Engage actively in technology and knowledge transfer through collaboration with industrial partners in innovative applied R&D • Provide high-quality training for professionals in innovative research initiatives and engineering entrepreneurship. Key areas of technological transfer: • Technology licensing • Contract research • Spin-off company • Training • Consultancy PART II: A Successful Story: Wisers Information Limited Business Model The Business • Wisers is the largest Chinese content aggregators and technology enablers in Greater China • Engage in the business of Chinese information collection, processing and dissemination for the corporate sector. • HQ in HK. Offices in BJ, SH and SZ with over 180 staff, E-Products WiseSearch Deep archive dating as far back as 1998. Target Customers: Libraries, Information Professionals, PR and Marketing Professionals WiseNews Electronic media monitoring tool. Target Customers: PR and Advertising agencies, in-house PR and Marketing Professionals, and Senior Executives Wisers ES ES is a total package tailor-made for larger organizations that see the need to empower their employees with relevant and timely information Syndication Support sorted, grouped news and push to designated sites, e.g. Extranets, Corporate Portals, Corporate Websites, General Portals, and Vertical Exchanges Over 340 Content Partners • China – – – – – – – – – – – China Daily People’s Daily CCTV web news Guang Ming Daily Yang Cheng Evening News Nan Feng Daily Shenzhen Special Zone Post Jie Feng Daily Beijing Daily News Beijing Evening News Chengdu Evening News • Hong Kong – – – – – Apple Daily Hong Kong Economic Times Oriential Daily SCMP Ming Pao • Taiwan – – – – – Central News Agency China Times Commerce Times United Daily News Taiwan Daily R&D Stage R&D Stage • From 1993 to Jul 1998 • Basic research in The Chinese University on Chinese Information processing technology • First Project - IPOC, lead by Prof. K.F. Wong of System Engineering Department with pure academic research purpose • Second Project - ENMPS, lead by Prof. K.W. Cheung of Information Engineering Department with non-profit making mission to serve the media and publishing industry in HK. R&D Stage • Information Processing On Chinese (IPOC) – Bilingual full text searching technology • Normal internet search engine: – 中|華|人|民|共|和|國|的|人|口|多 • IPOC – 中華人民共和國 | 的 | 人口 | 多 • Electronic News Media Publishing System (ENMPS) – This technology congregates a number of software to convert contents from conventional desktop publishing systems (DTP) of different news media into Internet-compatible Chinese information. R&D Stage • Both projects’ management ad project team transfer to the Centre of Innovation & Technology (CINTEC) in 1997. IPRs also transferred to CUHK Foundation at the same time. • Original project team ( 6 Programmers) worked under CINTEC, office in Engineering Faculty. • Feb 1998 - start negotiation with CUHK & CUHKF • Company incorporated in July 1998, with seed capital (HK$ 2million) from 8 founders and CUHKF on a matching basis. • Project staff start migrating to the company • Get an exclusive R&D, sales & marketing right of the IPRs Incubation Stage Incubation Stage From Jul 1998 to Sep 1999 Defining the business model Testing the technology on different model, stress test… Sign up content partners - SingTao (Jul 1998), HKET (Nov 1998), Apple (Jan 1999), ….. • Finding the first client - Legislative Council & CUHK Library (Aug 1998), Centaline Property (Dec 1998)….. • Host PR event (Press Conference, Dec 1999) - not for marketing, but for investors • TARGET: Getting the first round funding • • • • Start-up Stage Start-up Stage • • • • • Expand management team Sign up new customers Sign up more content providers Improve the operation Continue product development “Stabilizing” Stage Stabilizing Stage • Economy is really bad after 9-11 • Start down-sizing in August 2001, headcount dropped from 100 to 70. • Close some non-performing business down and focus on what we are doing good. • Reduce operating cost. PART III: Conclusion - Lessons Learnt Lessons Learnt • Innovation = Creativity + Application • Technopreneurship = Technology + Business Model + Marketing • Be creativity, patient & consistent • Honour Intellectual Properties (IP), both yours and others Conslusion • Key to Success: People • Hence Education (in Innovation and Entrepreneurism) is important, but…… HOW ? Thank You! CINTEC Website: http://www.cintec.cuhk.edu.hk Wisers Website: http://www.wisers.com