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It comes, leaves an impact and changes everyone’s perception, view and thought! The world is all different. That’s disruptive technology.

Human wants for coziness compels the market to get innovative and from out of nowhere a disruptive technology or concept pops up. Disruptive technology is a technology or concept that have features which very few and generally new segment of the customers value. Products built or developed using this technology are usually cheaper, simpler, smaller and better performing. One of the most popular examples that qualify for this is the transistor that totally replaced the well known Vacuum tubes.

We have seen this happen for countless time in various fields. It might be in the automobile sector, music industry, or a simple VCD, DVD renting business.

In the automobile industry, who can even imagine in their hind sight that GM will be filing for bankrupt protection? This is all because of foreign company’s compact vehicles and hybrid engine technologies. GM has lost its monopoly in the US market only because of the disruptive technologies adopted by foreign companies.

More recently in the music industry, Apple left every other competitor way behind by just combining functionality, stylishness and price on their iPod player with an accessible online iTunes music store. Nobody would have dreamt of the combo of all these features at such a price.

Let’s check an example out which will show how a disruptive concept compel one business following the sustaining technology model, completely out of business. We all are very well known to the business house “Blockbuster” who deals in renting DVDs and VCDs. They are really doing very well until there arrives a business of same kind but with different concept called “Netflix”. They just change the life of a Blockbuster visitor by just making the whole process online. That’s called disruptiveness. Blockbuster tried to remain in the business by making their business online, but alas it’s too late dear. There’s an unconfirmed news too that suggest Netflix bought all of the Blockbuster business and provided some respite to their employees! Do not quote me on that.

“Honey, do you want to see a movie tonight? We can have the kids at my mom’s!”

Telephone is considered as a disruptive discovery. Nowadays we are so dependent on this technology that it is difficult to imagine that when it was first introduced in 1877, people had to be convinced that it was useful. Despite its simple design and seemingly obvious value, it took 75 years for the telephone to reach 50 million users, and it wasn’t until the 1960s that users saw a residential phone as a necessity.

A disruptive technology always has at least one advantage over existing technologies that despite its disadvantages the idea allows it to find a niche, and therefore survive. If the technology is able to improve, typically more rapidly than the existing technology, and also starts performing equally with the existing technology, or at least sufficiently for the market needs, but with the added advantages that it had that allowed it to survive then as a result the existing market steps over to the new technology and the old one literally dies.

Disruptive is the word that has a changing and impacting effect on our life. So remain open to it and embrace the technology gleefully to make the life easy and smooth. Get that iPod off your ears as you read and comment on this – that’s the most recent disruptive wonder we have had in popularity!

There is no doubt that these are tough economic times. Unemployment is high and credit is tight. Key indicates show that is the worse economy in a generation. Many technology transfer offices have seen potential business partners reduce their innovation portfolios and expenditures. This coupled with a reduction in funding sources, from grants and investors to university sources are blowing the technology transfer research commercialization efforts into the perfect storm.

There are difficulties and challenges, but these times also create opportunities. Here are seven tips to help your technology transfer office succeed in these tough economic times.

1. Maintain a list of problems that are relevant to the research and technologies in the pipeline.

Technology transfer offices typically get involved in research commercialization efforts late in the research and testing process. Get involved earlier in the process and start developing a list of problems of which the research can be applied.

This is really an early brainstorming exercise. Don’t just talk to the researchers. Get business input from those who are not involved with the research or the research teams. Independent ideas can be worth their weight in gold.

2. Develop long-term business relationships.

“Dig the well before you are thirsty.”

-Chinese Proverb

Start developing business relationships with business leaders from a wide range of industries. Do this even before you have any applicable research or solutions for them. These relationships will pay off in two ways.

? You will have a better understanding of the types of challenges that these businesses face.

? When you do have promising research technologies and solutions you already have a relationship with the business or their contacts.

3. Pair researchers with business mentors.

Researchers think like researchers. Business people think like business people. Getting the two to communicate with each other versus talking to each other is a common technology transfer office challenge.

Providing a business mentor to promising research leaders will help alleviate this common problem. This continuous conduit will go a lot further than a long forgotten entrepreneurial seminar.

4. Develop alternative commercialization strategies early.

Good business people know that there is always a chance that their efforts may fail. Technology transfer officers know this too. Unfortunately, many researchers and inventors do not think about this, much less plan for it.

Most inventors think that their invention is world changing and worth millions. They have visions of establishing a company based on their research or technology, selling it for millions, and retiring in the lap of luxury.

The truth of the matter is that nine out of ten spin offs and startups will fail. You, can as the technology transfer officer can improve these odds.

I sit on the advisory board for some start up focused investment funds. One of the strategies that we have developed recently is to go for the big distribution partnering deal with large companies. When that doesn’t work – we find out why and have alternative proposals available.

This alternative could be limited distribution agreements on licensing deals. It really doesn’t matter what the alternative is. What does matter is that you get to stay in the game and get a return on the sunk costs.

5. Reduce risks for all involved.

It wasn’t that long ago that many universities shunned the entire technology transfer process. They wanted their faculty teaching and doing research, not commercializing their intellectual property. My, how times have changed.

Now universities love the revenue that comes from royalties and equity distributions and sales that are associated with intellectual property commercialization. Businesses are always looking for a competitive advantage and right now innovation is the soup de jour, except for one thing …RISK!

In order to get more businesses interested in potential technology look for new ways to reduce their potential risks. Right now cash is king. Instead of negotiating a lower royalty percentage, offer your potential licensor a deferred royalty agreement at a higher percentage. This is the business innovator’s version of “no interest payments for 3 years”.

This approach allows the business to conserve cash today and the university to reap more money in the long run. It’s better than the technology sitting on the shelf waiting to become obsolete.

6. Teach bootstrapping to your startups.

All technology startups need money. That is a known fact. The truth is that many could get by with less money than they think that they need. There in lies the art of bootstrapping. Bootstrapping basically means to start and operate a business without lots of investment funds. It requires the entrepreneur to focus on sales and to hold fixed costs to an absolute minimum.

Bootstrapping requires a unique mindset that few lead researchers turned entrepreneurs can relate to. It takes a special entrepreneur to be able to successfully bootstrap a business.

Help your lead researchers and startup teams. Get some experienced bootstrappers on your advisory and consulting teams and pass the knowledge on to your startups.

7. Partner with other technology transfer offices.

Technology transfer offices provide a valuable service to both the university and their research communities. They play a vital role in the economic development of their respective communities and states. Unlike many organizations involved in the invention commercialization process they do not compete.

Some technology transfer offices such as Stanford and MIT are the envy of their peers, however most technology transfer offices do not reside in a geographic area that harbors entrepreneurship in its DNA.

Partnering with other technology transfer offices offers many unique benefits that cannot be found though other means. It opens up dialogue and support for represented research and technologies to new areas and new commercialization ideas. It develops relationships with other potential business partners and fosters potential research synergies.

Targeted TTO partnerships can lead to specific research pairing with higher degrees of commercialization potential. This focused effort will, in the long run, yield a high degree of return on investment.

These 7 technology transfer officer tips can help you reduce your operating costs and increase your revenue generation success rate. It’s a win for society, the researcher, the business community, the university, and YOU!

There are many people who like to listen to music while they work and I am certainly one of them. I find it helps me focus more on the task at hand. Of course I can imagine that there are people who listen to music because it helps them NOT to focus on their job.

Whilst there may be many reasons for wishing to listen to music in the workplace, can it really improve your productivity?

We know that music can alter your mood. Films have been using musical scores for years to create the right mood for a scene. At times you hardly notice the music at all but you are very receptive to the mood being conveyed. So can we use music to put us in a “productive” mood?

Research seems to support such a claim. For example, a trial where 75 out of 256 workers at a large retail company were issued with personal stereos to wear at work for four weeks showed a 10% increase in productivity for the headphone wearers. Other similar research conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois found a 6.3% increase when compared with the no music control group.

So if we accept that music does increase productivity, does it matter what types of music we listen to? Does all music have the same effect or are certain types better in certain circumstances?

If your goal is to increase your concentration then music which has a constant, easy beat and light melodies are recommended. These are said to be good for those trying to study as they help you pace your reading to aid focus and memorising. Baroque music is reported as an excellent example, especially the works of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.

Rock music can have a similar effect. According to a report in the journal Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology, the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered that a person’s ability to recognize visual images, including letters and numbers, is faster when either rock or classical music is playing in the background.

If you are aiming to be more productive through being more relaxed, then you may be interested to learn that research has shown that music with an upbeat rhythm can reduce stress hormone levels by as much as 41%.

Some of the most publicised studies into whether listening to music increases productivity have centred on what has been termed the “Mozart effect”. The term got its name after a study showed that college students had performed better solving mathematical problems when listening to classical music. The effect of listening to Mozart does not appear to be limited to humans either. Apparently cows will produce more milk if Mozart is played.