Chess and tower of bricks: strategy and systematic planning. Classic metaphors and important characteristics of a successful business.
For some time now, intellectual property and its intelligent utilization have been found on the To Do list of a company eager to succeed. On this line, good use is made of strategy and systematic planning.
However, to bring the organization of IP management from the To Do list into practice, at least the following challenges should be overcome: "IP concerns our legal department only", "IP is only a small part of my work profile", "We don't have a tool for IP management", or "The effect of IP on our business is not quite clear to us".
How To Do? Here, too, let's make use of chessmen and bricks – like I did in my address to 150 IP professionals at the IP Service World in Munich in October:
My own experience of the operation of industrial and service enterprises active in IP has shown that chessmen and bricks reinforce each other. Prognosticating IP management that covers the whole life cycle is difficult to implement if the foundation – for example, an IP strategy – has not been properly built up. And the other way around: companies do not understand the benefits of the IP strategy and the connecting of IP with business, if the general benefits of IP and its effects on business are unclear.
I think that a foundation for good IP management can be built from five different bricks whose significance and content will depend on the company and its business targets. 1) IP strategy that supports the business targets; 2) Knowledge of your own IP portfolio and the business target of the portfolio; 3) Knowledge of the IP environment, that is, your competitors' IP portfolios; 4) IP organization of a sufficient size, interacting with representatives of the business; and 5) IP processes and tools closely linked with the business processes and implementing the IP strategy.
When the internal IP bricks of the organization are laid with care, it will have the capacity to utilize the immaterial property in a successful way. And, as many people say, the conditions for making more profit are also in place.
Then where does the organization get its ability to manage this organized immaterial property in the skilful and target-oriented way as required in a game of chess?
I find that time and investments spent on careful organization of the immaterial property provide the company with exactly the opportunities and new openings that are needed for the game of chess:
When you draw up an IP strategy, you define how IP can help you to achieve your business targets, and at the same time you link it more closely to your business. When you analyze the business target of your own portfolio and share information relating to it within your organization, you also strengthen your organization's innovative activity in house as well as in the eyes of others. When you make way for resources and develop efficient processes for IP management, for example by utilizing a good tool for IP management and, on the other hand, with input from a good IP agency, you improve your opportunities to increase and make use of your immaterial property.
Sometimes you need metaphors to outline the relationships between cause and effect.
"IP is only a small part of my work profile" and "We don't have a suitable tool for IP management", which are frequently heard challenges, seem to associate with "The effect of IP on our business is not quite clear to us".
Jatta Rantala
Service Manager (Greip®)
jatta.rantala@berggren.fi
Berggren Group
