I ntroduction Many bright innovative ideas fail to be developed into exciting, new products simply because they see the light of day in the wrong place or at the wrong time. For example, a company may decide not to pursue an idea because it doesn’t fit in with their strategy, or an idea may never get off the ground because the inventor doesn’t know where to find appropriate partners. It’s precisely to prevent such a waste of good ideas that a number of partners founded the Creative Conversion Factory (CCF) at the end of 2007. What does the CCF aim to do? The CCF facilitates and accelerates product innovation in the field of high-tech systems by encouraging collaboration in design and ICT between participating companies and knowledge centers. It provides a place where inventors, manufacturers and investors can come together in a spirit of open innovation to turn promising ideas into viable products. The CCF acts on the cutting surface of technology, media and design What does the CCF offer? The CCF welcomes the submission of any patentable creative and technological innovation as a potential project. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria, including the extent to which they enable participating organizations to achieve synergies and improve their capabilities. Once a project has been adopted, the CCF investigates whether there is a market for a product based on the idea and whether such a product is technically feasible. The CCF coordinates contacts among the various parties. In principle, the outcome of the project is a product prototype. What capabilities are covered? The CCF has so far defined three main areas of capability that it can apply in adopted projects: Sensor technology , including sensors and actuators, software and hardware platforms, wireless communications and high-level end-user programming solutions; Lighting , focusing on creative solutions based on new technologies that enable highly controllable lighting to be integrated into the surroundings; and Psychology , especially techniques for positively affecting people’s behavior and attitudes. Who are the participating partners? Partners participating in the CCF include the Technical University of Eindhoven (Faculty of Industrial Design), the Design Academy of Eindhoven, Philips Research, Philips Design, the Dutch Polymer Institute, the Holst Centre, NH Hotels (Koningshof) and Living Tomorrow. What are the current focus areas? Projects undertaken by the CCF focus on Ambient Experience, i.e., the embedding of intelligent technologies into the surroundings to make people’s lives more enjoyable, easy and productive. The emphasis has been on two themes within this topic: Mobility & Navigation and Care & Wellbeing . Participating partners have collaborated to develop new concepts in interactive gaming environments that facilitate navigation in complex environments and stimulate social contact and physical exercise. For both themes we selected one project. For Mobility & Navigation we defined the Intelligent Playground project and for Care & Wellbeing the Ambient Way Finding project.
Sharing experiences from CCF What is the Creative Conversion Factory [CCF] , and what is it for? The CCF is a meeting point where inventors, manufacturers, and investors can transform promising technological ideas into viable products. Brilliant ideas can sometimes arise in the wrong place or at the wrong time. They do not fit within the corporate strategy, or their inventor is unable to find the right partner to turn it into a market-worthy product. This might me called a great shame. The CCF offers these ideas a chance by allowing several parties and different expertise’s to look in on the process from an early stage. Many people are on all kinds of committees, who write all kinds of reports and create all kinds of vision statements, but not enough concrete things are happening, basically. Things are not progressing beyond the stages of ideas, planning, and drawing. It’s a great challenge to give these concepts a tangible form. The CCF succeeded in doing so. Eindhoven will become a trial ground for experiments on the axis of technology and design , involving the city’s inhabitants and users directly in the development of products and services that will improve the quality of life in the city. For instance Philips’ Shoplab. This highly futuristic shop is situated on the High Tech Campus and is part of Philips Research. In this ‘laboratory’ all kinds of new technologies are used and tested that are aimed at making the shopping experience more enjoyable. Ways were found to relocate this type of experimental installations to ‘real’ environments. Using Eindhoven more as a ‘living lab’ ties in very well with her region’s DNA.
Objectives Due to a strong Design & Technology position in the Eindhoven, this region generates many good ideas on a regular basis. However, a lot of those ideas don’t make it to the market due to reasons like: - lack of expertise [technical, marketing, legal, …] - no direct fit with the business interest of the idea owner no fit with the product/service portfolio and/or market scale of the idea owner Many potentially valuable ideas are therefore ‘locked away’ in cabinets and drawers. The aim of the CCF is to support the process of generating sustainable business propositions for products and/or services from potentially valuable ideas which are related to ‘Ambient Experiences’ . The CCF facilitates and accelerates this process by stimulating the cooperation between participating companies and knowledge institutes involved in Design & Technology. The CCF is a place where inventors, producers and investors will meet in an open innovation' setting. The CCF differentiates from the known incubator activities as currently active in larger companies because of it’s nature: iopen and multi party [academia, institutes, MSE’s, large industries, …] ifocus on ‘ambient experience’, combination of design & technology not aiming at mass volume fast moving [consumer] goods but on small series of special products or projects.
What? Who? CCF target groups: SME's, knowledge institute and investors.
Research and Study Desk research and [on site] interviews. Scouting for similar approaches/ experiences in other countries. Inventoring needs in other countries.
Be Aware What is significant for this group or this issue? ..... Think of the context and try to neutralise the specific need. ....... Understanding the business opportunities based on the CCF processes and lessons learned. ...........
Policy/approach/methodology/defined action Generate a high level presentation explaining the KPI's and key findings.
What is done? How is it done? Establishment of the CCF as organisation [vision&mission, founding fathers,objectives, ...].
Research/Questioning Define best way to approach target group[s] by first analysing the different positions and needs. Application process The CCF invites companies, academia, institutes and individuals to bring forward ideas fitting the profile of the CCF. A ‘project application form’ is available to check the fit, the relevancy and the maturity of the idea by addressing issues like: fit with the application domain of 'Ambient Experience' consisting of the following program lines: ambient navigation ambient experiences ambient playgrounds ambient emotions relation to the CCF technology domains, being: sensor technology: sensors, platforms, data mining, actuators … [new] lighting technology: solid state, control, new deployment … persuasion: Stimulate, Motivate & Monitor; Analyze and Feedback emotions: sensing and control of emotions (includes stress relief)
Research/Questioning technology domains can be removed if they are no longer applicable and projects can define new capability lines] uniqueness of the idea [can it be protected, is it easy to copy and the like] projects are NOT one of a kind, they should result in a sustainable business proposition business potential financial position and potential ……… Applications will be reviewed by the experts from a subject specific Review Board. This board will also be assigned for additional reviews at defined mile-stones of the project if accepted. In case the CCF decides to adapt the idea a project will be started to transform the idea into a concept that can be presented to possible interested parties. This will be done in the format of visualizations and/or simulations. If relevant prototypes will be built as ‘proof of concepts’. An associated business plan should be delivered and, if applicable, relevant IP’s are to be filed.
Research/Questioning The function of the CCF is to guide and support this process to transfer potential successful ideas into sustainable business propositions; The guidance involves the business development, partner search, match making with potential parties that will bring the concept to the market, relation management towards financial partners and project management related activities and the like. The support is related to the technology domains, providing the necessary technological support directly or involving the specialists from the participating parties, developing proof of concept / prototypes (with the involvement of professionals of this domain), match making with potential parties that will be involved in the technical, support and maintenance aspects for bringing the concept to the market, …
Research/Questioning Project Phases Projects will be executed in a maximum of three subsequent phases which in total don’t last for more then three years. Between and during the phases projects are reviewed by the assigned Review Board. The three phases have a different character with respect to rights, obligations, finance and the legal structure. 1 - The first phase is comparable to the ideation phase and is used to further develop the concept, to visualize it, to generate a ‘proof of principle’ and to generate the business plan. These deliverables are intended to be presented to interested those parties who are invited to join the initiative in the next phase or phases of the project [the match making event]. These next phases [‘pre-seed phases’] are intended to mature the concept and to make it 'ready for the market' [in terms of the required legal context]. Finally the project will be transferred to an entity outside the CCF. During this phase one the project can be financed in three different forms: Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) - [Dutch global or regional funding programs] CCF budget [built up from the result of successful transferred projects] A market party that submits the initial idea [and provides a development budget and / or in-kind support] [in some cases combinations of these forms are also possible]
Research/Questioning Within this first phase an agreement needs to be made by all participating parties to define the value of all the. The form of financing the project has, of course, an impact on the valuation process. In the case of PPP financing for instance the so called 'matching of the funding' requires that the partners [have to] provide additional resources to the project that also have to be taken into account in the valuation. If a project is fully financed by the CCF, the CCF is also the full owner of the deliverables [note that in this case the CCF could outsource certain tasks to the founding fathers of the CCF which, however, has no impact on the ownership of the results]. In case an external party fully finances the project the results are fully owned by that party [note that this external party could be one of the founding fathers]. I In case of [allowed] mixed financing the division of ownership of the deliverables will be a combination of the above. In all cases the CCF itself will also own a part of the deliverables [depending on the size of the project and the services provided to the project by the CCF]. Regarding IPR a similar ruling will be applied. The party/parties that finance the development of foreground IPR is/are the owner[s] of that IPR. For background IPR [which can be part of the initial idea] arrangements need to be made with the owner of the background IPR on terms of licensing and the scope [application domain] of the license.
Research/Questioning 2 - For the second (and third phase) new agreements need to be made based on the new financial construction. At the transition from phase 1 to phase 2 the final agreement on the balanced value of the contribution of all partners in the project [including CCF] will be the starting point. The financial injection required for the second phase [form an external party or in special cases from the own budget of the CCF] should be compared with the value of the deliverables of the first phase [including potential foreground IPR] and will form the basis of a new assignment of ownership to all participating parties [including the CCF]. 3 - For projects with a high potential that require a third/last phase the process of phase 2 should/could be repeated once more with associated new agreements based on the new distributions of rights and obligations, including the obligations due to another financial injection required to support the continuation of the developments.
Research/Questioning At the end of a projects lifetime within the CCF [after the second or third phase] the final deliverables of the project are transferred to an external interested party. This party has, most likely, already been defined in a much earlier stage, preferable during the first phase or at the mach-making event at the end of the first phase. This external party can, depending on the kind of project, market segment, complexity, required suppliers, required market parties for installation and/or service and the like], be: a new company that is build for this project a [new] department of an existing company an alliance of existing companies or another form. Whatever form is preferred, part of the deliverables is also a contract that formulates what parts of the potential revenues of the results of the project are returned to the CCF. The CCF will distribute these returned revenues to the project participants on the basis of the final assignment of ownership of the project.
What is done and how? Is what's done dependent on its surroundings or could it bee seen as generic? We assume that the basic principles and processes can be 'translated' and adopted to different locations/regions .
Challenges addressed or opportunities We might make a leap forward by building on the experiences from the CCF and by creating an international network of similar initiatives in Europe.
Challenges addressed or opportunities We might make a leap forward by building on the experiences from the CCF and by creating an international network of similar initiatives in Europe.
What problem can be solved? What can be achieved? Avoiding the 'reinventing the wheel' issue and establishing an effective network to support innovatie industries.
Interviews/Research Generate draft proposals for possible networks and explore the relevance with potential partners.
Context of the action/approach 'The Nowadays da Vinci is an Alliance'. Open innovation is the future. But there is still a lot to learn about the right ways of doing this.
How does it fit in relation to ecosystems? How does the maturity look? This relatively new approach asks for new process and tools
Self assessment, score board We need to define a kind of 'zero position' first and a set of key performance indicators
To what extent is the action/approach depending on the overall ecosystem? Any component/-s that could be extracted and seen in another context? This needs to be analyzed.
To what extent is the action/approach depending on the overall ecosystem? Any component/-s that could be extracted and seen in another context? This needs to be analyzed.
History of the action/approach This needs to be documented.
How long did it take to develop? Who did it? The CCF was founded by the end of 2007. Founding Fathers: Philips Research, Philips ~Design, Brainport, Living Tomorrow, Holst Centre and the NH Group.
Define a track record - a history. History is quite well documented [by means of project overviews/results] See following slides
How does the issue relate to local trends as opposed to international trends? It could be seen as a regional initiative with a global perspective.
execution
Who is carrying out the implementation? Founding fathers and/or SME's
What is required to carry out a successful implementation? Do we have the right competencies? Basically you need partners from the following disciplines: design business intelligence financing legal marketing communication
Is it a subject specific competence needed for execution and/or defined methods/tools? Disciplines as desribed. New 'open innovation' process and tools are needed.
Impact / results
Project 1 - Intelligent Playground Starting point for this project was the final thesis project of two students from de faculty Industrial Design at the TU/e. Because of the Ambient Experience character of their project it fitted the starting points of the CCF perfectly. Also the fact that we spotted opportunities to let children play actively in a real world as a healthy alternative for the overall ‘not-very-social’ computer games, was a strong argument to take just this project on board. During the duration of the project the two graduated men have been coached by several CCF partners [particularly people of the TU/e, Philips Research and Philips Design]. Next to that he CCF has given dedicated attention on setting up good business models and on the basis of the results of that contacts were laid with possibly interested partners. The most important party thereby was the organization called KOREIN [owner of 140 regional child nurseries]. Although initially seen as a possibly interesting launching customer it became quite clear from the beginning that the added value of this organization resulted from their knowledge in the field of the learning capacities of young people. KOREIN cooperated actively and enthusiastically from the beginning and their knowledge and facilities were used for the set up of the different user tests and evaluations..After realizing the first promising solutions the CCF further focused on finding potential ’entrepreneurs’ which eventually resulted in approaching the firm NYOYN. NYOYN , a new regional company with the objective to bring intelligent playing appliances to the market by selling existing solutions and products developed by themselves. The mutual interest appeared rapidly reciprocal. THE CCF offered the possibility for a flying start for this young company! As important success factor also the contribution of our Legal Department and IP&S must be mentioned. Because of the unique character the commercial negotiations proved to be rather complex. It did not concern ‘just’ a deal between Philips and a third party, but it was deal based on the common property of Philips and the TU/e, and both parties had to act from a CCF perspective. We look back on a very successful project which offers a long term relationship with the firma NYOYN and KOREIN [meanwhile a cooperation bond has contracted between the two organizations]. All parties concerned recognize the potential advantages of a further cooperation. Beside the fact that we all financially benefit from commercial success, NYOYN can be a ‘knowledge outlet’ for Philips and the TU/e. There might also be possibilities for parties as MiPlaza and Apptech to support NYOYN in the area of prototyping and testing. Philips Design could play a role in finding new [consumer] markets. We're pleased to inform you that the CCF recently sealed the deal with a regional company called NYOYN. It concerns the results of our Intelligent Playground project. This first success is bringing to Philips a down payment of 50Keuros and should generate about 1Meuro aggregated royalties over the next 5 years, to be shared between two stakeholders of the CCF [TU/e and Philips]. It is the first non-exclusive deal of a technology licensing program, which targets 3 to5 different customers in the gaming industry around the world, a clear demonstration that open innovation can become a winning model. The down payment of 50KEuro’s will be invested directly in the CCF operation. We believe that the CCF made a good start with this very successful deal. To safeguard continuity and future developments NYOYN is looking forward to a further cooperation with a knowledge, design and research institute like the CCF. Both Philips and the TU/e are still in close contact with them and they both see opportunities for further cooperation Also worth mentioning is the fact that NYOYN works together with suppliers and partners from within the Brainport region. As a ‘lesson learned’ during the process they realized that they should become a ‘member’ of a Creative City and they therefore moved from Deurne to Eindhoven!
Project 2 - Ambient Way Finding The Intelligent Way Finding project was based on a Way Finding concept for hospitals, developed by Philips Design. Instead of receiving an ordinary and anonymous badge from the reception desk of a hospital, people could select a smart and personalized badge with themes like ‘space’, ‘pets’, nature’, ‘sports’, etc. These badges were smart because of the ‘tags’ which were built in to be able to localize and guide the owners of the badges. Although the CCF very well recognized the complexity of this challenge they adopted this project for the program line 'navigation and mobility'. The project started in cooperation with the NH hotel group [being one of the CCF Founding Fathers] represented by the managing director of conferencing centre the Koningshof in Veldhoven [this location was also used as testing environment]. To get a good insight in the built up and the consequences of the different business models Philips Design developed several concepts in the first phase of the project. These concepts were ‘projected’ on different environments [e.g. hospitals, hotels, institutes, events, holiday parks, cruise ships, ..] and analyzed from a business potential perspective by ORDINA. Based on these findings the CCF concluded that a way finding system for the hotel environment could only be commercially feasible if the aspect of ‘up-selling’ could be built in, offering the opportunity to inform guests about shopping- and sport facilities, restaurants and all sorts of places of interest. From a large number of options a relatively simple solution with tokens and beacons was selected for further development. MiPlaza was invited to develop a test environment. They decided to buy in and modify an existing solution. Due to the unforeseen complexity of that approach it was decided to go for a practical and rather ingenious solution and the test were developed and executed by master students from the TU/e [USI team from Maddy Jansse]. Meanwhile MiPlaza worked on a promising solution and IP&S is exploring the filing options. In the last few months several companies are approached to see whether they are interested in a partnership. The most relevant party for this is SmartSigns [a partner firm of buro Mijksenaar] and a spin out company from the TU/Twente. Next to ORDINA also a company called TiiB [Turning ideas into Business] was contacted. TiiB, associated with the investment group Varova, indicated earlier to be interested in a structural relationship with the CCF. For that reason they explored the business opportunities on their own expenses. Based on the facts known at that time they concluded that they would not invest in this project mainly because they eventually expect companies like Apple and/or Google to come up with global solutions. During the next few weeks the results will be categorized, summarized and translated into a sales package. At the same time IP&S explores the filing options for two or three concepts.
Project 3 - Non Subsisized project - ING - Heuvel Galerie Shopping experience project [developing a toolbox for ING real Estate to facilitate improvements related to their global shopping malls]. Starting points for this project are people insights in shopping behavior and the knowledge of technology to support improving solutions as demonstrated in the ShopLab of Philips. ING RealEstate approved the proposal for the first phase of this exciting project [writing a 'high level business case'] and the shopping mall the Heuvel Galerie in Eindhoven has been selected as the pilot environment. For this project the CCF decided to cooperate with a company called Altuïtion and the community of Eindhoven also took a stake in this project. The community of Eindhoven recognizes the significance for the local retail community. The project also fits Brainport’s ambition to accelerate as a internationally top technology region. The shopping experience concept is based on the vision that innovative impulses are needed for further growth and development of shopping malls to seriously attract buyers. New client insights related to experiences and shopping behavior are the pivot points of the concept and will be linked to new technical developments. Key for the set-up of the project is the multi disciplinary approach. Shop owners, the community of Eindhoven, experts from the academic world, knowledge institutes and trade- and industry partners will be involved in this project. Successful results will be used as input for the global roll out. First results are to be expected in Q3 2009.
Project overview [status] Running projects - Way Finding NH Hotels (Koningshof) - Intelligent Playgrounds Korein (& Eindhoven Sport & Technology) - Ambient Shopping Malls Heuvelgalerie as pilot (ING vastgoed owner) Projects leads : - Photonic Textiles Innofa & Lifesigns (Jos Pelders) Energy usage level NURBZD Interactive LED lamp TU/e ID Ross - Interactive Steer Octopus (MKB investment Group) - 3D rendering in Mist Vincent Rogiest (nanolabs.nl) - Crimi-nee! Peter van den Ende (Police) / Carl Heskes (MKB) Living art by Philips Protoquadro / Aurea / iLab Independent Living PiD 2008 and / or BOM with LIOF # Ideas Design Academy Design Academy & investment funds - Serious Toys as platform for Intelligent Playgrounds Next to the above a number of project opportunities were generated and a few of them have lead to exploring discussions with potential partners. To name a few: - Gender device [concept Philips Design] – potential partner: ID&T and the European Centre for the Experience Economy - Ambulance camera project – potential partner: not to be published yet. Smart meter – potential partner: Xemex - ….
Results vs ambition
Is the result a product of specific circumstance? Could be both. Can a method/process be derived from the result, that could be applied in a different setting? Yes.
How does the evolution over time look? How has it, or is it, expected to evolve over time? These new approaches take time. Companies have to learn to work together in open innovation
Measure progress over time. Link development to estimates in order to make predictions if necessary. Lessons learned: structural program funding is essential [either in the form of subsidies or coming form investors].
To what extent is the evolution subject to surrounding environment? N.a.
Funding/means for financing How does the structure of financing look? Regional? Mainstream?
investment
Can we make generic policies out of individual actions? Possibly
Relation funding/leading Who's funding and who's running the action/approach?
Highlight dependency issues (if any), ability to act and pursue initiatives
PPP, standing on its own, sustainablity n.a.
How does relate to surrounding initiatives? Good contact with comparable [but different] initiatives like Design Initiatief, DBE, Designlink etc.
The big picture; understanding the overall flow of events. The CCF approach is a logical next step in the world of open innovation.
Contributing factor, dominant or a piece in the jigsaw?
