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> New workbook focuses on successfully commercializing new materials
New workbook focuses on successfully commercializing new materials
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February 7, 2003
Kevlar aramid fiber, discovered at Du Pont in 1965 and now used to make bullet-proof vests, longer-lasting truck tires, stiffer hockey sticks and lighter aerospace components, took 15 years and $500 million to move off the drawing board and into the market.
Kevlar demonstrates many of the challenges of commercializing a new material – such as achieving continuous, low-cost production, discovering appropriate target markets, meeting the high capital requirements, and waiting out slow product adoption rates. For start-up firms, these barriers are often insurmountable.
A new workbook co-authored by Elicia Maine, an SFU assistant professor of business, and Mike Ashby, a Royal Society researcher at the University of Cambridge, aims to lower the risk associated with commercializing a new material. The workbook explains how to establish and compare the technical and commercial viability of a new material innovation in a global market where there are already an estimated 55,000 materials available.
The assessable 55-page manual, "Succeeding with New Materials, a comprehensive guide for assessing market potential" is based on Maine’s 2000 Cambridge University PhD thesis. It outlines an eight-step strategy that new materials’ inventors, research and development departments and venture capitalists can all use to evaluate a new material’s prospects for profit.
Since it can take 15 years to bring a new material to market, Maine says, companies must be certain that their new material is worth the risk. "One of the pitfalls, particularly for new firms trying to commercialize a new material, is that their business plan either emphasizes only the technology or only the business possibilities," says Maine. "New advanced materials firms don’t put enough emphasis on understanding whether their company is in a position to capture the profit generated and they don’t do enough market matching along unique performance features and cost. In the end, their new product may turn out to have only a very small market niche."
"There have been a lot of spectacular failure stories," adds Maine. "This workbook is meant to help firms and senior executives make better decisions earlier."
To obtain a copy of the workbook, contact Maine at elicia_maine@sfu.ca
-30-
Contact
Elicia Maine, 604.291.5260, elicia_maine@sfu.ca
Diane Luckow, SFU Media & PR, 604.291.321, diane_luckow@sfu.ca
Kevlar demonstrates many of the challenges of commercializing a new material – such as achieving continuous, low-cost production, discovering appropriate target markets, meeting the high capital requirements, and waiting out slow product adoption rates. For start-up firms, these barriers are often insurmountable.
A new workbook co-authored by Elicia Maine, an SFU assistant professor of business, and Mike Ashby, a Royal Society researcher at the University of Cambridge, aims to lower the risk associated with commercializing a new material. The workbook explains how to establish and compare the technical and commercial viability of a new material innovation in a global market where there are already an estimated 55,000 materials available.
The assessable 55-page manual, "Succeeding with New Materials, a comprehensive guide for assessing market potential" is based on Maine’s 2000 Cambridge University PhD thesis. It outlines an eight-step strategy that new materials’ inventors, research and development departments and venture capitalists can all use to evaluate a new material’s prospects for profit.
Since it can take 15 years to bring a new material to market, Maine says, companies must be certain that their new material is worth the risk. "One of the pitfalls, particularly for new firms trying to commercialize a new material, is that their business plan either emphasizes only the technology or only the business possibilities," says Maine. "New advanced materials firms don’t put enough emphasis on understanding whether their company is in a position to capture the profit generated and they don’t do enough market matching along unique performance features and cost. In the end, their new product may turn out to have only a very small market niche."
"There have been a lot of spectacular failure stories," adds Maine. "This workbook is meant to help firms and senior executives make better decisions earlier."
To obtain a copy of the workbook, contact Maine at elicia_maine@sfu.ca
-30-
Contact
Elicia Maine, 604.291.5260, elicia_maine@sfu.ca
Diane Luckow, SFU Media & PR, 604.291.321, diane_luckow@sfu.ca