''So in this presentation I would like you to look at Oxford as a Business, like any business Oxford faced a challenge of staying competetive. Its has a great branding, a good product but it was in danger of losing relevence.. it needed to innovate, it needed to become more creative. To achieve this goal it needed to create a culture of entrepreneurship.."
1) Perform researces, this role is desirable and there are a lot of good researchers at Oxford. Currently has 10,000 researchers.
2) Teach, an essential but less desirable role..although Oxford has some very good teachers.
3) Administrative or a management roles, the least desirable role and in my view academics do not make for good managers. Oxford works on the premise that a safe pair of hands doesn't rock the boat, its management style is risk averse, it is path dependent and it doesn't embrace change. It certainly isn't entrepreneurial.
4) Moreover if we drill down even futher to where the value lies in the organisation; its research and it's researchers - we can find an even greater cultural problem in the way the outside is percieved..
While the challenge facing by Oxford is:
1) How to tap into this rich stream of latent value in the organisation.2) how to cross the cultural devide.
Then, the Oxford Model Technology Transfer and why it works:
Oxford had a reconised value and leveraging that value: its structure is Oxford has a
1) Rich portfolio of wholly-owned intellectual Property Rights which are very strong and world-class researces base.
2) Clear Intelltectual property (IP) policy which are led from the top and widely supported.
3) Investment in research support & tech transfer. They have 100 staff in research services and Isis Innovation.
4) Clear internal demarcation of responsibility between the university and its tech transfer office.
5) Effective internal (research units) and external communication (investors etc.)
Why the model really works?
1) Isis -the staff- they are bilingual, they can speak the language of research and the language of commerce. They able to communicate simultaneously to two quite different constituencies.
2) Like Acas they are arbitrators, they can bridge two diiferent cultures that are often mistrustful of each other.
3) They are socialised in both cultures.