The Age had an artricle yesterday titled “Infighting clouds stem cell centre’s future” about the Australian Stem Cell Centre’s inability to choose a path between research and commercialisation. They talked about how the organisation had stalled due to this differing opinion in approach.
This is a perfect example of corporations being illinformed as to the appropriate approach relating to entrepreneurship or commercilisation in these types of organisations in partuicular (ASCC or CSIRO etc). I suggest that these organisations should be solely focussed on their research. Their agenda should be determined by the source of thjeir funding. Giovernment funding should have a ’social good’ agenda and a human agenda (in this case anyway). The organisation should be generating a plethora of new technologies relating to stem cells and offering themr up to entrepreneural organisations who think they can take them to market at a profit. The organisation might have a number of external relationships with organisations who have the mandate to commercialise in this space. The ASCC should havever have a section within their organisatiuon that manages these external relationships and allows their IP and knowledge to enter the economy.
That activity is a seperate function. Like electricity that comes out of the wall, one needs the same effect with these types of organiosations,. They need to be free to think and go where ever they choose in terms that work for them or their finenciers so disconinuous innovation and true leaps forward can occur. If the organisation is government they their may be both a social and human mandate and a commercial one. The commercial one belongs to the entrepreneur or entrepreneuriial organisation that knocks on the door and says, hey, let’s do some business.
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