{"id":829,"date":"2019-02-28T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T11:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/?p=829"},"modified":"2019-04-15T11:31:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T11:31:04","slug":"making-the-leap-from-lab-to-market-the-bigdataocean-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/2019\/02\/28\/making-the-leap-from-lab-to-market-the-bigdataocean-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Leap from Lab to Market: the BigDataOcean Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Acknowledging that recent years of crisis called for innovations able to generate tangible business opportunities resulting in economic growth and job creation, H2020 program demands remarkable focus on impact, coupled with a reduction in the distance between project results and the competitive market, especially when it comes to the Innovation Action funding scheme.<\/p>\n<p>To answer such pressures, BigDataOcean \u2013 as an ambitious market-oriented H2020 Innovation Action \u2013 considers the stream of activities related to exploitation as fulcrum for making project results sustainable over time and capable of generating returns for project partners and well beyond.<\/p>\n<p>As far as exploitation is concerned, BigDataOcean consortium relies on the innovation advisory practice made available by LINKS Foundation, namely <strong>\u2018Journey from Lab to Market\u2019 (JLM)<\/strong>. It consists in a comprehensive methodological portfolio that unpacks the journey that every consortium has to undertake in order to turn research-led project results \u2013 data, algorithms and technological assets at large \u2013 into sustainable business ventures, either brand-new startups (i.e., entrepreneurship) or new business lines within existing organisations (i.e., intrapreneurship). <\/p>\n<p>Looking back at the last five years, JLM innovation advisory practice has a successful track history in 10+ H2020 and EIT projects as well as in several industrial contracts. Worth of note is the strategic support provided so far to world-class business champions like ATOS, Amadeus, Engineering, and Reply, resulting in 3M\u20ac+ of revenue already secured by LINKS Foundation on this consulting service.<\/p>\n<p>Taking a helicopter view, JLM methodology comprises four macro-phases, which are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>exploration<\/strong> phase proves the existence of customers\u2019 gains and pains, and outlines a compelling proposition for addressing them.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>validation<\/strong> phase focuses on the iterative experimentation with real prospects meant to validate\/invalidate relevant market hypotheses.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>execution<\/strong> phase deals with the ramp-up needed to turn the implemented strategy into a fully market-ready product reality.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>diffusion<\/strong> phase allows entering a path of revenue expansion, financial scale-up, and impact amplification in the quest for sustainable growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-1024x418.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"860\" height=\"351\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-830\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-1024x418.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-300x122.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-768x313.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-250x102.jpg 250w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-blogpost-150x61.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By means of JLM practice, business champions within the consortium have the opportunity to establish an <strong>experimentation playground<\/strong> where the value proposition and the business model are tested and iteratively refined during the project lifecycle in view of market feedback collected, latest sectoral dynamics and nascent business opportunities. This reflects the fact that companies often go through many iterations before they find a sufficiently large and lucrative set of customers that resonate with their product, either inside or outside the boundaries of a project backed by a funding agency. This evidence calls for a mechanism allowing to continuously incorporate outcomes of hypotheses tested into the business development process. As a result, JLM leverages lean startup and customer development principles to favour hypothesis-driven experimentation through a spiral of steps: this leads to an agile approach based on MVP tweaks and pivots, which has been the backbone of BigDataOcean operations in the second half of the project.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to operationalising such an experimentation playground, a noticeable strength of JLM has to do with not requiring a quantum leap in terms of <strong>\u2018innovator toolkit\u2019<\/strong>. In fact, consortia \u2013 especially business partners appointed for implementing exploitation-related activities \u2013 can rely on the portfolio of tools that they are already accustomed with, without the need to become acquainted with a new breed of tools previously unknown. As far as BigDataOcean is concerned, this strength is exemplified in the table below, which reports \u2013 without any claim to be exhaustive \u2013 prominent tools chosen for supporting BigDataOcean-enabled innovation in its various stages. The resulting portfolio encompasses both state of the art instruments and ad-hoc tools (marked with an asterisk) conceived by LINKS Foundation\u2019s analysts to fill-in gaps identified in existing practices.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-1024x433.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"860\" height=\"364\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-832\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-1024x433.png 1024w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-300x127.png 300w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-768x325.png 768w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-250x106.png 250w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices-150x63.png 150w, http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/JLM-BDO-practices.png 1608w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the case of BigDataOcean, JLM innovation advisory practice has been adopted according to a three-pronged perspective:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Establish a commercial partnership meant to valorise BigDataOcean platform by creating a long-term destination for forward-looking companies, organisations and professionals willing to redefine the way in which maritime data is collected, integrated, curated and harnessed.<\/li>\n<li>Support pilot partners in the exploitation of BigDataOcean end-user applications that extract knowledge, enable comprehension, and unlock value from maritime Big Data through BigDataOcean platform.<\/li>\n<li>Put each consortium partner \u2013 including non-profit entities \u2013 in the position of harvesting the fruits of BigDataOcean by turning them into seeds for organisations\u2019 growth and societal impact.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Drawing on the extensive fieldwork experimentation \u2013 including the one held within the scope of BigDataOcean \u2013 JLM proved to be able to activate a new <strong>\u2018innovation kernel\u2019<\/strong> that challenges some of the most ingrained habits in the circle of organisations familiar with EU-funded projects. In fact, JLM approach implies substantial changes with respect to the status quo, which are summarised as follows.<br \/>\nIn terms of mind set, exploitation is no longer an obligation to be dealt with in the second half of the project lifecycle but it becomes the heart, the engine, and the \u2018metronome\u2019 of the project. This pronounced penchant for beginning with the end in mind \u2013 since the dawn of proposal drafting \u2013 results in a continued market-oriented approach that, in turn, brings the notions of sustainability, scalability, and replicability to the forefront.<\/p>\n<p>As far as timing is concerned, this approach allows to accelerate technological development when needed and to keep pace with fast-evolving market dynamics: this marks a discontinuity with respect to rigid implementation-driven Gantt charts that usually determine the schedule of project activities on a contractual basis.<\/p>\n<p>In regard to project monitoring and control, in the current state of play the progress of EU-funded projects is ultimately dependent on project management metrics related to the adherence with what is stipulated by the binding contract with the funding agency. Conversely, placing prospect engagement at the core of project development can alter performance priorities: this makes explicit the need to shift to metrics that capture specific prospect behaviour with the purpose of keeping track of the progress along the customer acquisition funnel and facilitating possible growth tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, validated learning adopted as modus operandi drastically changes consortia\u2019s attitude towards failure. In fact, failure becomes an expected norm rather than an exception or an incident: this turns failure into an unparalleled chance to continually distil lessons learnt.<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\">By Michele Osella, Matteo Ferraris <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acknowledging that recent years of crisis called for innovations able to generate tangible business opportunities resulting in economic growth and job creation, H2020 program demands remarkable focus on impact, coupled with a reduction in the distance between project results and the competitive market, especially when it comes to the Innovation<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/2019\/02\/28\/making-the-leap-from-lab-to-market-the-bigdataocean-approach\/\"><span>Continue Reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bigdataocean.eu\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}