I recently was participating at the Western AUTM regional meeting in Hawaï (I was the only European actually). During the meeting I attented a presentation given by a young executive in a private company explaining how we, TTOs, should interact with them. Nothing new there with the usual stress on how we should present our technologies to them, what kind of question they need to see answered and the fact they are very busy and we should not expect always a feedback on their side.
In a way I wonder if this approach has now become slowly outdated in the open innovation economy. The idea of a buyer’s market where we (TTOs) should fight to get the company’s attention to market our technologies is maybe evolving towards a seller’s market where companies will feel more and more the need to come to the TTOs in order to make sure they maintain a lead on the innovation pack. I am pretty sure this time will come but the question is when. I feel this is close and probably the companies that have identified and acted upon this change will take the lead in the upcoming innovation marketplace.