Industry-Research collaboration is at the core of strategy for successful organisations.
There are a couple of truths that challenge all leaders who have an inkling about strategy:
- Everything is moving faster, and complexity and competition is increasing.
- What worked yesterday isn’t guaranteed to work tomorrow.
How do the best leaders respond to this reality? They seek the advice, guidance and partnership of others with new perspectives that can illuminate new possibilities and paths. The best leaders look to outside themselves.
Collaboration for strategic competitive advantage
Industry-research collaboration stands at the core of the competitive strategy of some of the world’s most successful leaders and their organisations.
It’s always been so.
Ludavico Sforza was an Italian Renaissance regent (1480-94) and duke of Milan (1494-98). He was also the patron of polymath, Leonardo da Vinci, who he retained as an artist and advisor. Cesare Borgia also retained da Vinci as a military architect and engineer between 1502-03 with unlimited budget .
And giants like Google, Microsoft, Boeing, Philips, NASA, Hitachi and many others have all benefited from collaboration with other industry and research organisations (I’ve been part of collaborations with all but one of them over the years).
Partnering with academic institutions and research bodies fuels innovation, drives competitiveness, and accelerates problem-solving. By leveraging the combined strengths of practical industry experience and cutting-edge academic research, such collaborations create a fertile ground for breakthroughs that shape the future.
The ELO2 Consortium I lead is a current case study in industry research collaboration. It comprises around 15 industry and research organisations, including five universities. Not one member of the consortium can on their own do the job of designing the least-risk/best-technology lunar rover to the requirements for the mission set by the Australian Space Agency.
On Friday we delivered our Consortium’s lunar rover design to the Agency. Collaboration between industry and research organisations has been instrumental in the achievements of ELO2 over the last 14 months.
Three big benefits for industry research collaboration
There are many benefits, but there are three major benefits of industry research collaboration and how it propelled the consortium to perform quickly and competitively.
1. Access to Expertise and Resources
One of the most significant benefits of industry-research collaboration is the access to diverse and specialist expertise and resources. Industry partners bring practical, real-world experience and resources, while research partners contribute cutting-edge scientific knowledge and innovative methodologies. In the case of ELO2, industry partners provided real-world applied extreme environment robotics experience, autonomous systems and engineering. The research partners offered expertise in material science, advanced manufacturing, space communications and lunar geology and geography. As large enterprise and technical institutions, they also have world-standard facilities for testing and evaluation of systems and technology. This synergy enabled the consortium to develop a sophisticated lunar rover design based on the most recent science and that could be rigorously tested in simulated lunar environments. We also had access to new engineers, employing them in their first jobs, and gave undergraduates the opportunity to intern and complete their required industry placements.
2. Accelerated Problem Solving
Collaborative efforts facilitate faster problem-solving by leveraging the diverse perspectives and skills of both industry and research. Throughout the 14-month design process, ELO2 had to address the multitude of risks and challenges faced when something leaves Earth and embarks through Space to the Moon. Technical challenges included ensuring the rover’s mobility on the Moon’s rugged terrain, developing and testing its autonomous navigation system, modelling and designing thermal management systems – and many others. By working together, our industry engineers and researchers were able to share different perspectives, and design, test, iterate and implement solutions. For instance, the collaboration led to the rapid development of an intuitive human-machine interface for remotely operating robotic systems separated by 384,000 kilometres of space. Collaboration helped to significantly reduce the time needed to refine and perfect this critical component.
3. Enhanced Innovation and Competitiveness
Collaboration fosters an environment ripe for innovation, driving competitiveness. The cross-pollination of ideas between industry and research organisations sparks creative solutions that might not emerge in isolation. For the ELO2 Consortium, this collaborative culture resulted in several breakthroughs – and we won’t cover them here! This innovation not only improved the rover’s design but has also positioned the consortium competitively within the global space exploration sector, showcasing its capability to deliver state-of-the-art solutions.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
African proverb
Key Questions for Leaders considering innovation and collaboration
I’ve been running, advising, funding, designing and consulting on industry research collaboration in a range of roles over the last couple of decades.
Successful leaders considering innovation and collaboration all ask themselves the following three questions:
- What are our strategic goals, and how can collaboration help us achieve them?
Research collaboration is a strategic conversation, it’s not short term. So understanding the alignment between your strategy, objectives and the potential benefits of collaboration is crucial for setting a clear and focused agenda. Great industry research collaborations help build the new capabilities required to enable and underpin the future you want to create. - What resources and expertise do we bring to the table, and what gaps do we need to fill?
You have gaps. What are they? Who has complementary experience and capability you can leverage? Identifying your strengths and areas where partners can complement your capabilities ensures a balanced and effective collaboration. - What budget do you have assigned for innovation and collaboration?
If you don’t have budget for the activity then you’re not serious about it being part of your strategy. And if you do have a budget, and are just starting, you probably need to take 12 months or so to understand what actual budget you need and what the best focus for your organisation will be in any collaboration.
And as ever, it always starts with humility. Successful organisations embrace the fact that there is value in the diversity of perspectives, and that they don’t have all the answers and can’t tell the future. They have a growth mindset and are seeking to capture upside risk by creating change, rather than trying to make the status quo extend into the future (because it doesn’t).
Reach out to me (ben.sorensen@gmail.com) if you’d like to chat about strategy, leadership, innovation and how to create new value and competitive advantage through industry research collaboration.