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ACADEMIC ABSTRACT
Commercializing new technologies implies a process of adding value for different stakeholders in specific industries. This case offers the opportunity to evaluate potential global markets in early stages of technological innovation development. The process of commercializing new technologies is seen from the perspective of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) which is trying to take a position in the promising and growing market of digital imaging with medical purposes in the United States. After several years of remarkable achievements, the entrepreneur must decide the following steps in order to finish his product and take it to the market.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
After a first business venture failed due to differences with his partners, Sergio Aguirre had begun a new company with 18,800 USD and a patent. The developed technology allowed creating 3D images starting from flat images, which found its application in diverse niches, like that of 3D cartographic images visualization. However, Sergio wanted to go further on. With the support of the Business Accelerator Unit of a prestigious University, Sergio was building a business model based on the application of his technology in the detection of colorectal cancer, through a work station for the practice of virtual colonoscopy. The market of the United States showed up as the great opportunity for Sergio, due to its size and expectations of growth.
The establishment of EchoPixel Technologies, Inc., in the United States, after several years of remarkable achievements and promising technological tests, represented an important milestone in Sergio's business venture. The concern of baby boomers, a big and wealthy segment, in their health, seemed to be an important indicator of the potential for a new technology that offered several advantages in the diagnosis and development of strategies for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
However, commercializing new technologies was not a simple matter; during the process, the necessity to add value to all the involved stakeholders was evident, even in early stages of technology development. Practitioners, in commercializing new technologies, must take in account the emergent stakeholders in each stage of the process, in order to avoid entry barriers and propose interesting incentives that facilitate the building of strategic alliances for success.
OPENING REMARKS
In the summer of 2008, Sergio Aguirre was thinking about...