Commercializing ideas is both tedious and costly.  To illustrate, for every 333 ideas generated in United States universities, only 23 may be original and six may be patentable. But of the six, only two products have the potential to reach the market, and only one
product will achieve market success.

The cost of translating ideas into products is also very high. For every dollar invested in discovering an idea, developing its prototype costs tenfold, and introducing it to the market costs 10 times more.

But despite these high hurdles on the way to market, introducing new products is still an imperative for survival and profit to business.

According to the former head of Royal Dutch Shell’s Strategic Planning Group, Arie de Geus, the average life span of a service or product is around six to 36 months, depending on the industry. With a typical company existing at an average of 12.5 years, it must thus introduce at least four to 25 new products during its life span.

In the Philippines few innovation, unfortunately, comes up, judging from the meager 2,658 patents granted in 2005. This does not mean we lack the capacity to innovate, just the proper environment to stimulate innovation. 

Our small and medium enterprises, particularly those engaged in semiconductor and electronics industries, have the capability to innovate given the right incentive. Right now, these industries are experiencing a boom, accounting for 70 percent of our country’s exports. They shy away from introducing new products because there is currently no ready market that could buffer the high risk of market launch.

But just as we have encouraged a greener urban environment by requiring government contractors to include trees and plants in their infrastructure blueprints, we can promote innovation in our SMEs through government procurement of their new products. The United States government did a similar and more comprehensive policy way back in the 1970s, when it financed research and technological development in the name of national defense.

This is but one of the many ways we can spur technology commercialization in the country. Here, creativity in policymaking and strategic planning is key—along with vision and sustained commitment from both the public and private sector.  

E-mail: edgardo_angara@hotmail.com; web site: www.edangara.com

ONE of the hard-hit casualties in the ongoing national broadband network (NBN)-ZTE controversy must even now start to pick up the pieces of its tattered reputation, if we are serious about the future of the Philippine bureaucracy.

It is highly probable that every person you meet in the street has a relative, a friend, a neighbor or an acquaintance that has fallen victim to a pyramid or Ponzi scheme.

In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte reportedly said, “China is a sickly, sleeping giant. But when she awakes, the world will tremble.”
His knowledge of China came from Jesuit priests who held high positions in the Chinese court. After 200 years, that giant has awakened and there may well be good reason for the world to tremble.

Mirror on the wall: RP, other Asia-Pacific debtors in danger of default

Despite assurances from American mortgage bankers that it was averting the US subprime crisis into a full-blown recession, the danger of governments and private corporations being dragged into the mess remains persistent.

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara: Commercializing ideas

Commercializing ideas is both tedious and costly.  To illustrate, for every 333 ideas generated in United States universities, only 23 may be original and six may be patentable.

Omerta: $12-B bonanza from Malampaya

The newspapers didn’t give the event much of a play, and the radio and television networks all but totally ignored it—probably because on the surface, it looked like it was about an issue that only the people of Palawan would care about.

Philip M. Lustre Jr.: A post-GMA alternative

One of the reasons why the antiadministration forces have not been persistent to push for President Gloria Arroyo’s immediate ouster is the possibility of a Noli de Castro takeover. The constitutional-succession mechanism is not that palatable to their political senses.