Standing on Mountains

Commercialisation and the building of companies is a thankless task.

There is always more to do and more that could be done. When the limits are your own imagination and you have a creative streak there is nothing that places boundaries to the number of avenues and options that could be pursued. This all creates a huge mountainous workload and when you are close to it, it can feel overwhelming and that there is only slow progress, and never any respite.

I was explaining this just yesterday to a great mentor.

She quietly replied there might be a mountain in front of you, but sometimes you should look down and see the mountain of achievement that you are standing on to get to this point.

She was right…..

Celebrate all your achievements, don’t shy away from the challenges and be realistic about what it takes to get to the next level. And sometimes, just pause and look at the view.

A nice cup of tea, some IP and a good cause

 
As Red Nose Day 2017 is fast approaching, various promotional merchandise is starting to appear in the shops - including boxes of PG Tips tea-bags with a free Monkey soft toy. Now Monkey is the very popular and highly recognisable face of PG Tips, having starred in their TV adverts with his sidekick "Al" (Johnny Vegas) since 2006. But the story of how Monkey became associated with PG Tips and Comic Relief is a fascinating example of the value of Intellectual Property, and how it can be traded in business.
 
Monkey wasn't always associated with PG Tips - he was created back in 2001 by the advertising agency Mother, for ITV Digital, and starred in the ad campaign for their digital terrestrial pay-tv service. He was instantly popular, and a Monkey toy was offered to new subscribers - as they weren't available anywhere else, a lucrative re-sale market sprung up on internet auction sites. Unfortunately, ITV Digital went into administration in 2002 and one of its few remaining assets was the IP in the Monkey character.
 
Ownership wasn't clear cut however - as a general rule, IP created by an employee belongs to the company but IP created by a consultant remains the property of the consultant unless specifically assigned. A legal dispute ensued between the ITV Digital administrators and the advertising agency Mother and this dispute was only resolved when both parties agreed to donate the IP to Comic Relief. An example of one of the Trademarks can be viewed here.
 
Monkey is undoubtedly a valuable income earner for Comic Relief, through merchandising of a range of products across a number of NICE classes and licensing to PG Tips, and a great example of how something as simple as a sock puppet backed up with proper IP protection can have a significant financial value. 
 
So, enjoy your cuppa and dig deep for a good cause!

Plant, microbial & environment YES

I had the privilege of spending yesterday afternoon as a mentor for part of the annual Plant, microbial & environment YES competition. The Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is designed to develop business awareness and an understanding of entrepreneurship in UK environmental postgraduate students and postdoctoral scientists, and this is achieved through a competition where teams prepare an oral business plan for a company based on a hypothetical but plausible idea, based on real markets. The teams then pitch their plan to a a panel comprised of business, financial and academic representatives taking the role of equity investors.
 
I worked with 5 fantastic teams from Manchester, Reading, Warwick and Heriot-Watt on ideas as diverse as a diagnostic for bovine TB, bacterial seed coatings, novel uses for coffee production waste, animal therapeutics derived from waste blood and thermal insulated paper products and I was really impressed with both their enthusiasm and how well they'd applied the training they'd been given during the workshop in areas including:
  • the requirements of a business plan;
  • intellectual property and patenting strategy;
  • raising and managing finance;
  • commercial and marketing strategies;
  • regulatory affairs; and 
  • company case histories.
 
Today the teams will be delivering their pitches, so good luck to all my teams, and I hope their hard work is rewarded and they progress to the finals. More importantly, I hope all the participants enjoyed the experience, and learned that commercialisation is interesting, challenging but above all fun and rewarding.