HP Labs has traditionally provided technology breakthroughs that differentiated HP's product lines. In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on HP Labs' role in helping the company start new businesses. This makes it a challenge for the company to make strategic design decisions across divisions that achieve economies of scale and scope. To this end, my group has been intimately involved in establishing one such new business. The pull from the customer has transformed product divisions into eager technology transfer partners.
Innovation is more constrained.
We have had to broaden our notions of how to do research, e.g., combining to a much greater extent market research and economic models with our technical efforts. Though we have stronger expertise than our division partners in certain technical areas, there are many situations in which we learn as much from them as they do from us. This is both humbling and exhilarating. People, not papers and reports, transfer technology. Tech transfer is a grass roots effort.