Instead of writing to 12 leading professors in a field, one could also allow evaluations by informed parties outside the university to carry some weight. It's hard to imagine my colleagues, or myself for that matter, taking that risk and letting non-academics influence tenure decisions. But a less controversial way for the university to encourage more user-friendly research in the outside world would be to pursue more aggressively the idea of clinical professorships. We could give such positions to people who may not necessarily have a background in the classroom, or in generating the kind of basic research that the tenure process encourages, but who perform useful applied or utilitarian research. Another channel that could be widened is consultancy.
Many professors serve outside organizations as consultants.
Nearly all research universities are also actively pursuing joint research programs with businesses, a win-win arrangement that brings dollars from the private sector into the university and allows faculty another outlet for their ideas. Universities have a justified concern, however, that the almighty dollar would begin to drive the research agenda. If universities need to face the opportunities and responsibilities that attend change, so do the organizations that put our research to use.