2010 IRI CTO Forum

Eight CTOs met at the 2010 IRI CTO Forum to discuss the challenges of managing innovation partnerships. Although they represented a wide variety of industries, participants identified a number of common issues in managing partnerships; proactive management of intellectual property issues is a particularly critical component of successful partnerships. CTOs also concurred on the importance of having a managed approach to partner selection. Critical to the success of any approach is an awareness of what the company's earnings drivers are and how these will be supported by the partnership. Risk in partnerships must be carefully managed. The larger the system, the more intertwined and vulnerable are the linkages and the more difficult is risk management. The CTOs participating in the forum sought to minimize risk by understanding their product weak points and formulating backup plans for key suppliers.