Commercialization Eats Culture For Breakfast

Andy Wynn once found himself being reprimanded for visiting customers. He was the chief technology officer for the Asia region of a multinational business. His boss, the regional president, apparently thought customer visits fell outside the CTO's job. Wynn's reaction was disbelief. How was he supposed to help take new technology to market while being kept away from the people who might buy it?

The story captures his frustration with separating technical development from the business it should create. In this episode of Innovation Rockstars, the CEO of TTIP Global and professor at IE Business School explains why he increasingly talks about technology commercialization. After a long corporate career, he wants a more concrete conversation about turning technical potential into products, customers and a viable business.

Treat the technology as the beginning of a business

Wynn started as a technologist and worked his way into business management and a group CTO role. Six years in China included building factories, establishing businesses and transferring technology from West to East. When he was called back to the UK, he decided he could not return to his former corporate life.

He moved to Spain and considered which parts of his work he wanted to keep. Speaking, mentoring and teaching all appealed. So did building businesses. TTIP Global grew out of a training company he established with colleagues, while other ventures took him into different industries with different teams.

His advice to people developing technology inside a large company reflects that experience: approach it as though you are starting a business. A supportive environment gives a team room to develop the whole proposition. A narrow technical role can make that much harder, particularly if the people developing a product have little influence over how it reaches the market.

For R&D leaders, his customer-visit story raises a practical question. Do the responsibilities given to technical teams allow them to understand and influence commercialization, or do those responsibilities end before the difficult market questions begin?

Make the board part of solving the problem

Commercialization involves people with different responsibilities. Operations, sales, marketing, finance and legal all have a part to play. Some projects also depend on investors, suppliers or local government. Wynn considers the ability to influence decision-makers an underappreciated skill because each person sees the proposed venture through different priorities.

He describes a familiar boardroom mistake. Someone seeking project approval prepares an enormous presentation, anticipates every objection and arrives ready to demonstrate mastery of every detail. The board then spends the meeting looking for weaknesses. The presenter has accidentally invited an adversarial examination.

Wynn suggests starting with the organization's shared goals and checking that everyone agrees on what the project should achieve. Then show the broad plan, the difficult decisions and the places where help is needed. Give directors a useful role in making it work.

This does not remove the need for detailed analysis. It changes how that analysis enters the conversation. Rather than forcing every person through every spreadsheet, the team can connect the evidence to the decisions each participant needs to make.

A summary should spare someone the work of finding the answer

Wynn is equally direct about everyday communication. Ask a simple question, he says, and too often the reply contains everything known about the subject. The recipient must read it all and work out the answer themselves.

“The ability to summarize and get to the point is a very important skill in business that is quite rare, I find.”

He suspects that some of this behavior comes from wanting to demonstrate how much effort has been invested. But a large volume of work and a useful result are different things. His comparison is a football team that passes the ball endlessly without scoring.

For a technical team, a concise explanation is part of the commercialization work. The audience needs to understand what the technology does, why that matters and which decision follows. Technical depth remains available when the discussion calls for it. Sending every detail at once can leave the most important issue harder to see.

Asking for ideas creates an obligation to listen

Wynn's view of innovation culture is grounded in another uncomfortable experience. On his first day in a graduate program, a series of senior directors addressed the new recruits. Each began with the corporate strategy. By the end, the group had heard it six times.

When the head of HR invited honest feedback, Wynn suggested that the presenters coordinate their material. The response made clear that the invitation had been less open than it sounded. It was an early lesson in the difference between asking for input and wanting to hear it.

“You've got to put your egos to one side.”

Wynn argues that organizations need to be prepared both to listen and to act on what they hear. Otherwise, requests for ideas teach employees that contributing changes little. His approach begins with the business objective, then considers the behavior and mindset required to support it.

That expectation also applies to commercializing a technology. A capable team needs people who share the goal, can work across organizational boundaries and will stay involved when delivery becomes difficult. Wynn has learned to address mismatches within founding teams early.

He remains excited by technology, but his attention keeps returning to what it can do for someone. A sophisticated development can remain on a lab bench without people able to champion it, explain its value and build the relationships needed to sell it. Giving those people room to work is a decision leaders can make long before the next prototype is finished.