Part six of the 13 part Summit TV series on intellectual property features Gail MacLeod from Strategic Communications on looking at the markets for opportunities - then working backwards from there to develop the required intellectual property to serve those needs

Transcript

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: This is the intellectual property show on Summit TV and we are going to look at using intellectual property to expand your current business revenues and increase market share. Our guest today in the studio is Gail Macleod managing director of Strategic Communications. Gail, if I understand correctly you’re on the creative side of intellectual property - is there a creative side? How does that work?

GAIL MACLEOD: We assist with the commercialisation of intellectual property through the creation of brands - looking at market opportunities, assessing market pull. So we can see where there’s an opportunity in the market and back-design with technologists and create opportunities to engineer and push that into the markets.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: I think a lot of these discussions are more focused on the technology-push - so you come from the other side and see what the market wants and how to deal with that?

GAIL MACLEOD: Every day we analyse the market - we analyse where there’s a gap in various sectors in the market, so we look at where the opportunity exists and then look at filling that opportunity. It helps to guarantee to a degree the opportunity of sales and return revenue for the business plan based on the marketing model.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: If you think about these discussions we are having about the so-called “innovation chasm” or the inability to get innovations into the market - do you think it’s a lack of adequate focus on the market?

GAIL MACLEOD: I think the market deserves and demands to be focused upon in terms of what is happening in socio-economic times - where society as a whole is moving, what the needs are of the people and the consumer base as a whole. When one looks at what the needs are yes, I think that’s a good way to engineer the opportunity - better so than the push.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Can you give us an example of something that you’ve worked with like that?

GAIL MACLEOD: We work in a number of sectors - we work from cement-based companies through to IT-based companies and across into the FMCG environment. In terms of looking where market pull opportunities exist we did a project for a dairy where we looked at a opportunity that existed within the market - we looked at what the market share was, the market gap was that we wanted to take - and we looked and engineering and developing a product that was based specifically on that, along the lines of saying “what are the returns going to be throughout the period and therefore what is the lifespan of the brand that we are creating?” The intrinsic we developed in Germany for the national and international markets.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: That includes looking at all the aspects of trademarks and patents required to fulfil that market opportunity?

GAIL MACLEOD: Yes, it does. It looks not only at the intrinsic - at the make-up of the product - but it also looks at what are we going to brand it? What is relevant for the market? How are we going to protect it? If it’s intrinsically based how do we protect that intrinsic platform - as well as how do we dress it, and how do we make it relevant for the market of today?

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: This market-based approach to managing intellectual property - or managing innovation if you want to put it that way - is it something that’s just within the grasp of larger companies? Small companies - can they also take that approach?

GAIL MACLEOD: Yes, it is a bit cost prohibitive for the smaller company, but it’s definitely something to look at. I find what happens with smaller companies is they focus more on getting the product branded than they do in terms of the intellectual property value of it. They may also look at distribution channels as an ownership platform versus owning the technology itself and licensing that technology and on-selling those licences. I think that’s a big challenge between the small company and the big company. I had somebody in my office just the other day that has looked at that - the distribution rights, rather than licensing the actual technology itself and how to commercialise the technology.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: You raise an interesting point. A lot of the criticism that we get from abroad is about this whole thing of afro-pessimism towards technology - but if we don’t establish those brands with our technology then people won’t recognise that some of those inventions or innovations are from South Africa…

GAIL MACLEOD: We’ve got a very exciting innovations platform in South Africa - I think we’ve seen a lot of that through the DTI and other programmes that are in place in South Africa. Certainly when looking at innovations that exist we have footprint that is global in the extreme with regard to the opportunity not only from the De Beers mining side of the business down to the small entrepreneur right through that platform.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: On the consumer side thinking about a lot of our consumer products - how are we faring there?

GAIL MACLEOD: We are faring very well. If we look at some of the alcoholic beverages we are second in the world on some of our brands - that’s also by royalty by licensing, selling through different territories and areas. So on FMCGs a lot of R&D is also taking place in South Africa - a lot of the global companies obviously have global centres of innovation and R&D where they develop that. We are finding more and more of that is coming from South Africa…

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: That’s excellent news - we are so used to seeing international products coming into South Africa, it’s nice to hear that there are also South Africa entrepreneurs and businesses that are having success not just here but worldwide…

GAIL MACLEOD: Absolutely. If you look in the various sectors in the mining sector particularly there are some very exciting innovations that are happening - the need to reduce fines on coal, the need to look at other technologies for Sasol and the phenomenal technologies they are developing for the global footprint.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: Typically at what stage if you’re an entrepreneur or business executive should you start engaging with intellectual property and making plans for managing intellectual property?

GAIL MACLEOD: I believe that should happen right at the beginning. What we find with an entrepreneur is that the intellectual property tends to come at a later stage - focusing again on the distribution side. I find that quite sad because I think the greater revenue comes through the intellectual property - and the understanding of the distribution and the management of the royalty licensing of that business - so it really should come right at the beginning.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: So that’s something you should think of upfront?

GAIL MACLEOD: It is something that one should analyse upfront, and also consider in the business plan how you’re going to manage the intellectual property of your organisation as it grows.

STEPHAN LAMPRECHT: If you have to give advice to an entrepreneur or a business executive regarding intellectual property - and how to develop this intellectual property platform for revenues - what advice would you give?

GAIL MACLEOD: I would say the entrepreneur firstly should understand the value of the intellectual property - they should attempt to understand the real value of what it is that they are creating. If they can understand that they can then start to look at how they can sell it offshore - how they can sell it in different territories. I often find that they don’t truly understand the real value of what it is that they have created - and how to maximise that from a fiscal point of view.