DECEMBER LUNCHEON MEETING
"LOST SECRETS OF EDISON: PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR SOMETHING NOT YET INVENTED"
Date: Thursday, December 19,
2002
Place: Houston Petroleum Club
Social Period: 11:30 am
Lunch: 11:45 am
DON’T MISS THIS ONE! PLEASE CALL, FAX OR E-MAIL YOUR RESERVATIONS TO MRS. B.K. STARBUCK-BUONGIORNO AT THE ADDRESS ABOVE OR E-MAIL BY 12:00 NOON, TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2002. OUR LUNCHEONS ARE $28.00 FOR MEMBERS, AFFILIATES, AND GUESTS WHO REGISTER BY THAT DATE. IF YOU NEED TO CANCEL PLEASE DO SO BY THE DEADLINE AS “NO SHOWS” WILL BE BILLED. THE COST GOES UP TO $33 AT THE DOOR OR FOR LATE REGISTRATIONS.
THE SPEAKER: CHARLES KNOBLOCH - J.D PATENT ATTORNEY & GEOPHYSICIST
Charles Knobloch, J.D., Patent Attorney & Geophysicist, is a patent attorney and computer science geophysicist. He graduated from Michigan Technological University and began a 22 career holding various technical and commercial positions at Conoco. He is a law graduate of the University of Houston, holds a diploma in International Law (Russia) from the University of San Diego, and studied European law in Spain through the College of William and Mary.
During his career at Conoco, Charles worked on several technology, licensing and commercial projects. Of note is the Joint Industry Project for Riserless Drilling (renamed Subsea Mudlift): a 3-phase consortium of oil industry companies to develop technology to drill with mud starting at the sea floor rather than at sea level. 22 companies participated at phase I and the project was one of the largest petroleum joint industry projects in the past 50 years.
Charles also managed the DeepLook Joint Industry Project whose purpose was to screen and evaluate reservoir technologies under development at our National Labs and to integrate these with the commercial interests of Conoco, BP, Shell, ChevronTexaco, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker, et al. This 6 year industry collaboration looked at over 140 technologies originating at the member companies and at the National Labs. The goal was to transfer these technologies from the labs into the petroleum industry. Approximately $5 million was spent in high grading and nurturing certain key projects and to redirect their development toward petroleum applications.
Charles' technical experience includes interpretation in Europe, Indonesia, and Gulf of Mexico, as well as seismic modeling and processing, and pore pressure prediction. DuPont awarded Charles their Engineering Excellence Award for his work in imaging technology.
Charles now uses his technical and commercial background to form ventures, devise strategies, and invent business solutions to capitalize technology for our industry. Using a confidential lab approach, Charles works with technology leaders to properly stage innovation for commercialization. Charles also offers venture management service to provide independent facilitation and leadership on joint projects and venture formation.
In this presentation, Mr. Knobloch will examine some of the pitfalls to be avoided in technology development with examples from American industry. If you are interested in Mr. Knobloch's Technology Newsletter, send him an email at knoblcs@omnilaw.com .
ABSTRACT: This presentation examines the chasm between innovation and commercialization and what it takes to bridge that chasm. Edison succeeded, but Telsa failed. Yet, both were great innovators. Hidden in Edison's Invention Labs and obscured by the romance of tour guide stories are clues to processes that reveal the secrets that contributed to Edison’s success. This presentation uses the theme of Edison and other great inventions of our time to demonstrate how they saw the future as something to create, rather than something to discover.
These secrets are bundled together and termed "The Edison Execution", or strategic innovation. The steps of strategic innovation organize the processes, decisions, and actions that need to be taken to achieve innovation and commercial success. This presentation reveals the key steps of Edison's execution and how to actually apply the techniques to successful commercial innovation. The actions of successful innovators are translated into modern terms that can be applied to your own projects. How realistic is your mission and role? How can one create appropriate resources and commitment through key alliance and innovation processes? How should one strategically invent backwards, and govern the creation?
When is strategic innovation important? One use is in projects that are greatly influenced by external economics, where the actions of, and relationships with, other entities are needed to make a project commercial. Another use is where it is not possible to construct a project plan, where too many unknowns confuse predicting the future course to take. Applying strategic innovation is especially useful when a change of course is needed and where solving the problem requires doing something different, such as changing course to achieve a different result.