Oxford Oracle

Bespoke innovation services from the Oracle

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Professional Development in Innovation for Multinational Corporation with a Previous Focus on Tobacco Products (2019-2020)

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Challenge:

A multinational corporation with considerable resources sought to diversify away from its traditional focus upon selling cigarettes and other tobacco-based products into selling non-combustible nicotine-based solutions and other consumer products. As a key element of this initiative, Oxford Oracle was asked to provide its Marketing and Human Resources teams in both the UK and the US with professional development in innovation.

The Oracle’s Solution:

The Oracle commenced this project by undertaking an interview-based scoping exercise with key stakeholders within the organisation to understand their current familiarity with innovation processes, intellectual property, R&D, and legal and practical routes for protecting proprietary materials.  Subsequently, detailed four-day workshops were held face-to-face in both the UK and the US.  The following key topics were covered and investigated in detail:

Innovation CaptureInnovation RoadmappingInnovation Champions
Intellectual Property RightsFreedom to Operate ExercisesMarket Assessments
Open InnovationCross-LicensingPortfolio Management

Action plans for immediate and ongoing execution were created by participants during the workshop and, over the ensuing 12 months, these innovation professionals enjoyed routine access to designated mentors within the Oracle.

Consequential Impact:

Recipients of the professional development and mentorship rated these as excellent (4.8/5) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, reported that the most critical sessions were those in which they created timebound action plans to implement their newly acquired skills and knowledge.  Both mid-term and longer term surveys indicate that the information embedded during the Oracle’s sessions has led to positive changes in organisational processes, to recruitment attitudes and outcomes, to innovation management, to R&D priorities and, indeed, to the products which are now at market.

On-Call Support for the IP Unit of a Not-for-Profit Inter-Governmental Development Organisation (2020–2021)

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Challenge:

The intellectual property (IP) unit of an inter-governmental organisation in the agriculture sector sought to improve its internal processes and augment its staff base to cope with the expanding requirement to assess new and novel technologies whilst rationalising an extremely large IP portfolio.

The Oracle’s Solution:

Four fellows from a cross-section of relevant scientific disciplines were assigned as named contacts for key staff within the client’s IP unit. This enabled the formation of a buddy system which meant that buddies from each organisation met physically or virtually at least three times a week over a ten-month period. The four key fellows worked with other colleagues within the Oracle to design innovation assessment frameworks and establish tractable systems for innovation capture, maintaining and rationalising IP portfolios, and selling and assigning IP rights. Mentorship was provided to both buddies within the IP Unit as well as to other client colleagues on demand. A recruitment exercise was conducted by the Oracle and three new staff members were subsequently appointed by the client.

Consequential Impact:

The mentorship provided by Oxford Oracle allowed the IP Unit to quickly develop knowledge and experience which facilitated improved organisational efficiencies. For example, the number of pipeline innovations evaluated each month more than doubled over the period of intensive support. The bespoke frameworks and systems produced by the Oracle were acclaimed by the client organisation and remain in place and in active deployment to the present day. The new colleagues who were recruited provided critical disciplinary expertise which was previously lacking and are working with their teammates to produce excellent synergistic effects.

Establishing a New University in Southeast Asia (2019–2020)

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Challenge:

A client with extensive interests in retail, consumer-goods manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, and real estate sought to create a new world-class university in Southeast Asia. It wished to do so for social benefit and to fill gaps in the current Higher Education provision.

The Oracle’s Solution:

The Oracle drew on its specialist Higher Education Strategy team to deliver this project which is necessarily elaborate. Several initial on-the-ground fact finding and stakeholder assessment visits were held in-country to define success. A detailed feasibility study and risk analysis was then undertaken over a nine-month period. The client and the national government were furnished with this information and, after minor changes, the proposed initial plans for the university were approved.

Our fellows then contacted tens of potential international partner universities. These institutions were interviewed and shortlisted. Shortlisted partners were then visited and details of the practical and financial models that might underlie an academic partnership between our universities were discussed in detail. The client was provided with detail as well as frank counsel and, based on this information, a decision was made to partner with a leading US university.

Oxford Oracle then went about creating the following key elements of the new university:

  • a management structure
  • a staff recruitment strategy (and undertaking the first six rounds of recruitment)
  • a student recruitment strategy
  • architectural and learning spaces plans (in partnership with a specialist construction consultancy)
  • validated and accredited curricula for both undergraduate and graduate degree programmes
  • a research strategy and policy
  • a commercialisation and knowledge exchange policy
  • financial models and sensitivity analyses for the university’s first ten years

Consequential Impact:

The university was built on time and within the advised budget. It is thriving and is a source of pride to both the client and the nation. Oxford Oracle continues to work with the client and the university.

Pre-Incubator Programme to Improve Venture Capital Outcomes (2020-21)

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Challenge:

A large venture capital fund with a focus on patient capital approaches sought to establish a pre-incubator programme for new founders and managers who are drawn from university environments. The client was concerned that entrants into its established incubator programme tended to face two key challenges:

  1. They struggled to articulate the customer problem that their business solves.
  2. They were insufficiently prepared to optimise their profitability whilst in the incubator.

The Oracle’s Solution:

The Oracle undertook an interview-based scoping exercise with key stakeholders. Three workshops were then held for both managers within the client organisation as well as by representatives of current incubatee companies. The outcome of these workshops was agreement on ten half-day pre-incubator sessions which were tailored to the priority needs of the start-ups most likely to be admitted into the generously-funded full incubator programme. The pre-incubator programme was then delivered over a three-month period, being adaptively refined over the delivery period in line with beneficiaries’ needs. The base structure for the programme was anchored to the following priorities:

Business ModelsCustomer Conversations
Technology Push vs Market PullProtecting Intellectual Property
Kinetic ExecutionData Commercialisation
Demonstrating Market PotentialRaising Finance
Planning for PitchingExit Opportunities

Consequential Impact:

The pre-incubator programme was conducted for 38 beneficiaries representing 17 start-ups and the feedback was unanimously positive. Several technologies were submitted to the Oracle for Freedom-to-Operate analyses and to obtain IP protections. The client noted in particular that participant interaction during the programme was excellent and that optional post-session clinic sessions were heavily over-subscribed. It was agreed that the programme, as adapted in line with changing needs, is to be delivered annually on a repeat basis.

How old is Oxford Oracle?

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We will always be candid and, with this in mind, we must confess that the age of the Oracle is unclear. The fact that it has existed in unincorporated as well as incorporated bases over the decades serves to further muddy the waters surrounding this question. There have been incorporations in the US in the early 20th century (and thereafter) and UK incorporations in 2007 and 2020 (which is current and which we anticipate will continue long into the future).