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Five lessons from "Commercializing Science"

Course co-taught by engineering and business profs offers common sense advice on getting to market (Fast Company)

Fast Company expert blogger Neil Baron wrote about his experiences serving as an expert adviser for "Commercializing Science," a course taught by Woodward Yang, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Lee Fleming, Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Vicki L. Sato, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, and Professor of the Practice in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Harvard University.

The case study mentioned by Baron, a nanostructured material that fends off ice formation, was developed by the laboratory of Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study.

Harvard University teaches a fascinating and important class on Commercializing Science. The class is taught jointly by Harvard's Business School, Law School, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Kennedy School. . The diverse disciplines are part of what makes the course so interesting and significant. In the "real world", successful commercialization efforts require effective alignment of many corporate functions.

This fall, I was asked to serve as an expert advisor to the program and share my practical expertise in bringing innovations to market.

For the first 75 minutes, the class follows the traditional HBS case study method. For the rest of the class, the students work in cross-discipline teams. These teams were tasked with developing a commercialization plan for some of the ideas emanating from Harvard's labs. Their "final exam" consists of presenting their recommended commercialization plan to about 200 faculty members,students and potential investors.

Here are five lessons from this innovative Harvard program for anyone looking to bring new technologies to market.

Read the full article in Fast Company