8/31/2005

Formulating a Strategy to Capitalize on Nanotechnology

"Whether your company is like traditional manufacturer Air Products and Chemicals or 20-year old Nanofilm Ltd., the first step in formulating a strategy for capitalizing on nanotechnology is understanding parameters...

The keys to successful nano projects are alliances and partnerships in the spirit of open innovation...

"What's confusing," she [Martha Collins, technology director, Air Products] says, "is that the nano knowledge explosion is a growing disruptive force through all kinds of diverse scientific disciplines. Thus while nano implications are running rampant through all the domains of science, corporate product developers are simply overwhelmed. They're confronting an epochal technology challenge their R&D strategies were never designed or equipped to handle.

The solution? First, science has the conceptual challenge of organizing and compartmentalizing nano knowledge. Second, yesterday's R&D strategies need revisions if they are to handle the reality of the nano knowledge explosion.

The rewards, says Collins, will be the emergence of products and processes that exploit the nano dimension in ways unthought of today.

Every sector of the economy will be affected..."

Read more in this IndustryWeek article.