Know All The Businesses Your Company Is In

It’ is very easy to look at a company very broadly. If you ask someone what the company that they work for does, you often will get a very broad response: “oh, my company is in the food business,” “we make bicycles,” “we design and sell sports wear,” and so on. If you run a search on LinkedIn for Caterpillar, General Electric, Diageo and Nike, under the corporate names Caterpillar Inc., GE, Diageo Company, and Nike, only the words “Machinery, “Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing,” “Wine and Spirits” and “Sporting Goods” are listed respectively.

When implementing an effective intellectual property (IP) strategy for your company, however, it is crucial to take a more nuanced view. Only then can you fully identify the inventions and other IP being created and, as a result, make precise and strategic decisions about them to drive the commercial success of the company.

Take a food company for example.  While it’s true that the company is in the consumer product and nourishment business, dig deeper and think more abstractly. There are many ways to characterize this company.

• The company is in the sensation or sensory experience delivery business. This might include products that provide texture and mouth feel variations, throat action, flavor delivery, sweetener delivery, sensate delivery and action, nasal action, taste receptor stimulation, nerve stimulation, etc. These impacts may vary over time during consumption.
• The company is in the perception and emotional support business. This might include products intended to enhance a consumer’s personal brand, self-confidence, consolation, enjoyment, emotional support, sense of wellbeing, healthy lifestyle, or reward.
• The company is in the packaging business. This includes the look, feel, shape, configuration, recyclability, billboard and marketing spaces, handling and use features, other functional aspects, and customer and consuming facing options, as well as the design, testing and manufacturing of the packaging and packaging materials, and the filling, storage and shipping of packaged products.
• The company is in the benefit delivery business.  This might include products that support hunger suppression, hydration and thirst satiation, immediate or sustained energy creation, stress relief, weight loss, fat reduction, cholesterol reduction, breath freshening, stomach acid reduction, uric or other acid reduction, better sleep patterns, etc.
• The company is in the manufacturing business.  This includes machinery and equipment design and interconnection, manufacturing processes, facility and process design, security and monitoring, quality control, safety, reliability and consistency improvements, material movement and processing, cleaning, etc. 
• The company is in the material storage and handing business. This might include the transport, handling and use of liquids, solids, powders, binders, solvents, chemicals, packaging and many other materials.
• The company is in the development, testing and safety business. This is true not only at its research facilities, manufacturing areas, and testing facilities, but also at the point of sale, on the shelf, and in consumers’ residences and on their tables.
• The company is the data and analytics business.  In the era of big data and the internet of things, more and more companies are creating, capturing and using more and more data every day and using it to make product and service design, development, election, manufacturing, offering and other decisions. Thus, the company has IT, data collection, data analytics, and data security activity.

As another example, take a company that designs and sells bicycles. Similar to the food company, there are many ways to characterize the businesses that this company is in. At a minimum, the company is in the exercise business, the environmental protection business, the transportation business, the manufacturing business, the materials handling business, the design and testing business, and the personal, family, community, and relationship support business.

As one more example, take a company providing sports wear for fashion and cost conscious millennials and characterize it in many ways. The company is in the design, manufacturing, material testing and handling, clothing, personal brand building, relationship building, entertainment, communication, athletic and healthy lifestyle, display, and wellness creation businesses, and likely many more.

After your company has been characterized, now start thinking about it from many lenses, such as the efforts, resource allocations, focus areas, improvements, cost expenditures, changes, gaps, problems, challenges, competitor activity and potential responses, trend evolutions, disruptive patterns, opportunities, results, solutions, learnings, and ideas that result from the different ways of looking at your company. Take it even further by having conversations with and between marketing, procurement, manufacturing, engineering, product development, commercial strategy and other teams.

Now you are identifying inventions more completely, consistently, and competitively for your company and this will significantly improve all decisions made as you drive your intellectual property strategy and its alignment with and support of the company’s commercial strategy.