Targeting Innovation, a leading UK-based innovation consultancy, becomes exclusive partner for So what? who cares? why you? ® in United Kingdom and Ireland

March 12, 2009

Glasgow, Scotland — Help is at hand for the thousands of inventors and innovators across the UK and Ireland to verify opportunities and transform their ideas into commercial successes.

Glasgow-headquartered Targeting Innovation, one of the UK's leading innovation consultancies, has forged an exclusive partnership with Wendy Kennedy, an award winning entrepreneurial professor and commercialisation company based in Ottawa, Canada to be the exclusive delivery partner of the So what? who cares? why you? methodology, which vastly increases the chances of achieving commercial success for inventors and start-ups in the UK and Ireland.

Targeting Innovation has recognised that the timing is right to launch this commercialisation solution in the UK to support innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives already underway in government agencies, enterprise development agencies, incubators and academia.

Wendy Kennedy's ground-breaking methodology is delivered through a programme of workshops, tutorials and coaching that enables organisations to adopt a "commercialisation toolkit approach" to inspire and empower researchers, scientists and technology entrepreneurs, to help them communicate the value of their ideas to stakeholders.

This has been successfully deployed in a workshop training programme at the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in Eire, where, according to Garrett Duffy, the Enterprise Development Manager at DkIT, the workshop participants came from a wide cross-section of backgrounds, but all with the one aim of trying to bring new ideas to the marketplace.

"We have been working with people from all walks of life who don't necessarily have a business background, but who have products and services they are trying to take to market. Until now, many of these fledgling start-ups have been focused on their inventions and innovations without perhaps having looked too closely at the broader picture of determining if they are delivering what the market needs.

Wendy has come up with a simple, structured approach of goal setting, decision making and clear vision. The essence of So what? who cares? why you? is to instill confidence and take each innovator and inventor on a journey that has the potential to reap significant benefits that gains commercial interest".

George Boag, chief executive, Targeting Innovation commented. "We first came across Wendy's methodology when working with Dundalk on another project. Having worked with early stage businesses for the last 15 years, our first thoughts were that this is the most unique and effective approach that we've seen for increasing the chances of commercial success for early stage companies.

Helping innovators and inventors understand the elements of commercialisation such as: the commercial problem being solved, defining the business model and identifying a competitive edge are all vitally important to those starting out on the road to commercial success."

The So what? who cares? why you? methodology offers commercialisation staff a rich selection of tools and resources, including: step-by-step workbooks, an online resource community, training workshops, mentoring and coaching programme and online learning courses.

Targeting Innovation has launched http://www.targetinginnovation.com/commercialisation-toolkit to allow interested parties to access more information about this product. In addition, two "taster" events will be held in late March for the Scottish and Yorkshire markets to explore the So what? who cares? why you? methodology in greater detail.

These events are primarily aimed at key stakeholders in government and academia.