Baxter Healthcare

The corporate technology sourcing $($CTS$)$ unit at Baxter operates in an Innovative and

creatlve atmosphere, seeking a broad, diverse range of inputs. The mission of the CTS

unit is to monitor new external technological developments and channel this infor$-$

mation to the appropriate experts. The actual sourcing process is quite standard; the

company networks with contacts in companles, assoclations, universitles and search

services. CTS staff look for the unexpected and pass Information on to the techni$-$

cal and marketing communitles. Often, the technical and marketing people can see

different opportunitles in the same Information. The services of the CTS unit include

responding to specific requests, focused technology sourcing, acting as a resource for

general technology scanning and generating unsolicited ideas.

The CTS unit considers that every speclalist is doing a competent job in sourcing

technology in their speclalty, but looks beyond these specific contributions to areas

that complement normal research efforts. This work requires people who love being

creative and who do not have a compelling need to be right all the time.

Baxter's technology sourcing trles to find unusual contacts. For example, the com$-$

pany discovered that Leatherhead Food Research in Leatherhead, England, speclallsts

in food technology and food products, had developed a technology for measuring the

temperature of the raspberry filling inside angel cakes as they travel through a $100-$ft$-$

long continuous oven. Baxter took this technology, modified it somewhat and now

uses it for continuous sterilization processes within the company.

Baxter's most dramatic success came in the $1980$ s and involved the transfer of

Japanese vending machine technology to hospital pharmacy automation. The company

knew that hospital pharmacles were looking for a way to dispense regularly prescribed

medications accurately, without asking a full$-$time pharmacist to do such a repetitive

task. Using high$-$quality Japanese vending technology, Baxter was able to develop

automatic pharmacy machines that dispense customized medications according to

doctors' Instructions. Manufactured by Sanyo and sold by Baxter, these machines are

now central to a division that has netted Baxter almost $$1$bn In total sales.

The CTS unit at Baxter does not have a problem with being wrong, since it is wrong

$98\%$ of the time. With a budget of only $$1m,$ it is able to identify some $5,000$ new ideas

and technologles each year. About $100$ of these are followed up within the company

and $5-10\%$ of projects become commerclally successful. This provides a return of

$$30-40m$ in new revenue each year $-$ a good return on Baxter's Investment in com$-$

petitive intelligence.

Baxter finds that a company with an open culture, with employees who are open$-$

minded, willing to speculate and willing to share, gains great benefits from its competl$-$

tlve intelligence.

The experiences of these two firms provide important lessons for seeking technol$-$

ogy opportunitles. A successful use of technology intelligence might include some of

the following simple considerations:

The process should be structured and organized.

R&D leadership should provide direction and define specific intelligence needs.