Framework for developing process-based technologies at a very early stage

After the development of a new chemical process, innovative entrepreneurs must turn this new intellectual property into a value proposition for the new company. Early in the product development process, management should begin to ask and answer the question, "What is the product?" After an initial discussion of the traditional product development process, this paper concludes that there are system-level issues to be considered when the product is a chemical process rather than a manufactured good. One important distinction is that super-system issues such as the following must be considered: economy and access to financing; regional/national support and stability; regulatory regime; protection of intellectual property/rights; human capital; industry structure; industry value propositions. A series of industry value propositions for different "products" (supply of manufactured goods, process design & equipment, equipment only, equipment & parts, sector-limited licenses, use of equipment) is presented. This paper provides a framework to evaluate these system-level aspects.