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Just a reminder, these posts are not legal advice. This site is the personal blog of Mark Radcliffe and the opinions expressed are those of Mark Radcliffe and not those of his clients, DLA Piper or the clients of DLA Piper.

About Me:

Mark Radcliffe

I have been practicing law in Silicon Valley for over thirty years assisting startups and global companies develop and market innovative products and services. I have participated in multiple business cyles in Silicon Valley from hardware to software to internet to cloud. My projects have included developing the dual licensing business model for open source startup, developing the original domain dispute resolution policy for NSI and assisting Sun in open sourcing the Solaris operating system. Recently, I served on the US Japan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (one of ten members) to develop a plan to encourage the innovation in Japan and the United States. I have been working with the same attorneys since 1986 although we have merged with other law firms several times. I am now a partner at DLA Piper, a (relatively) new global law firm formed in 2005 from the merger of three law firms. The firm now has 4200 lawyers in 31 countries and 77 cities. My experience in corporate securities (particularly venture capital) and intellectual property enables me to assist companies structure the financing and intellectual property strategy for developing ane exploiting a new product or service. I and my team work with fifty startups at one time as well as Global Fortune 100. I have been fortunate enough to work with companies in software, cloud computing, semiconductor, health care IT and Web 2.0.

Corporate Venture: Major Players in Innovation Ecosystem

01/11/12

The Wall Street Journal recently noted the increasing importance of the corporate venture capitalists in the innovation ecosystem. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/10/31/corporate-vcs-here-to-stay-this-time-study-says/tab/print/.
They base their conclusion on a recent BCG report which describes the change in corporate venture capital. http://www.bcg.com/media/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-120570. I have seen three of the four cycles in the BCG report and I agree that this cycle is different because of the critical role of innovation in large companies. Innovation has become essential for large corporations and corporate venture is a significant tool to manage innovation. As the BCG report notes in conclusion: “Considering the benefits that venture investing offers when best practices are employed, the real question is whether corporations can afford not to join the game.”
The BCG report focuses on the return of corporate venture capital, but another critical trend is the rise of Chief Innovation Officers (such as Debby Hopkins at CitiBank and Marie Quintero-Johnson of Coca Cola). These executives coordinate their company’s innovation strategy using tools from corporate venture to internal piloting, internal research and development, collaborations and mergers and acquisitions. The role of the Chief Innovation Officer was described in a very perceptive analysis by James Mawson in the September 2012 edition of Global Corporate Venturing www.globalcorporateventuring.com.

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