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Newsroom

Our Newsroom is a place for you to stay current on the happenings of the IOI Partners staff as well as recent articles in the news we think are relevant to you and your business.

IOI Partners’ William  Glauser Takes a Data Driven Approach to Market Research

February 2020

William Glauser recently authored an article in Medium entitled “How I Stopped Spending So Much Time Getting Useless Information“.  The article describes how Bill works with clients to help them uncover “disconfirming evidence” in their market research efforts to seek out uncertainty and embrace surprise.  Bill has worked with numerous companies to help them improve their data gathering efforts, ensuring that market research helps to uncover new and unanticipated information as opposed to falsely confirming that which is already known or expected.

Understanding how to formulate questions and to quantify the expected quality of data in the response enables companies to greatly enhance the knowledge gained through market research efforts.  Far too often early stage companies undertake limited or erroneous market research that simply reinforces the perspective of the founder(s), leading to poor product-market fit and more importantly, wasted capital deployment.

IOI Partners Hosts Innovation Workshop at SLAS International Conference

February 2019

Partnering with SLAS, Tim Bruemmer and Scott Atkin hosted a workshop entitled “Why it Matters: Value Propositions in Scientific Innovation” at SLAS 2019, the annual international conference held in Washington D.C.  This is the fourth year IOI has hosted a workshop in conjunction with the SLAS international conference and is the first year the workshop was offered to all conference attendees.  Previously, the workshop was only offered to winners of the SLAS Innovation AveNEW program, which recognizes emerging startups in the lab sciences and technology sector.  The workshop draws upon IOI’s decades of experience in realizing innovation efforts and pushes companies to critically examine their internal and external value propositions to help companies identify the true value of an innovation through the lens of the customer and subsequently understand what those critical activities are to ensure value is maintained throughout the development and commercialization processes.

SLAS is a global life science community of more than 19,000 scientists—from academia, government and industry—collectively focused on leveraging the power of technology to achieve scientific objectives.

Discovering Your Value Proposition (DYVP) Workshop

IOI Partners Supports Entrepreneurship at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

January 2019

Scott Atkin was invited to lecture on a number of topics related to entrepreneurship at Rose-Hulman Institue of Technology in Terre Haute, IN. During the lecture Scott covered topics such as raising early stage capital via various sources including how to approach angel networks, what early stage investors are looking for (meaningful addressable market, capable team, right product-market fit) and understanding value through the eyes of the customer and how to acquire that knowledge.  Scott also encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs to understand “when to walk away” as not all ideas are investable with regards to the entrepreneur’s time.  Rose-Hulman is consistently rated by US News & World Report as the #1 undergraduate engineering program (no doctorate) in the United States.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

IOI Partners’ Bill Kline Supporting Launch & Learn Workshop

January 2019

Partnering with Launch Terre Haute, Bill Kline is helping to launch a series of  bootcamps geared toward boosting the skills necessary for success in today’s fast-paced business environment. Bill is one of the assembled university staff sharing their knowledge in the creative, collaborative environment of Launch Terre Haute. It’s a way to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world practice.  Bill will be leading the session titled “Technical Leaders as Innovators and Value Creators”  where he will present approaches and tools to assist in developing successful solutions that both solve problems and provide value to relevant stakeholders.  The program runs from January – March.

Launch Terre Haute is a membership-based collaborative co-working space open to freelance workers, independent contractors, entrepreneurs, and startup companies.

Terre Haute Launch & Learn Workshop Series

IOI Partners’ Bill Kline Expands Innovation Leadership Role

December 2018

Bill Kline, Associate Dean of Innovation at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and member of the IOI Partners team will be overseeing the student project and fabrication areas at the new Kremer Innovation Center at Rose-Hulman. This new engineering design and innovation center opened at Rose-Hulman in the Fall of 2018 and is named in recognition of a generous gift from alumnus Richard J. Kremer and his wife, Shirley.

The Kremer Innovation Center (KIC) joins the Branam Innovation Center (BIC) to provide over 30,000 sq.ft of design space, laboratories and classrooms to enhance hands-on, collaborative educational experiences for students. Bill has been leading BIC activities since its opening and has continued to be a key contributor in the advancement of innovation programs at Rose-Hulman.

IOI Partners’ Scott Atkin Participates in BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

October 2018

Scott Atkin participated in the BioCrossroads New Venture Competition as a judge/evaluator.  This is the fourth time Scott has participated as a judge in the New Venture Competition which is in its seventh year.  The competition encourages life sciences entrepreneurial activity by providing awards and recognition to promising new life sciences and health information technology ventures.  Since 2012, the competition has awarded more than $350,000 to sixteen start-up companies which have been able to secure nearly $35 million in follow-on funding. BioCrossroads mission is to serve as a catalyst for the continued growth of Indiana’s robust life sciences industry.  The panel of judges evaluated the presentations by the semi-finalists and identified the top three companies to receive cash awards and additional support for business planning and early stage strategic support.

2018 BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

IOI Partners’ William Glauser and Jai Murthy Mentor Nordic Life Sciences Ventures

May 2018

William Glauser and Jai Murthy, partners at IOI Partners, have joined the US mentoring team for the Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship (NOME). NOME matches Nordic projects and startups in the life sciences with highly skilled volunteer professionals to help them reach their goals and technology milestones.

The US team facilitates access to US biopharma, diagnostics, and medical device markets by providing (i) access to regulatory and scientific experts, (ii) access to potential US-based partners, (iii) key input into investor pitch decks, and (iv) specific guidance on market positioning and market entry. Bill and Jai have expertise in all these areas and employ Voice-of-Customer marketing platforms to help these new ventures find their value propositions and hone their investor pitches by gaining a unique understanding of the core Jobs-to-be-Done by prospective customers in target markets.

IOI Partners’ Scott Atkin Participates in Forum on Essentials of Angel Investing

April 2018

Scott Atkin participated in a forum on Essentials of Angel Investing for accredited investors who were interested in learning more on angel investing.  The event was co-sponsored by VisionTech Angels, the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center and Elevate Ventures Northeast Indiana.  Attendees learned best practices for building an investment portfolio from the panel of serial investors who’ve succeeded in this arena.  During the panel discussion Scott focused his comments on market, team, and uncertainty.  A successful investment targets a market that has attractive size and growth, an entrepreneurial team that is committed to learning and seeks to be data driven whenever possible, and a business model that is broad enough to survive the inevitable “pivots” required to adapt to the uncertainty that all early stage ventures face.

IOI Partners Offers Insights into Non-Traditional Financing for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

April 2018

Continuing a very popular and successful academic collaboration with Butler University, Scott Atkin was invited to lecture on “non-traditional” financing methods to undergraduate finance students on campus. During the lecture students were introduced to a variety of financing concepts based on real-world case studies including using customer pre-payments as a means to finance business growth. In addition, Scott discussed novel approaches to “seller financing” as a means to acquire businesses.

Butler University Andre B Lacy School of Business

IOI Partners Continues Support for Emerging Life Sciences Companies at SLAS

February 2018

For the third consecutive year and continuing a strong partnership with SLAS, IOI Partners Managing Partner Tim Bruemmer hosted a workshop to help startup companies Define, Clarify and Understand their value propositions at the 2018 SLAS Annual Conference in San Diego, CA. As part of the SLAS Innovation AveNEW program, which recognizes emerging startups in the lab sciences and technology sector, Bruemmer pushes companies to critically examine their internal and external value propositions through the Discovering Your Value Proposition (DYVP) workshop. The DYVP workshop draws upon decades of experience in innovation efforts to help companies identify the true value of an innovation through the lens of the customer and subsequently understand what those critical activities are to ensure value is maintained throughout the development and commercialization processes.

2018 SLAS Innovation AveNEW Winners

IOI Partners’ Kim Arvanites Appointed Ohmx Director

November 2017

IOI Partners member Kim Arvanites was appointed to the board of directors for Ohmx, a Point of Care Diagnostic Testing (POCT) company that is developing a unique electrochemical detection platform that constitutes an integrated immunoassay and molecular technology. Ohmx is located in Evanston, Illinois and is part of the Northwestern University Incubator.

IOI Partners’ William Glauser Panelist on Big Data in Life Sciences

November 2017

William Glauser, a partner at IOI Partners, recently helped organize and participated as a panelist in a forum on Big Data in Life Sciences hosted by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The panel brought together thought leaders in areas of molecular diagnostics, translational medicine, big data analytics and bioinformatics to address an audience representing venture capital, biopharma and clinical care communities. The discussion focused on obstacles to unleashing precision health to enhance patient outcomes (e.g., progression free survival) and accelerating drug discovery – despite massive investments coupled with exponentially falling costs of generating, storing, analyzing, and sharing massive biomedical data sets.

Bill highlighted several examples of public-private partnerships that collectively provide a roadmap for overcoming many of these obstacles. He also outlined how the advent of big data in life sciences has blurred traditional market boundaries, which has implications for new company formation, new product development, and managing strategic alliances.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s is a state funded organization whose mission is to accelerate life science technology-based economic development through innovation, commercialization, education, and business growth.

IOI Partners Welcomes New Team Member William Glauser

October 2017

IOI Partners is pleased to welcome William Glauser to our team.  Bill is a recognized innovator in Voice of Customer studies, having led efforts at numerous companies to identify “white space” for new product development. Bill has also worked with early stage companies to hone value propositions for attracting financing. Bill joins IOI Partners from Seven Bridges Genomics where he was Senior Vice President and led business strategy for introducing biomedical data analysis to the clinical diagnostic, biotech, and research hospital markets. Prior to that he was Vice President of Strategic Business at Schrodinger, LLC, a leader in predictive software modeling and drug discovery services.

Bill held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley in theoretical chemistry after earning a Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in computational chemistry. He then earned an MBA in Technology Evaluation and Commercialization from North Carolina State University, where he cofounded a genomics company specializing in the production of difficult-to-express proteins used as both drug targets and therapies.

Bill Kline Presents at IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference

October 2017

IOI Partners’ Bill Kline presented a peer reviewed paper at the recent IEEE Frontiers in Education conference in Indianapolis, IN. The presentation titled “Engineering Design, A Shift from a Process to Model-Based View”  discusses how to apply a “meta-model” from the field of systems engineering with a focus on creating value as a primary outcome.  Early classroom results indicate these new approaches may help to improve student outcomes.

The Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference is a major international conference about educational innovations and research in engineering and computing.

Bill Kline Presents at ASEE Conference

June 2017

IOI Partners’ Bill Kline presented two peer reviewed papers at the recent American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Columbus, Ohio. In collaboration with others at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Bill’s recent work has been focused on systems engineering with the first of the presentations covering the “Development of Enhanced Value, Feature, and Stakeholder Views for a Model-Based Design Approach”. The second presentation summarized the “Development of a Design Canvas with Application to First-Year and Capstone Design Courses”.

The ASEE was founded in 1893 and is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology.

IOI Partners Adds Accomplished Senior Executive Jeff Linton to Team

April 2017

IOI Partners is pleased to welcome another very accomplished executive to our advisory team. Jeff Linton is a seasoned legal and business executive who has held numerous executive management positions and brings an added dimension to the advisory capabilities of IOI Partners. Jeff has worked for both public and private companies and has significant expertise in a number of areas including corporate legal, intellectual property, human resources, M&A transactions and operations.

The addition of someone with Jeff’s skills significantly broadens and enhances the offering from IOI Partners. Per Managing Partner Scott Atkin, “IOI strives to provide the highest level of advisory services to our clients and having someone with Jeff’s background continues to differentiate IOI Partners from other consulting and advisory services firms. Our mission is to help clients grow at above market rates via organic and strategic initiatives. Adding Jeff to our team ensures that we continue to fulfill that mission and bring unsurpassed value to our clients.”

 IOI Partners’ Scott Atkin Elected President of SLAS

February 2017

IOI Partners Managing Partner Scott Atkin was elected by the SLAS Board of Directors to serve as President of SLAS for 2017.  SLAS is a scientific community of more than 20,000 life science professionals from across the globe helping to advance science and technology in support of the betterment of humanity.  In addition to serving as President for 2017, Scott helped lead the development of the updated SLAS strategic plan that was announced at the Annual Meeting held in Washington earlier this year.

SLAS News

IOI Partners Helps Emerging Life Sciences Companies at SLAS

February 2017

IOI Partners members Tim Bruemmer and Cory Hixson hosted a workshop to help startup companies Define, Clarify and Understand their value propositions at the 2017 SLAS Annual Conference in Washington, DC. As part of the SLAS Innovation AveNEW program, which recognizes emerging startups in the lab sciences and technology sector, Bruemmer and Hixson challenged companies to critically examine their internal and external value propositions through the Discovering Your Value Proposition (DYVP) workshop. The DYVP workshop utilizes two innovative canvas tools that support business leaders’ ability to understand, clarify and communicate the value of their product, process or service.

2017 SLAS Innovation AveNEW Winners

IOI Partners’ Kim Arvanites Becomes University of Chicago Mentor

January 2017

IOI Partners member Kim Arvanites became a mentor at the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where she mentors university undergraduate students, graduate students and local businesses that are members. The Polsky Center drives venture creation and technology commercialization within the University of Chicago and the surrounding community. Through education, partnerships and new venture support, the center advances the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship and accelerates the commercialization of research while helping students, faculty, staff, alumni, researchers and local entrepreneurs navigate the complex process of creating and growing a startup.

IOI Partners Participates in Vision Tech Partners Screening Committee Meeting

October 2016

Tim Bruemmer participated in the Vision Tech Partners screening meeting as a regular member of the Vision Tech Screening Committee.  Emerging businesses present their business plans to the screening committee with the top companies being selected to present to the membership of Vision Tech Angels for possible angel investment.  While all companies do not advance to the next level the IOI team gains visibility to many of the more interesting businesses and emerging technologies in the Midwest area.

VisionTech Partners

IOI Partners Continues Support for BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

October 2016

For the third consecutive year, Scott Atkin participated in the BioCrossroads New Venture Competition as a judge/evaluator.  the New Venture Competition is an annual early stage business competition awarding more than $60,000 in prizes to life sciences and health information technology companies based in Indiana. Since 2012, the competition has awarded more than $240,000 to sixteen start-up companies which have been able to secure nearly $21 million in follow-on funding. BioCrossroads mission is to serve as a catalyst for the continued growth of Indiana’s robust life sciences industry.

2016 BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

IOI Partners Presents at Fail Fest Wabash Valley

September 2016

Tim Bruemmer delivered a presentation as part of the Fail Fest Wabash Valley event in Terre Haute, Indiana on September 21, 2016. The title of Tim’s talk was “You’ve Got to Recognize Failure to Learn from It” and focused on the importance of organizations and individuals achieving their goals by failing fast—and, consequently, learning fast. In particular, he discussed being intentional in our goals to enable us to know when we have or have not achieved them, so we can acknowledge when we haven’t and adapt quickly. For more ideas on this topic, see Tim’s recent article advising organizations not to fear failure, but rather to embrace it early during a project for success moving forward.

Fail Fest Wabash Valley

IOI Partners Welcomes New Member Jai Murthy

September 2016

IOI Partners is pleased to welcome to our team Jai Murthy, a molecular biologist who has spent much of his career in strategic marketing roles for startups, mid-sized, and Fortune 100 companies helping to advance emerging life science technologies. Jai has successfully developed and executed market development strategies in over 50 countries, with specialization in the regulated markets of pharma manufacturing, medical devices, and diagnostics. Speaking multiple languages, Jai has extensive global expertise that includes the management of functional teams and completion of long-term projects across five continents. Jai holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University.

IOI Partners Presents on Molecular Point of Care (POC)

August 2016

Richard Creager delivered a podium presentation as part of the annual Financial Analyst Briefing at the AACC international conference in Philadelphia on August 1, 2016. The title of Richard’s presentation was “Point of Care Testing in Molecular Diagnostics: What it Takes to Win” and in the presentation Richard provided an overview of the Point of Care market with insights on customer requirements and macro trends facing current and potential solutions providers targeting this market.  At the conclusion of the presentations Richard participated in a panel discussion where analysts had the opportunity to engage in Q&A with the presenters, discussing macro technology and reimbursement trends that will likely impact the IVD market in the next 5-10 years.

68th AACC Annual Meeting

IOI Partners Expands Offering through Strategic Partnership with NaviDx

July 2016

IOI Partners / Navidx Partnership

IOI Partners has significantly enhanced the breadth and depth of services offered by entering into a strategic alliance with NaviDx. While these two firms bring complementary expertise in areas such as business development, R&D and interim executive leadership, NaviDx adds considerable expertise in commercialization and market development in addition to extensive knowledge of regulated markets. This greatly expands and enhances the IOI Partners offering, allowing IOI Partners to work more broadly with clients and deliver a more comprehensive and robust suite of services.

IOI Partners co-founder Scott Atkin welcomes the new relationship:

“IOI Partners is excited to add the NaviDx brand to its offering. The principals of NaviDx bring decades of experience in helping global companies take full advantage of their most challenging market development and product innovation opportunities.”

NaviDx has worked for and alongside some of the most recognizable names in the diagnostics and life sciences industries. Together with the talented professionals at IOI Partners, the combined team has created billions of dollars of value for stakeholders through new product innovation, strategic alliances and partnerships and a relentless focus on improving business operations at every level.

Richard Creager, co-founder of NaviDx, sees great upside in the partnership for current and prospective clients.

“NaviDx is delighted about combining our capabilities with IOI Partners. We have long recognized their unique talents in fostering innovation and guiding global organizations in transformational value seeking exercises. We expect the combination to create substantial value for our clients going forward.”

All customer engagements will be through IOI Partners so both existing and new customers will continue to receive the level of professional interaction to which they are accustomed.

IOI Partners is a business advisory firm created by results-oriented professionals who work alongside senior business executives to create value and reinvigorate performance at every stage of the business life cycle. Working with clients of all sizes across a range of industries to help solve their toughest real-world problems, IOI Partners helps to build new growth ventures, advise on acquisitions and divestitures, develop innovation capabilities, accelerate organizational change, and educate tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.

NaviDx is passionate about helping organizations succeed in the diagnostic marketplace and looks to transfer its extensive experience and marketplace knowledge to those seeking to enter or improve their position in the diagnostic market.

IOI Partners to Present at American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)

July 2016

Richard Creager will be delivering a podium presentation at the AACC international conference in Philadelphia on August 1, 2016. The title of Richard’s presentation is “Point of Care Testing in Molecular Diagnostics: What it Takes to Win” and will be part of the 2016 Financial Analyst Briefing hosted at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. In the presentation Richard will provide an overview of the Point of Care market with insights on customer requirements and macro trends facing current and potential solutions providers targeting this market. There will be six talks in the session:

  • Point of Care molecular diagnostics
  • Rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing
  • Laboratory Developed Tests
  • Liquid biopsy
  • Recent developments in the Chinese market
  • IVD industry update and forecast

Advanced registration is required and those interested in attending should e-mail Ms. Ashlie Doran at adoran@aacc.org.

AACC is a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to clinical laboratory science and its application to healthcare.

68th AACC Annual Meeting

IOI Partners Director Co-Presents Paper on the Emergence and Value of Canvas Tools at ASEE Conference

June 2016

Bill Kline, a Director at IOI Partners and Associate Dean of Innovation and a Professor of Engineering Management at Rose-Hulman, co-presented a paper at ASEE’s 123rd annual conference entitled “Making Sense of Canvas Tools: Analysis and Comparison of Popular Canvases.” In the presentation, Bill talked about the rapid emergence of one-page canvas tools as a way to conceptualize new designs and teach entrepreneurial thinking. In particular, he discussed the development and value of new canvases such as the Innovation Canvas, of which he was co-creator and has proven to be a highly successful tool for helping young engineers understand the product-market fit for potential innovations.

It was also noted that a well-designed canvas is comprised of the high-level themes of an underlying model for a system and that canvases support conceptual prototyping and the realities of iterative decision making. A unifying framework based upon systems thinking was presented that clarifies the structures and processes that make canvases useful in various settings.

The American Society for Engineering Education is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions across the world committed to furthering excellence and innovation in engineering education. This year’s annual conference, held June 26 – 29 in New Orleans, was attended by over 4,000 engineering educators.

ASEE Organization

Discovering Your Value Proposition (DYVP) Workshop Enhanced

May 2016

Incorporating feedback from nearly two years of customer workshops, the IOI Partners team has enhanced the Discovering Your Value Proposition Workshop, commonly referred to as the DYVP Workshop. The changes are designed to enhance and expand the elements of the workshop our clients have found most valuable. Already highly regarded by clients, the enhanced workshop has been optimized for early stage and emerging businesses. Corporate clients also find value in the workshop when pursuing a new project or innovation effort that may require approaches outside their performance engine.

Discovering Your Value Proposition Workshop

IOI Partners Continues to Support Entrepreneurial Finance Program at Butler University

May 2016

Continuing a successful academic collaboration with Butler University, Scott Atkin was invited to lecture on “non-traditional” financing methods to undergraduate finance students on campus. During the lecture students were introduced to a variety of financing concepts including using customer pre-payments as a means to finance business growth. In addition, Scott discussed novel approaches to “seller financing” as a means to acquire businesses.

Butler University Andre B Lacy School of Business

IOI Partners Collaboration with Butler University’s Real Business Experience a Success

May 2016

Over the course of the last two years the IOI Partners team has worked closely with professors of Butler University’s Real Business Experience program to develop educational materials to help students grasp the concept of a value proposition and understand the critical actions required to understand if a new business idea has merit.  The resulting materials are based on IOI Partners’ Customer Value and Innovation Value canvases.  In collaboration with the Butler staff, a simplified canvas was developed as an alternative to the Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas used previously.

The resulting RBE Canvas is a less complex tool that enables students to spend more time applying and reducing concepts to actions versus learning the tool itself.  In addition, the RBE Canvas is a simplified project management tool within the RBE program as it details all of the Critical Action Steps along with the key components of value in a single viewable page.

Butler Slam Can RBE Canvas (Rev 160422)

The IOI Partners team looks forward to continuing to collaborate with Butler and the Experiential Learning programs within the College of Business.

Butler University Experiential Learning

Exponential Organizations Are The Future Of Global Business And Innovation

April 2016

Original Article dated July 5th, 2015 by Nabyl Charania at TechCrunch

In earlier articles we highlighted the ways corporate stalwarts such as GE and Danaher have consistently delivered for stakeholders through a relentless focus on structured execution. What could be viewed as a more conservative approach, these companies use the cash flow from operations to aggressively pursue expansion into adjacent markets through acquisition. While the business model has proven to be scalable, the actual businesses within their portfolios are not always so.  A different perspective is the concept of “Exponential Organizations.”  It is suggested that these organizations themselves are scalable and are therefore more adept at competing in the increasingly open and transparent world of the future.

Here’s a strange thought: Not very long ago, vertical integration was the cutting edge of global business. Indeed, well into the last century, the companies considered to be at the forefront of innovation were those resting atop the largest and most sprawling networks of operation.

Today’s business leaders stake their success on the opposite model of development. Increasingly, “agility” is the determining factor of market competitiveness, “leanness” its new underlying impetus. The fear of being outmaneuvered in the digital age has sent even cumbersome corporate giants like General Electric scrambling to adopt methodologies from the startup community.

Read Entire Article

Danaher’s Instruments of Change

April 2016

Original Article dated February 8th, 2016 by George L. Roth & Art Kleiner at strategy+business

A very good perspective on how Danaher Corporation has consistently driven above market results using the Danaher Business System.  The article is presented as a roundtable discussion with many of Danaher’s senior leadership.  Included is a thoughtful perspective on how Danaher builds capability in its companies through training and application “at gemba” and then uses meaningful metrics to ensure that all stakeholders are focused on doing what matters.

When the Danaher Corporation announced in May 2015 that it would split into two separate enterprises in 2016, it seemed at first like a reversal of the company’s history. Danaher had built itself into a remarkably successful business over four decades by acquiring and integrating new companies into a unified whole, improving them through a group of distinctive management practices known as the Danaher Business System (DBS), then holding onto them. Although it’s sometimes compared to a private equity firm, Danaher is different — it buys and builds companies for the long term, not for rapid fix-up and sale. Divesting is not the Danaher modus operandi..

Read Entire Article

IOI Partners Participates in Vision Tech Partners Screening Committee Meeting

March 2016

Scott Atkin & Tim Bruemmer participated in the Vision Tech Partners screening meeting as regular members of the Vision Tech Screening Committee.  Emerging businesses present their business plans to the screening committee with the top companies being selected to present to the membership of Vision Tech Angels for possible angel investment.  While all companies do not advance to the next level the IOI team gains visibility to many of the more interesting businesses and emerging technologies in the Midwest area.

VisionTech Partners

Creating Innovation from the Inside Out

Introducing IOI Partners

We are pleased to announce the formation of IOI Partners, a specialized advisory firm that helps companies adapt to today’s dynamic corporate environment by partnering with senior leaders to develop solutions for their most challenging business problems.

Formed through the merger of business advisory firms Inside Out Innovations and SAGIAN Ventures, IOI Partners brings a proven track record of success helping companies maximize corporate value by ensuring the right initiatives are prioritized, resourced, and successfully executed enabling innovative ideas and products, new business models and new relationships to thrive.

Read Entire Announcement

GE Finds Big Companies Seek “Safe Innovation”

February 2016

Original Article dated January 19th, 2016 by Stacey Higginbotham at Fortune Magazine

Check out this article from Fortune magazine where they talk about how “GE has taken the slightly dated phrase “fear of missing out,” or FOMO, and reapplied it to the corporate world as FOBO, or fear of becoming obsolete. More than four in five executives (81%) worry about being left behind as technology evolves faster than they can adapt, creating this “fear of becoming obsolete.””

Is it like being halfway pregnant?

For large companies trying to keep up with the pace of innovation, the biggest challenge isn’t the competition. It’s adapting their sclerotic businesses to rapid change.

That’s the message from General Electric’s Global Innovation Barometer released on Tuesday. The annual survey asks business executives and members of what GE dubs “the informed public” about the biggest challenges facing companies amid a huge influx of digital information from the Internet and connected devices.

Read Entire Article

IOI Partners Expands Support for SLAS Innovation AveNEW Program

January 2016

SLAS DYVP Workshop 2Following the successful 2015 Innovation AveNEW engagement, the IOI Partners team expanded their support of this outstanding program for emerging Life Science businesses with Tim Bruemmer delivering IOI Partners’ “Discover Your Value Proposition Workshop.”

The workshop was commissioned by SLAS for the participant companies in their Innovation AveNEW program.  Held in conjunction with the annual SLAS conference in San Diego, the workshop helped the participating companies explore their internal and external value propositions and identify those critical activities necessary to achieve the desired value.

2016 SLAS Innovation AveNEW Program

2016 SLAS Innovation AveNEW Winners

IOI Partners Participates in Vision Tech Partners Screening Committee Meeting

January 2016

Scott Atkin & Tim Bruemmer participated in the Vision Tech Partners screening meeting where emerging businesses present their business plans with the top companies being selected to present to the membership of Vision Tech Angels for possible angel investment.  As regular members of the Vision Tech Screening Committee the IOI team is introduced to some of the most exciting emerging businesses around Indiana.

VisionTech Partners

IOI Partners Presents at Boston University’s “Advanced Biomedical Design & Development” Class

November 2015

Scott Atkin presented to a graduate level class on what innovation and product development looks like within companies of various sizes (start-up through Fortune 500).  The presentation gave the students a perspective on what to expect when interviewing and what to look for in potential employers. While securing employment at an acceptable salary is the priority for graduating engineers, ensuring a good cultural fit has a significant impact on the early years of an engineer’s career progression.

Boston University Biomedical Engineering

IOI Partners Presents at American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM)

October 2015

Cory Hixson delivered a podium presentation at the annual ASEM international conference in Indianapolis, IN.  The title of Cory’s presentation was “Overcoming the Innovation Execution Gap: A Process for Enhancing the Success of Company Innovation Initiatives“.  In the presentation Cory talked about organizational challenges faced by companies attempting to execute on innovation initiatives, tools to help identify those challenges and methodologies to overcome the challenges in the context of the organization.  The American Society for Engineering Management is a professional society that speaks for the profession of engineering management across the world.

ASEM Organization

IOI Partners Supports BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

October 2015

For the second time, Scott Atkin participated in the BioCrossroads New Venture Competition as a judge/evaluator.  the new Venture Competition is an annual early stage business competition awarding more than $60,000 in prizes to life sciences and health information technology companies based in Indiana. Since 2012, the competition has awarded more than $180,000 to twelve start-up companies which have been able to secure nearly $7 million in follow-on funding.

2015 BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

IOI Partners Participates in Vision Tech Partners Screening Committee Meeting

September 2015

Scott Atkin & Tim Bruemmer participated in the Vision Tech Partners screening meeting where emerging businesses present their business plans with the top companies being selected to present to the membership of Vision Tech Angels for possible angel investment.  As regular members of the Vision Tech Screening Committee the IOI team is introduced to some of the most exciting emerging businesses around Indiana.

VisionTech Partners

IOI Partners Serves as Mentor for Indiana Innovation Showcase

June 2015

Tim Bruemmer participated in the Indiana Innovation Showcase Pitch program as a coach and mentor, helping the exhibiting entrepreneurs prepare for their presentations and exhibits for the upcoming Innovation Showcase held at the Dallara Indycar Factory.  Each participant had one minute to present their business model with the winning pitches receiving prize money and services worth $72,000.

Innovation Showcase

IOI Partners Participates in Vision Tech Partners Screening Committee Meeting

April 2015

Scott Atkin & Tim Bruemmer participated in the Vision Tech Partners screening meeting where emerging businesses present their business plans with the top companies being selected to present to the membership of Vision Tech Angels for possible angel investment.  As regular members of the Vision Tech Screening Committee the IOI team is introduced to some of the most exciting emerging businesses around Indiana.

VisionTech Partners

IOI Partners Visits University of Illinois Technology Entrepreneur Center

March 2015

Hosted by a successful entrepreneur from the University of Illinois, Scott Atkin and Tim Bruemmer spent a day visiting various faculty and staff at the University of Illinois who are involved in supporting entrepreneurship.  As part of their visit to the University of Illinois EnterpriseWorks Incubator, the IOI Partners team presented to a group of undergraduate students in the Technology Entrepreneur Center covering tools and methods for executing on innovation initiatives.  The presentation focused on helping future entrepreneurs recognize potential obstacles to successful innovation and how to anticipate and overcome those challenges.

University of Illinois Enterprise Works Incubator

University of Illinois Technology Entrepreneur Center

IOI Partners Instructs Butler University “Freshman Business Experience” Course

March/April 2015

Part of Butler University’s College of Business Experiential Learning, the Freshman Business Experience course teaches students how to undertake the work to start a business. Tim Bruemmer facilitated a multi-lecture series to help educate these potential future entrepreneurs how to “discover, clarify and understand” their customer value proposition and using that knowledge, prioritize the necessary actions to ensure the potential value is attained.

Butler COB Experiential Learning

IOI Partners Invited to Lecture on Entrepreneurial Finance at Butler University

April 2015

In what is becoming a regular engagement due to enthusiastic student engagement, Scott Atkin presented a lecture on “non-traditional” financing methods to undergraduate finance students at Butler University.  Students were introduced to a variety of financing concepts including using customer pre-payments as a means to finance business growth. In addition, Scott discussed novel approaches to “seller financing” as a means to acquire businesses.

Butler University College of Business

IOI Partners Participates as Panelists for Purdue Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy Pitch Day

February 2015

The Purdue Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy is an outstanding program program designed to encourage Purdue faculty who have entrepreneurship interests to pursue exciting opportunities. Tim Bruemmer and Scott Atkin participated in the panel that reviewed the top candidates for selection into the program.  The top ten opportunities were rewarded with small funding grants to enable the faculty to continue to develop and expand their efforts.

Purdue Leadership Academy

IOI Partners Supports SLAS Innovation AveNEW as an Executive Mentor

February 2015

Scott Atkin was invited to participated in the SLAS Innovation AveNew program as an Executive Mentor.  The Innovation AveNEW program is an opportunity for early stage Life Sciences companies to participate in the SLAS conference in a special area for emerging technologies.  Participants are selected from numerous applications and receive financial support from the SLAS society to participate in the annual conference and exhibition.  Scott met with the winning companies to review and provide input/guidance on their business plans in an effort to help them accelerate their growth plans.

2015 SLAS Innovation AveNEW Program

Bill Kline Recognized for Excellence in Innovation & Entrepreneurship

December 2014

Bill Kline’s passion for entrepreneurship and innovation has enabled him to help hundreds of undergraduate engineers to become leaders in their field and bring an entrepreneurial mindset to their work, no matter how large or small their employer.  In many cases, Bill’s efforts have helped students to pursue their passion as entrepreneurs, leading to numerous successful innovations.  Bill is a great asset to the #1 rated undergraduate engineering program at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a valued member of the IOI Partners team.

Rose-Hulman Academic News

IOI Partners Participates in BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

October 2014

Scott Atkin served as a judge for the BioCrossroads New Venture Competition, an early stage business competition awarding more than $60,000 in prizes to life sciences and health information technology companies. The competition has awarded more than $120,000 since 2012 to nine start-up companies who have been able to secure nearly $5 million in additional funding following the competition.

2014 BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

IOI Partners Lectures on “Non-Traditional” Business Financing at Butler University

April 2014

Scott Atkin presented a lecture on “non-traditional” financing methods to undergraduate finance students at Butler University.  Students were introduced to a variety of financing concepts including using customer pre-payments as a means to finance business growth. In addition, Scott discussed novel approaches to “seller financing” as a means to acquire businesses.

Butler University College of Business

IOI Partners Scott Atkin Serves as Panelist at Rose-Hulman Rose Startup!

November 2013

Following a successful presentation to the RISE club at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, Scott Atkin was asked to participate in the Rose-Hulman Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) annual conference Start-Up.  Scott’s role on a panel focused on intrapreneurship & entrepreneurship.  Scott specifically was asked to represent and explain the perspective of intrapreneurship in larger corporations.

2013 Rose Start Up! Conference

IOI Partners Invited to Lecture on Private Equity at Butler University

November/December 2013

Scott Atkin was invited to give a general overview presentation in two separate lectures to graduate and undergraduate students at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN.  Types of private equity and how PE investor returns are generated were the main topics of the presentation.

Butler MBA Program

IOI Partners Presents on Innovation to RISE Club at Rose-Hulman

September 2013

Scott Atkin was invited by the Rose Innovative Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) organization to speak the student entrepreneurship group on innovation methods and best practices in both emerging and established ventures.

Rose Hulman RISE Club

IOI Partners Invited to Participate in Faculty Innovation Workshop at Rose-Hulman

Summer 2013

Scott Atkin and Tim Bruemmer were invited as corporate experts to advise and participate in summer long innovation workshop with Rose Hulman faculty.   The IOI Partners team advised on innovation in a corporate setting and reviewed educational tools being developed for entrepreneurship and innovation courses.

Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

IOI Partners Supports Engineering Management Program at Rose-Hulman

June 2013

Scott Atkin was the featured speaker at a day long continuing education seminar on innovation to an audience of students and professionals.  The topic of the presentation was lessons learned in efforts to inspire and foster a culture of innovation in a corporate setting.

Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

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