A Long-Term Strategy to Spread TRIZ in SMEs. Analysis of Bergamo’s Experience

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of a TRIZ dissemination program, still in progress, for the development of TRIZ in Bergamo area. The project, entitled “Development of methods and tools for the management and exploitation of intellectual property for the competitive growth of the Bergamo SMEs”, has been carried out by the University of Bergamo and funded by the Chamber of Commerce of Bergamo and Lombardy Region since 2009. To disseminate the TRIZ methodology in SMEs, it was decided not to focus mainly on the direct teaching of TRIZ but to propose to owners of SMEs or to aspiring entrepreneurs a simpler and more gradual approach. Patents seemed to us an excellent mean to gain their trust in sharing their ideas and create an opportunity to stimulate their curiosity towards more structured methods of innovation.

Patent services (e.g., Protection tools, patentability opinions, trademark registration, modes and costs of filing/recording, realization of prior art searches, insights on counterfeiting, etc.) have been used as a “Trojan horse” to overcome barriers and to stimulate the entrepreneurs to manage innovation in a more open way. In the basis of this approach to innovation services, we have organized a series of awareness workshops and 5 days TRIZ courses with tutoring case study analyses and industrial follow-up. This allowed us to arrange, within the project, specialized consulting services with experienced professionals in the field of consultancy in technical-legal, contractual, economic, fiscal, marketing, or even of searches. In the last 8 years, we have been collecting data that are analyzed and discussed in this paper. Pros and cons and some considerations on reproducibility and scalability of this model in other geographical contexts will be presented and discussed.