Saya belum habis dengan Nanomedical Day Seminar pada 25 Oktober 2016. Ada satu pembentangan dari Ben Franklin Technology, salah satu syarikat pemodal teroka (Venture Capitalist) terbesar di Philadelphia. Di USA, pemodal teroka memainkan peranan penting dalam memberikan modal awal (modal berasaskan ekuiti) untuk syarikat bermula, menjalankan R&D, membina prototaip, mengkomersilkan produk dan menembusi pasaran. Ratusan syarikat pemodal teroka wujud yang menyumbang kepada pertumbuhan syarikat berasaskan teknologi khususnya. Sebahagian besar modal syarikat untuk bermula datangnya daripada Pemodal Teroka dan Pelabur Budiman, bukannya insittusi kewangan. Ini berbeza dengan Malaysia di mana syarikat baru memerlukan modal berasaskan pinjaman untuk bermula dan berkembang. Bilangan Pemodal Teroka di Malaysia dan Pelabur Budiman masih kurang. Ia satu peluang besar untuk diterokai oleh para usahawan dan pelabur berasaskan ekuiti.
Menurut Ben Franklin, antara cabaran bagi VC adalah isu praktikal, budaya dan masyarakat. Apakah cabaran kepada isu-isu praktikal? Ia dilontarkan oleh pembentang seperti berikut:
- Can I make it? This is a big issue. First, do we have the resource and capability to make it? Do we have the research labs, the money/budget, the scientist to make it? Further, we don't have a 'failure culture' in Malaysia, in which people accept failure as a part of life. We tend to blame the failure, those who invented it, thus people are afraid to make innovation and propose new things.
- Can I protect it? This is about Intellectual Property, something to do with Trademarks, Trade Secret, Geographical Indications, Copyrights and Patents. In Malaysia, we have MyIPO (http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/start/), a government agency under MDTCC (KPDNKK).
- Can I get it approved? As Patents, Trademarks and other IPs are considered more easier to get the approval, approval from Pharmaceutical Bureau, Ministry of Health and other agencies are considered tougher and take more time. I have a friend, a Professor in Faculty of Pharmacy UKM who is working something about medications. Lab test and other processes take a lot of time. Not many Professor or scientist has the passion to wait, plus the incentive is still very low. Can you wait seven years to see your R&D&D outcome?
- Does someone want it? Do you have the customer, potential customer? How many customers will you have? How big the market size?
- Is someone willing to pay for it? If the customer is willing to pay, then how much he or she will pay? If the customer is not willing to pay, what are the other parties who are willing to pay? Insurance companies? Government? Big multinational corporations? GLC?
- Who is going to run it? You need a team to run you venture. Who is the other co-founder? CTO, CMO, CFO? Your team should have a complimentary skills required to run the business.
Apa pula cabaran budaya bagi VC? Ia meliputi isu-isu:
- Lack of commercialization experience - In Malaysia , public universities have less than 10 years experience in managing R&D&C. We do have success stories in UM, UPM, USM, UTM and of course, UKM, but the Commercialization of R&D activities are still very low. With the low budget allocated to the Public Universities for the last three years, I don't expect high success rate in R&D&C for the next 5 years.
- Lack of management talent - Most Research Universities have their owned Private Limited Companies, Transfer Technology Center but not all research funded by MOHE are ready to be commercialized. We do have human resources under this center/companies, but our human capital is still lacking of experience in determining which R&D project have bigger market opportunity and how to assess the customer demand. Under MOHE, we do have Prototype Research Grant Scheme (PRGS), but we need more budget and success stories.
- Lack of access to seed stage and early stage VC - This is very crucial, Seed Funding is very rare in Malaysia. In USA, mostly Seed Funding will be provided by VC and BA with their standard agreement for equity ownership. Don't talk about Early Stage VC as we still have very few number of VC in the country.
- Lack of systematic and innovative partnership - I don't think our GLCs or local MNCs are willing to invest and becoming a good partner in most R&D&C activities in Public Universities. Even, R&D expenditure in Malaysia by government is still low (Government has the biggest expenditure on R&D through several Ministries). One of the issue faced by politician in R&D&C is they are not willing to wait to see the outcome. In these kind of activities (R&D&C), if you invest in 10 projects, only 1 or 2 project/s will succeed. But the profit from 1-2 successful project/s will enable us to cover all the investment made in 10 projects. Our politicians wanted to see the immediate results, we can't deliver that. Even, themost advanced countries can't deliver that.
- Lack of critical supporters - We need a complete ecosystem. I always write about ecosystem in this blog. It takes about 20-30 years to have the complete ecosystem. Yes, Malaysia is just a beginner in R&D&C, but we have sufficient talents (Professors, scientists, young people), natural resources (high biodiversity), and good infrastructure. I believe we can do it. I always believe Malaysia can do it. Just give us time, more budget and more opportunities. Malaysia Boleh!!!
Cabaran industri meliputi antara 'technology developers' dan industri, antara industri dan Dollars dan antara pembangunan teknologi dengan manusia.
Institution Industry
Greedy <-------------------> Stingy
Overprotective <-------------------> Stingy
Technology <-------------------> Public
Solve all problems <-------------------> May be
No downside <-------------------> Destroy human
Salah satu cara mereka cipta produk baru adalah mengkaji keperluan yang tidak dipenuhi di pasaran (unmet need). Produk Apple semasa di bawah Steve Jobs banyak memenuhi kriteria 'Unmet Need'. Di bawah CEo sekarang, Apple nampaknya seperti kehilangan arah tuju mereka sepertimana dahulu. Walau bagaimanapun, Apple masih syarikat paling bernilai di dunia, dengan simpanan tunai mereka melebihi Simpanan Bank Negara Malaysia.
Empat cabaran utama R&D&C, khususnya bagi produk perubatan
Sepanjang 15 bulan di UPenn, saya kira Malaysia tertinggal 10-15 tahun berbanding USA dalam membangunkan produk baru berasaskan ICT.
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