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How the Digital Technology Scanning Team Works
From the outset, Daru realized that his small team could not possibly keep up with rapidly changing technology developments on its own. Therefore he adopted a "venture capital" model of digital scanning, whereby the team, with its deep knowledge of BP's diverse businesses and broad appreciation of technology, links to an ecosystem of external knowledge sources.
Team members meet regularly with business executives to ferret out opportunities in which digital technology could provide competitive advantage. They seek answers to the question, "What do you wish you could do in your business if technology could be found or created to enable it?" To find possible solutions, the team then reaches out to a global network of leading suppliers, consultants, venture capitalists, academics, business practitioners, and industry associations. Originally, this network was U.S. centric, but the team soon realized that leading-edge innovations can be found around the world.
The team uses a technology transfer process based on a model used by venture capitalists to filter the many thousands of proposals they receive each year. The process begins with BP continually broadcasting its needs to its global ecosystem. In response, BP receives innovative ideas and technology offering from this ecosystem.
The team uses three filters to find the most promising ideas.
The first filter is relevance. The innovation must make sense for either a function or a segment of BP's business. Daru has found that using external venture capitalists to pre-screen and filter proposals on promising new technologies is highly effective. About twice a year, he visits a number of venture capitalists around the world. Before these meetings, he provides them with information about BP's business needs so that they can select the most relevant technologies to present. At the half-day meetings, five to six ideas are presented and decisions are made on their relevance. Following these meetings, a member of the scanning team follows up on those technologies that pass through this filter.
The second filter is technical readiness. The third filter is economic viability. The team is brutal in removing all technologies from consideration that don't pass through the filters. Some 40 to 50 technologies per year do survive. These are then considered by BP business executive sponsors for development as pilots. From these pilots, between 5 and 10 are selected for broader adoption each year.
Daru's team handles the background work of scanning and assessing the innovations and helping BP executives envision the possibilities. But, ultimately, BP's business executives decide which technologies to adopt. "We go with the energy," explains Daru. "We don't fight battles."
The screening process is designed to work quickly. Each opportunity is assessed and a decision is reached within three months' time. The process also contains a feedback loop to BP's ecosystem partners, so that they can continue to hone their understanding of BP's needs.
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