An Exit Strategy? Start investing in your company’s intellectual property

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every Difficulty”, said John Rockefeller. Indeed, history has taught us that with the right approach, difficulties and crises can also be leveraged into growth and prosperity. But is this approach even applicable during the current coronavirus crisis? and if so, can intellectual property be used as a useful business tool to help companies and organizations grow strategically and effectively in the day after the crisis? 

Efforts to slow down the spread of coronavirus across the world resulted in massive economical and social cost. Tens of millions of people lost their job worldwide, and the numbers keep growing. It seems that the road to an international recession is inevitable.

The dramatic reality imposed on all of us has sharpened the need for a more prudent financial policy in many companies; one that will reduce short-term harm, while at the same time formulating a new long-term strategic plan for the company that will secure the company's position in the post-coronavirus economy.

It is a well-known economical fact that in times of crisis, "cash is king." Indeed, in times of a widespread economical crisis such as the one we are facing today, the shortage of fluid capital completely changes the day-to-day conduct of the economy. There is no doubt that the shortage of capital will force many companies to abandon some of their growth ideas which were set forth in the period before the coronavirus outbreak. In addition, the effectiveness and necessity of some of the elements in the company's business plan will also suddenly turn out to be irrelevant or unimaginable, as most elements in a company’s strategic plan also have a price tag. And, as mentioned earlier, the lack of funding will lead many CEOs to try to do more with less - and this is where intellectual property comes in. 

If we have established that cash is the king during an economical crisis, then intellectual property is the most vital servant in the entire kingdom. Why, you ask? Because the essence of intellectual property is to create the infrastructure to increase profit and the ability to take advantage of new opportunities. Since intellectual property is a strategic tool aimed for the future and not the present, it can and should be leveraged as part of an inexpensive and effective strategy that will allow any company or organization to maintain their status and resilience in a competitive market. Companies that will survive the recession will find that the reality after the crisis will be with way fewer prominent competitors and much more opportunities. Reassessment is a must, followed with building an accurate growth strategy aimed to manage the crisis through intellectual property will bring the company or organization there, since anyone who identifies potential opportunities and protects them with intellectual property is gaining tremendous advantage over the competitors.

The ability of a company to try to get a share of future opportunities depends to a large extent on the cost of realizing those opportunities. Strategic thinking through patents  allows the company to maintain its position in the future market at low costs and maximum effectiveness, but even more so, it enables the company to acquire long-term business options with the protection of intellectual property. For example, if a CEO of a company identifies a business opportunity that may open new markets for the company but the company does not have the money to "spend" on pursuing  this opportunity at the moment, it is worth investing much lower costs on protecting the intellectual property on that option, rather to actually pursue it at the moment, so that it remains available for the company in the future, until the time the company can finance it.

And so, if in the past a company would file a patent application for an invention it developed to get exclusive use rights over the invention for a certain period of time in order to return R&D investment and make a profit, then in these coronavirus times, strategic thinking requires the company to act the other way around: rethink the market, identify the critical element of the business opportunities for it, and significantly strengthen the company's positioning with respect to those opportunities in the cheapest and most efficient way - through intellectual property. So if you want to conquer new goals and grow in a safe and efficient way, you should start investing in developing your company’s intellectual property.