Breakthrough Spring 2017 | Page 29

The proportion of joint

10 % collaborations with Germany across all UK publications in 2011 companies with equally innovative technology that required lasers to be integrated into their products and so mutually beneficial collaborations began .

Starting a relationship between two early-stage product development companies has a number of advantages :
• Reduced risks : Venturing into a new product field comes with a lot of risk . Collaborations share risk and the product you are designing is specific for a company with established demand in the market .
• Sharing expertise : This encourages innovation amongst employees , improving the intellectual capital of the business and sharing best practice .
• Growing together : As each company grows , the collaboration will benefit from increasing demand and coordination between organisations , this results in better supply management .
• Financial savings : Forecasting of products and combining purchasing power means economies of scale for both parties and financial gains .
• Employee alignment : As employees share ideas in a contextually consistent environment , the needs of both parties sites are a cauldron of cutting-edge research , innovative designs and ideas
are automatically absorbed into their individual processes . This alignment leads to trust , willingness to share , and long-term reliance on each other .
• Competitive advantage : By working together , individual components , in this case the laser , are designed to match the requirements of the other partner ' s technology in terms of performance , lifetimes , supply and costings .
Continued growth For Laser Quantum , working in a partnership from the design stage through to product implementation and after-care is key to maintaining and facilitating successful collaborations .
Continuing to grow as a partnership requires both collaborators to build each other into future market developments and projects . To nurture long term success , mutual trust and willingness to take calculated risks is essential .
Now with over 160 employees , the success of Laser Quantum originates in the strong base it was given 23 years ago by the Manchester Science Park and its central Manchester Science Partnerships ( MSP ) services . By providing the services , support and knowledge to guide a startup business through its teething phase , Laser Quantum has been able to leverage its technology with the international science park community and grow into a highly successful business . ■
Support for financial planning , purchasing , marketing , sales generation and design of literature are available through the science park ' s central resources : mspl . co . uk
Read online at : ukspa . org . uk / breakthrough spring 2017 | UKSPA breakthrough | 29