Proof of concept idea receives help bringing product to market - August 2007

Enterprise & Innovation

Business Champions bridging the gap

A Leicestershire entrepreneur teamed up with Guy Peters, an innovation fellow at the University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre in August 2006 to help find markets for a revolutionary counterfeit detection device that could help to cut down on many counterfeit products including pharmaceuticals, fast moving consumer goods, CDs and DVDs.

Phil Atherton of Precept Mentoring Group Ltd offers voluntary advice in his capacity as an East Midlands Business Champion. He specialises in bringing products to market and dealing with the realities of what this involves. He met Guy at a Business Champions workshop for academics over two years ago and has been supporting the venture ever since. As an established business leader he has been able to draw upon two decades of experience as a sales director in high-tech markets and has been able to help refine and commercialise Guy’s counterfeit detection device.

Business Champions is a programme created and funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) which recruits high-calibre proactive business figures to support a range of projects where a commercial perspective is needed.

“Phil’s support and advice has been crucial in developing the business,” said Guy, “his expertise in the validation of business and revenue models and how best to find the right target markets has been extremely helpful.”

The project has now progressed, and having just secured £100,000 of funding is well on its way to becoming a success story for the region – a prime example of what can happen when the world of business and academia collaborate.

Business Champion Phil Atherton is Chairman and founder of the Precept Mentoring Group and advises managers of East Midlands companies in all aspects of business. Phil has 14 years experience at Sales
Director level, developing sales strategies for companies that deal with electronic components. His opinion is that the most promising opportunity for the new technology being developed at the Space Research Centre is in preventing counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals, and therefore has the potential not only to protect companies’ revenues, but also to save lives. “The team have developed a completely unique way of using a well established technology to address a problem that is costing firms billions of pounds a year in lost revenues. The new funding recently received will allow the team both to further develop the technology and to refine the marketing model. We have already had significant interest from one major pharmaceutical company, and expect more in the near future.”