Creating new ventures from Bell Labs technologies

OVERVIEW: Interest grows in the use of corporate venture capital as a way o f unlocking the hidden potential of technologies which lie inside private c entral research labs and do not fit with established businesses. The experi ence of the New Ventures Group within Lucent Technologies illustrates both the challenges and the opportunities of using venture capital for these pur poses. The challenge is to balance the forces of the venture capital model with those of an internal corporate development model. The New Ventures Gro up's experience to date suggests that balancing these forces is difficult b ut that there ave rewards to the organization for doing so. These include t he discovery of new sources of growth, the ability to leverage infernal tec hnology across multiple businesses, and the ability to stimulate cultural c hange within the organization.