The kind of people who succeed in roles in commercialization have keen marketing skills and the ability to understand the research behind a product or service, and convey its benefits, uses, and so on to others. These skills are largely based on certain soft skills that allow them to make connections with other people and help them see their vision and point of view. Some of the most important soft skills that people have who are best suited for roles in commercialization, according to a panel of communications executives interviewed by Forbes, include being an engaged listener, not avoiding hard conversations, asking a lot of questions, listening to constructive criticism, being open-minded to new ideas, and being humble. Additional traits of professionals who succeed in commercialization include having self-discipline, being resilient, being able to read body language, and having a can-do attitude.
One common career path in commercialization is drug commercialization, which involves moving a new drug from development in the lab to pharmacies, clinics, and treatment centers where it can reach patients and health care providers. Another common career path is technology commercialization. This is the process of bringing new technologies from the research lab to the marketplace, which involves developing patents and licenses and publishing research findings, among other processes.
Entrepreneurship is one topic you can study that is related to commercialization, especially as it involves the process of coming up with an idea to taking it to consumers in the marketplace. You can also study aspects of commercialization, such as production, distribution, marketing, sales, and customer support. Other related topics that you can study are research and development, marketing and sales funnels, economics, human behavior, and leadership skills.
You can generally begin your study of commercialization simply with curiosity and a desire to learn concepts in research, business, product development, marketing, and people skills.