Let’s give an example which maybe explains what I’m talking about. Back in the late 1990’s several Australians were very active in the IEEE802.11 working group, these Aussies formed a company (Radiata) and designed one of the first working 802.11a chipsets. The intellectual property behind this was developed several years earlier by the CSIRO and the company combined several experienced semiconductor Industry professionals with a couple of Academics and leveraged this CSIRO knowhow (IP).
The result was a company that was at the top of its game and was therefore invited to participate in and indeed even lead the 802.11g (2.4Ghz wifi) working group.