Thirteen “Best Practices” for Improving R&D
- Corporate and business unit strategies are well defined and clearly communicated.
- Core technologies are defined and communicated to R&D.
- Investments are made in developing multinational R&D capabilities to tap ideas throughout the world.
- Funding for basic research comes from corporate sources to ensure a long-term focus; funding for development comes from business units to ensure accountability.
- Basic and applied researches are performed either at a central facility or at a small number of labs, each focused on a particular discipline of science or technology. Development work is usually performed at business unit sites.
- Formal, cross-functional teams are created for basic, applied, and developmental projects.
- Formal mechanisms exist for regular interaction among scientists, and between R&D and other functions.
- Analytical tools are used for selecting projects as well as for ongoing project evaluation.
- The transfer of technology to business units is the most important measure of R&D performance.
- Effective measures of career development are in place at all levels of R&D.
- Recruiting of new people is from diverse universities and from other companies when specific experience or skills are required that would take a long time to develop internally.
- Some basic research is performed internally, but there are also many university and third party relationships.
- Formal mechanisms are used for monitoring external technological developments.
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